As one of East Africa’s leading economies and a regional hub for trade, logistics, finance, and technology, Kenya continues to offer significant opportunities for Swedish companies. Strong entrepreneurship, growing digitalisation, renewable energy leadership, and ongoing infrastructure investments make Kenya an attractive market across multiple sectors.
At the same time, companies report a more demanding operating environment. Regulatory complexity, taxation, customs procedures, corruption risks, and global uncertainty continue to affect competitiveness and investment decisions. Companies also point to labour market constraints and administrative inefficiencies as ongoing challenges.
Cooperation between Sweden and Kenya remains strong within sectors such as energy, industrial equipment, healthcare, telecommunications, infrastructure, and sustainability. Kenya’s continued investments in renewable energy, digitalisation, infrastructure, and green growth continue to create opportunities for Swedish companies offering innovative and sustainable solutions.
Competitiveness in Kenya is increasingly linked to cost efficiency, partnerships, operational effectiveness, and strong customer relationships. The Swedish brand continues to be associated with quality, innovation, reliability, and sustainability.
Kenya is widely regarded as an attractive regional market with strong long-term growth potential, a dynamic private sector, and high levels of innovation. However, companies also point to regulatory barriers, taxation, customs-related challenges, and political uncertainty as ongoing concerns.
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ABOUT THE SURVEY
To assess the opportunities and challenges faced by Swedish companies in international markets, Team Sweden conducts annual Business Climate Surveys across multiple markets worldwide. This year’s survey in Kenya includes responses from 30 Swedish companies operating in the country. Industrial companies represent a significant share of respondents, while professional services and consumer companies also make up a considerable share. The majority of respondents have been active in Kenya for more than five years.
We would like to extend our sincere appreciation to all participating companies and respondents who contributed to this report. Team Sweden in Kenya hopes that the findings will serve as a basis for continued dialogue with Kenyan authorities and other relevant stakeholders.
