As of 2010 market research and analyst experts Frost & Sullivan prospected that over 300km of new roads will be built in and around the Nairobi area, valuing at $313 million. However as these plans have come into effect, they have been met with various displays of protest from the locals causing building delays, and consequently delaying the opportunity for Kenya to become the  undisputed businesses and tech leader for Africa.

These developments will be accompanied with the arguably best educated and the youngest generation of workers that Kenya has seen to date, with 60% of Kenyans being 25 and younger. Attracting more businesses to set up shop in Kenya What does this mean for the youth of Kenya? More jobs, as technological developments like M-Pesa’s mobile payment service have exploded, competitors look to tap into the market and issues like Cyber Security may arise and will need solving by an educated tech savvy workforce. Also M-Pesa is evidence that Kenya as a collective, is ready to be the next economic powerhouse, across all spectrums of social class and education. The service itself being geared towards small scale transactions, amounts to 10% of Kenya’s annual GDP. 

Kenya also have a constructive relationship with China, and as South Africa joined the AIIB, many African states look to follow suit, Kenya being one of them. This would mean even more money would be pumped into infrastructure projects whilst receiving the consultation of rapidly growing infrastructure development masters such as China. Joining the AIIB would also, in theory, allow Kenya to gain easier access to Asian markets, which is of great importance in the long term as 7 of the top 10 fastest growing economies of 2015 stem from the region.

Although a substantial amount of Kenya’s success is coming from their own internal entrepreneurs, like Trushar Khetia, the 28 year old founder of $7 million advertising business Tria Group, the rest of the world is paying attention – noticeably IBM who have chosen to open a research lab in Nairobi. Referring to the region as “Silicon Savannah” if you value semantics, this is just another clear indication of where the East African powerhouse is heading.