Kenya’s exports to South Africa jumped to Ksh.3,956,500,000 in the year 2021, a 13.6 percentage point uptick from Ksh.3.480,900,000 volume of exports traded in 2020, according to data by Metropol’s Harvest.
Exports to the south African nation have not been on a stable trajectory for the past five year, owing to a number of issues including regulation restrictions, sanctions and by far end, xenophobia in 2019.
In 2019, exports to the country dropped to Ksh.3.3 billion from a record Ksh.4.3 billion. The year 2017 saw the lowest record of exports at Ksh.2.7 billion.
Both President William Ruto of Kenya and his South African counterpart Cyril Ramaphosa met on November 9, at State House, Nairobi and agreed to remove trade barriers between the two nations to foster economic growth.
Besides regulation restrictions that have existed between the two, both Heads of States agreed to deal with licensing bureaucracy, regulation restrictions and sanctions. This would open businesses in sectors such as industries and agriculture.
In his speech, President Ruto said that “President Ramaphosa and I have agreed to develop a sustainable mechanism to identify, monitor and resolve non-trade barriers that limit trade potential between our two countries.”
Kenya imported goods from S.A in 2021 worth Ksh.44.07 billion, up from Ksh.45.77 billion in 2020.
S.A is among Kenya’s leading trade partners and major recipient of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).
In his five-year reign expected to end in 2027, President Ruto is keen to see trade relations between the two nations spiral after he secured a deal for Kenyans to enter S.A on a 90-day free visa.
