Kenyan Startups Should Have an Optimized Regulatory Environment
“I see a future driven by fundamentals. Entrepreneurship is the only way to help create access to further opportunities.”
Tony O. Elumelu
According to Kasi Insight, industries and enterprises in Kenya are hit with new laws and regulations every day. These laws are often carried out by the government and stakeholders to regulate the operations of enterprises. These laws can pose a huge threat to the growth of the economy because enterprises don’t have control over certain operations, therefore, their potential is limited.
Recent changes and developments to business laws and the regulatory environment.
According to the 2017 Doing Business in Kenya report, the ease with which businesses can be registered has a bearing on the number of entrepreneurs who start businesses in the formal sector, where governments make registration easy, more entrepreneurs start businesses in the formal sector, creating more good jobs and generating more revenue for the government. In Kenya, starting a business involves seven procedures, takes 22 days and costs 21.1 percent income per capita for both men and women.
Regulatory policies and environments should encourage entrepreneurs to set up their businesses and explore new opportunities, ideas and also take on calculated risks by keeping administrative, regulatory and licensing burdens minimal.
Hence, government needs to create the optimal environmental conditions for individuals to start and grow businesses. Global Entrepreneurship Monitor’s National Entrepreneurship Context Index (GEM NECI) provides policymakers with insights on how to foster such an environment. The index measures the 12 entrepreneurial environment conditions (EFCs) that make up the context in which entrepreneurial activity takes place in a country. Our focus here is one of these environments: Government policies, regulations and bureaucracy.
The heavy impact of these regulations will typically limit the potential of these enterprises and the growth of the economy will equally be affected.
Recommendation
With the world’s technological advancement, we propose the introduction of ICT-based procedures for business registration and reporting. Online registrations, where feasible, are one of the most effective ways to speed up company registration and streamline procedures to ensure entrepreneurs do not have to go to multiple government agencies. It serves as a way of eliminating bureaucratic processes and red-tape attached to business registration and obtaining of licenses. Once these steps for business registration can be conducted online, entrepreneurs can easily access documents and obtain certificates, with the right regulations in place as well.
The long and tedious procedures for start-ups should be eliminated to encourage entrepreneurs bring their ideas to fruition. Among the benefits are more registered businesses, financial resources and job opportunities.
~ Author: Eniye Aduwari
