ATI

COUNTRY PROFILE

Kenya

Kenya is a lower-middle-income country with the largest economy in East Africa. Between 2000 and 2020, the economy grew steadily at an annual average rate of 4 percent. Its overall ATI score of 28.1 in 2020 is close to the African average of 30.3. While the country made significant progress on economic transformation between 2003 and 2006, the gains were partly reversed in the subsequent years.
CAPITAL CITY

Nairobi

POPULATION (2022)

54 million

POPULATION GROWTH (2022)

1.9 %

GDP GROWTH (2022)

4.8 %

GDP PER CAPITA (2022)

US $2,099

Kenya’s Performance on the African Transformation Index

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The overall African Transformation Index score measures the five dimensions of DEPTH.

Overall score

28.1 /100

Score change
+1.8

since 2000

At a glance
  • Kenya is a medium economic transformer with an overall ATI score of 28.1.
  • Kenya made significant progress on economic transformation between 2003 and 2006, but the gains were partly reversed in subsequent years.
  • Kenya performs better than the African average on Diversification and matches the African average in Human well-being and Technology upgrading. It lags in Productivity increases and Export competitiveness.
Score
/100
Change since 2000
Diversification
52.2
-5.5
Export competitiveness
4.7
-3.2
Productivity increases
7.7
-4.1
Technology upgrading
30.8
+8.8
Human well-being
45.3
+13.2

Diversification of production and exports measures countries’ capability to produce and export a widening array of goods and services.

Score

52.2 /100

Score change
-5.5

since 2000

At a glance
  • Kenya’s economy is significantly more diversified than its peers, though it has become less so in recent years.
  • Kenya’s manufacturing sector has shrunk due to a lack of strategic investment in
    firms and diminished agricultural output, including agro-based manufacturing, due in part to climate challenges.
  • Export diversification has improved, with the overall share of the top five commodity exports (tea, cut flower, coffee, refined petroleum, and gold) declining from 59 percent in 2000 to 45 percent in 2020.

Export competitiveness is measured as the ratio of a country’s share in the world’s exports of non-extractive goods and services to its share in world non-extractive GDP.

Score

4.7 /100

Score change
-3.2

since 2000

At a glance
  • Kenya struggles to maintain competitiveness in an increasingly competitive regional and international market for transport, travel and tourism, ICT, insurance, and finance—all of which made up nearly half of Kenya’s total exports of goods and services in 2019.
  • Several countries, including Mozambique, Rwanda, Senegal, and Cameroon, have overtaken Kenya in Export competitiveness in recent decades.

Productivity increases measure the value added per unit of labor in agriculture, manufacturing, and services.

Score

7.7 /100

Score change
-4.1

since 2000

At a glance
  • Kenya’s economy has become less productive over time, dropping by 4.1 points between 2000 and 2020.
  • Most of the decline took place when agricultural productivity dropped substantially from a high of $1500 in value addition per worker in 2000 to just over $1000 in 2010.
  • Productivity in the services sector has remained almost flat, while manufacturing productivity has increased rapidly, from $1820 per worker in 2000 to $4761 in 2020.

Technology upgrading measures the medium-and high-technology content in total production activities and total commodity exports.

Score

30.8 /100

Score change
+8.8

since 2000

At a glance
  • Kenya has upgraded its technology more rapidly than its peers, an improvement driven in equal parts by the increasing share of technology in production and exports.
  • However, improvement has slowed in recent years, with the share of high-tech exports peaking in 2010 at 25 percent, and the share of high-tech usage in manufacturing peaking in 2015 at 14 percent.

Human well-being measures economic and social outcomes and enablers in terms of incomes, income inequality, formal employment, and female participation in formal labor markets.

Score

45.3 /100

Score change
+13.2

since 2000

At a glance
  • Kenya performs above average in this dimension. With an increase of 13.2 points since 2000, Kenya’s Human well-being score has improved faster than many other countries.
  • Progress can be attributed to broad improvements in the economic well-being of its citizens since 2005, with particularly impressive per capita income gains and reductions in income inequality.
  • Kenya also has made strong progress in closing the gender gap in formal sector employment.
  • In 2000, 39 percent of the total workforce was formally employed, but just 20 percent of the female workforce. In 2020, the proportion of all formal workers had increased to 48 percent, while the proportion of female formal workers had more than doubled to 42.5 percent.

Discover more from the ATI

ATI Scorecard

Explore the data behind the economic transformation progress of 30 African countries between 2000-2020.

Growth with DEPTH

Explore the ATI in DEPTH and see how African countries performed on each dimension between 2000-2020.

Methodology

Learn more about our methodology, sources, and how we calculate the index.

Country Profiles

To explore the results of the index in greater detail and provide context and analysis, the ATI report includes 11 case studies.

Downloads

Our Research & Analysis on Kenya
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