Frequently Asked Questions
Choose a service below to see the questions we are asked most often. Every answer links to a detailed guide.
Separate official registration and licence charges, professional and compliance work, and the working capital needed before reliable revenue. The budget depends on the country, activity, ownership and operating model. Request an itemized scope and assumptions instead of treating a low incorporation fee as the full cost of entry.
Plan the market-entry budget arrow_forwardBRS publishes a three-to-five-day private-company processing target and a one-day business-name target. Name review is part of the combined application. Preparation, registry queries, banking, tax and operating approvals have separate dependencies; there is no universal launch timeline. Check the BRS service schedule and the county business-permit guide for the relevant stage.
Kenya registration timeline and process arrow_forwardCompare candidate markets against your activity, ownership, customers, permits, banking and distribution requirements. There is no single ranking that settles every entry decision. A quick incorporation process does not establish demand or operational readiness; use a documented comparison with current country-specific information.
Compare market-entry requirements arrow_forwardSeparate legal ownership requirements from the commercial value of a partner. Rules vary by country, sector and proposed activity, so confirm the current position before structuring the business. A distributor or local adviser can be commercially useful without being a shareholder; assess the role and evidence before agreeing equity or exclusivity.
Assess local-partner requirements arrow_forwardThe core set is a commercial invoice, packing list, certificate of origin, bill of lading or airway bill, and an export entry lodged through the customs system. Beyond that, the requirements are product-specific: agricultural goods need phytosanitary certificates, food and cosmetics need standards clearance, and some categories require sector permits. Most export delays trace back to a missing product-specific document rather than the core set.
Kenya export-document checklist arrow_forwardThe African Growth and Opportunity Act allows eligible Sub-Saharan African countries to export thousands of product lines into the United States duty-free. Qualifying depends on three things: your country holding current eligibility, your product appearing on the covered tariff lines, and your goods satisfying the rules of origin on local content and transformation. Apparel carries its own stricter regime. Because eligibility is reviewed periodically and the programme's renewal is a political decision, treat duty-free access as an advantage to build on rather than a permanent guarantee.
Check AGOA eligibility arrow_forwardSteady international demand sits in specialty coffee and tea, cut flowers, avocados, macadamia and cashew, spices, cocoa, textiles and apparel, leather, and handcrafted goods. The larger opportunity is usually in processing rather than raw commodities, since moving from green coffee to roasted and branded, or from raw nuts to packaged retail, captures margin that otherwise leaves the continent. Demand also varies sharply by destination market.
Assess export-product demand arrow_forwardThe reliable routes are sector trade expos, established importer and distributor networks, trade missions run by export promotion bodies, and industry associations in your target market. Open B2B marketplaces generate volume but require heavy filtering. Whichever channel you use, verify before you ship: confirm company registration, take trade references, and structure first orders with letters of credit or staged payment rather than open terms.
Find and qualify international buyers arrow_forwardCompare legal identity with available official registry records, then scope ownership, licence, reference and operational checks. Access differs by jurisdiction. Registration alone does not prove solvency, capacity or reliability. Distinguish independent evidence from company statements, and report unavailable information rather than treating it as a clean result.
Check company legitimacy arrow_forwardA scoped report records identity, available ownership and financial information, relevant licence and litigation checks, operational evidence and references. It should identify sources, dates, limitations, adverse findings and next checks. Not every record is available in every jurisdiction, and the report should distinguish evidence from inference.
Understand a due-diligence report arrow_forwardTiming depends on the country, scope, record access, responses and any site work. Basic verification and deeper due diligence involve different checks. Agree milestones after scoping and distinguish completed findings from outstanding or unavailable evidence; no universal turnaround or successful result is guaranteed.
Plan verification milestones arrow_forwardVerify the counterparty independently rather than relying on documents they supply, since certificates and registry printouts are easy to forge. Use secure payment structures such as letters of credit or escrow for early orders, never send large advance payments to a new supplier, and commission pre-shipment inspection so goods are checked before they leave. Treat pressure to skip these steps, or a sudden change of bank details, as a stop signal.
Review trade-fraud controls arrow_forwardA trade consultant turns an intention to trade into an executable plan: sizing real demand, classifying your products and calculating landed cost, mapping the regulatory and licensing path, identifying and vetting distribution partners, and structuring contracts and payment terms. The value is less in knowing rules that are published anyway, and more in knowing how they are applied in practice, where processes stall, and which partners perform.
Understand trade-consulting deliverables arrow_forwardAfCFTA can support preferential trade where the product, countries, applicable tariff schedules, implementation and origin requirements permit it. Membership alone does not make every shipment duty-free. Confirm current customs procedures and required evidence for the actual route before including a preference in the price.
Check AfCFTA trade conditions arrow_forwardAssess the product’s HS classification, origin, importing country and current tariff treatment, including applicable taxes and levies. Preferential treatment requires the relevant conditions and documentation; do not assume that movement between countries is automatically duty-free. Use a dated landed-cost assessment for the proposed shipment.
