Kenya

This fact sheet provides a profile of Kenya's economic transformation based on the African Transformation Index (ATI), detailing performance across diversification, export competitiveness, productivity, technology, and human well-being.

• Kenya is classified as a medium economic transformer with an overall ATI score of 28.1 in 2020, which is near the African average of 30.3. While the country saw significant progress in economic transformation from 2003 to 2006, these gains were partially reversed in later years.
• Kenya's economy is more diversified than its peers, although this has declined recently. Export diversification improved as the share of the top five commodity exports—gold, refined petroleum, coffee, cut flower, and tea—fell from 59 percent in 2000 to 45 percent in 2020. However, the manufacturing sector has shrunk due to climate challenges affecting agricultural output and a lack of strategic investment in firms.
• The country faces challenges in productivity and export competitiveness. Export competitiveness has been overtaken by countries such as Cameroon, Senegal, Rwanda, and Mozambique, particularly in sectors like finance, insurance, ICT, travel, transport, and tourism, which represented nearly half of total exports of goods and services in 2019. Overall economic productivity dropped by 4.1 points between 2000 and 2020, largely driven by a decline in agricultural value addition per worker from $1500 in 2000 to just over $1000 in 2010, though manufacturing productivity rose from $1820 per worker in 2000 to $4761 in 2020.
• Kenya has seen rapid technology upgrading compared to peers, though the pace has slowed; high-tech exports peaked at 25 percent in 2010 and high-tech usage in manufacturing peaked at 14 percent in 2015. Human well-being has improved significantly since 2000, increasing by 13.2 points due to per capita income gains and reduced income inequality since 2005. Additionally, the proportion of the female workforce in formal employment rose from 20 percent in 2000 to 42.5 percent in 2020.

APA

African Center for Economic Transformation (2023). Kenya. https://acetforafrica.org/ati/country-profiles/kenya/

Chicago

African Center for Economic Transformation. Kenya. 2023. https://acetforafrica.org/ati/country-profiles/kenya/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=African Center for Economic Transformation |title=Kenya |date=29 March 2023 |url=https://acetforafrica.org/ati/country-profiles/kenya/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{africancenterforeconomictransformation2023kenya, author = {{African Center for Economic Transformation}}, title = {{Kenya}}, institution = {African Center for Economic Transformation}, year = {2023}, month = mar, url = {https://acetforafrica.org/ati/country-profiles/kenya/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }