The World Bank Report, Doing Business 2019, ranks Kenya at position 7 among the 10 most improved economies in the Doing Business Index, a strong statement of confidence by the world about Kenya’s economic outlook. Kenya is up 19 places in World Bank ease of doing business ranking. Kenya has been ranked position 61 globally, up from position 80 last year. BRS together with its strategic partners and stakeholders strive to improve this ranking to position 50 by the year 2020. More
The Companies Act, 2015 brought transformation in the registration process by allowing the adoption of electronic platforms to streamline the process. This has seen a shift from manual registration and lodgment of documents to an online registration system on the e-citizen platform. It is now possible for one to make the following applications on the e-business-
Due to the aforementioned transformation of the Companies Act and in implementing the statutory mandate of maintaining registers, data and records on registries, the Service has introduced a process known as “link a business” as part of a records clean-up exercise and an audit trail. This will help eliminate the issue of missing files and reflection of wrong information to the Registry. The application is a free service done by the proprietor of a business, a director of a company or the company secretary. Link a business has further made the process of obtaining the “CR 12” easier since it has been automated.
The MPSR Act operates as a law governing secured transactions between a creditor and a lender where in return for a loan advanced the borrower gives movable property as security or collateral. What the law does is that it diversifies the type of collateral a person can give as security moving from the traditional form of security e.g. land, motor vehicles, machinery to other forms of movable collateral such as stock in trade, household furniture, crops, bank accounts, proceeds of sale and even personal items such as phones and laptops. For the borrowers, this law provides an environment where it is easier for them to access credit. It also becomes easier for the borrower use one collateral as security against different loans. For the lender, it creates an environment where they are more secure in lending credit to a class of people they would not normally lend to, and accept as security collateral they would not traditionally accept as such. The Act not only gives provisions to protect the lender in event of default, but it also establishes a collateral registry, which acts as a public notice to any other entity interested in the collateral, that there is a prior interest and should they chose to lend against the same collateral, they will become second or third in priority in event of default.
The Act now regulates Insolvency Practitioners under Part II of the Insolvency Act. These are individuals who are appointed to administrate, liquidate an individual or company that is insolvent. The appointment can be done by the court, creditors, directors or the Official Receiver depending on the circumstances of each case. The Act allows members of two professional bodies’ that is, ICPAK and LSK to be the licensed Insolvency Practitioners. The Insolvency Act does not allow automatically members of these bodies to be Insolvency Practitioners; they have to apply to the Official Receiver. In the previous Acts, lawyers were not obligated to apply to the Official Receiver for them to handle bankruptcy and winding up matters.
The Hire Purchase Act, CAP 507 applies to and in respect of all hire-purchase agreements entered into after the commencement of this Act under which the hire-purchase price does not exceed the sum of four million shillings or such other higher or lower sum as the Attorney General may, after taking into account market forces from time to time prevailing, prescribe other than a hire-purchase agreement in which the hirer is a body corporate, wherever incorporated.
There are 432 registered Hire Purchase companies, 50 of which are active and approximately over 4000 registered Hire Purchase agreements from the year 2015 to date.
Process Reform at Business Registration Service