Assess East African tariffs arrow_forwardMatch the mode to your risk appetite and margin. Exporting through a distributor is lowest cost and lowest control; an agency or franchise arrangement sits in the middle; a joint venture buys local knowledge at the price of shared control; a wholly owned subsidiary gives full control and the largest commitment. Most successful entries are staged, starting with distribution to prove demand and converting to a local entity once volumes justify the fixed cost.
Compare market-entry strategies arrow_forwardThe strongest fundamentals sit in agribusiness and food processing, renewable energy, financial technology and payments, logistics and warehousing, healthcare, affordable housing and education. What links them is that each addresses a structural gap rather than a trend. Returns vary enormously by execution and country, and sectors with the highest headline returns generally carry the heaviest regulatory or currency exposure.
Research investment sectors arrow_forwardUnder Article 65, non-citizens may hold leasehold interests of up to ninety-nine years. A company is treated as a citizen for this rule only if wholly owned by citizens; majority local ownership is not the test. Agricultural land and a specific transaction need separate legal review. Confirm title, remaining lease term and restrictions with a qualified Kenyan advocate. See Article 65.
Understand Kenya landholding rules arrow_forwardThe route depends on the country, transaction, source of funds, tax position, bank requirements and any foreign-exchange restrictions. Distinguish dividends, loan repayments, service payments and capital proceeds. Keep investment and transaction records and obtain current advice from the bank and qualified tax or legal advisers before assuming a transfer is available.
Plan profit repatriation arrow_forwardThe recurring ones are currency depreciation and convertibility, regulatory and tax changes mid-project, counterparty and title fraud, infrastructure and power reliability, and political transitions affecting policy continuity. Each is manageable with the right structure: local currency revenue matched to local currency cost, thorough title and counterparty verification, political risk insurance where warranted, and staged capital deployment tied to milestones rather than a single upfront commitment.
Assess investment risks arrow_forwardCheck the official eTA portal for the traveller’s nationality, status and exemptions before departure. Some travellers require an eTA; others are exempt. Meetings and short business visits do not automatically authorize employment or other work, which may require an appropriate permit or pass. Use the official entry guidance and confirm requirements for the actual activity.
Check Kenya business-entry requirements arrow_forwardA delegation trip is built backwards from your objective. Before you travel we identify and pre-qualify the counterparties worth meeting and confirm the schedule. On the ground you get a fixed itinerary of vetted meetings, site and facility visits, and introductions to relevant regulators or associations, with local transport and interpretation handled. Afterwards you receive a written follow-up pack so momentum is not lost when you fly home.
Plan a business delegation arrow_forwardFor East Africa, the drier stretches from January to March and July to October are the most reliable for travel and site visits. Time your trip around the commercial calendar rather than the weather alone: align with sector trade expos, avoid the late-December window when much of the region slows for holidays, and check Ramadan and major public holidays in your target market. For agricultural sourcing, visiting during harvest tells you far more than an off-season tour.
Choose business-travel dates arrow_forwardCold outreach from abroad has a poor hit rate; warm introductions through industry associations, chambers of commerce, export promotion bodies or a local representative work far better. Qualify counterparties before you commit travel days, confirm meetings in writing shortly before you fly, and build slack into the schedule for traffic and shifted timings. Expect relationships to open doors that correspondence alone will not.
Prepare supplier and buyer meetings arrow_forwardSea freight is priced per container or per cubic metre for consolidated cargo and is by far the cheapest option for volume, while air freight is priced on chargeable weight and typically costs several times more. The quoted freight rate is rarely the full cost: terminal handling, customs clearance, duty and taxes, port storage and inland haulage often add substantially. Always compare quotes on a landed cost basis rather than on the headline rate.
Compare freight costs arrow_forwardWith complete and accurate documentation lodged in advance, clearance commonly takes a few days from vessel discharge. Delays come from predictable causes: incorrect tariff classification, undervaluation queries, missing standards or inspection certificates, and selection for physical examination. Because demurrage and storage accrue quickly once free time expires, lodging entries before arrival is the single most effective way to control both time and cost.
Plan Mombasa customs clearance arrow_forwardUnder FOB the seller delivers the goods onto the vessel and the buyer takes on cost and risk from that point, arranging and paying for freight and insurance. Under CIF the seller arranges and pays for freight and insurance to the destination port, though risk still transfers at loading, which surprises many first-time buyers. FOB gives you control over carrier choice and usually a better freight rate if you have volume; CIF is simpler if you do not.
Compare FOB and CIF arrow_forwardPerishables move either by air for short shelf-life produce such as cut flowers and fresh vegetables, or in refrigerated containers for longer shelf-life cargo such as avocados. Success depends on an unbroken cold chain from packhouse to destination, correct pre-cooling and packaging, and having phytosanitary certificates and destination import permits ready before departure. Pre-clearing documentation matters more here than anywhere else, since a customs hold that would merely be annoying for dry cargo destroys a perishable consignment.
Plan a perishable shipment arrow_forward