The establishment of the Nairobi International Financial Centre will delay because financial sector regulators are yet to merge into one oversight body, the Vision 2030 secretariat has said.
The financial hub plans were geared at promoting a well-functioning financial system to accelerate economic growth and establish Kenya as a leading financial centre in Eastern and Southern Africa. Benefits of the project include job creation, foreign direct investments as well as an expanded domestic market to tap capital from.
The vision 2030 flagship project was to be completed next year under the second medium term plan between 2013 – 2017, but it is now emerging that it can only be in place in the third medium term period, between 2018 – 2022.
Vision 2030 delivery secretariat acting CEO Gituro Wainaina said the grand plan will delay as several aspects of the centre are yet to be established. The process of merging all financial sector regulatory authorities, he said, is yet to happen, despite the gazettement of the Nairobi International Financial Services Authority in 2014.
The site for the NFCA office, which is supposed to be in UpperHill, is yet to be identified. Wainaina said gaps on capacity building have also delayed the plan.
Although the NFCA was made operational to fast-track the NIFC goals, it is operating with a skeleton staff based at Treasury.
Vision 2030 now cites slow pace of implementation as the main challenge, adding that it would need to draw lessons from from existing financial centres globally.
“ We signed an MOU with Qatar, a government to government plan, where they will train us on the aspects of the financial hub, that will be an ongoing process," said Wainaina.
He says procurement processes that take too long are another reason why the establishment of the financial hub will take longer, due to the time it takes to have “things” approved.
“We have done what I would call the soft work, said Gituro in an interview. Now the hard work, which is what could take longer is now beginning to take shape, Gituro added.