Kenya’s effort to establish Nairobi as a regional financial hub has gained global recognition. The Nairobi International Financial Centre (NIFC) has been admitted as a full member of the World Alliance of International Financial Centres (WAIFC), a grouping of 21 hubs including Frankfurt, Paris and Toronto.
The move is significant because it signals international endorsement of Kenya’s efforts to attract cross-border capital and establish itself as a gateway to African markets. With Africa’s 1.3 billion people and $3.4 trillion GDP as a draw, membership in WAIFC gives NIFC a platform to collaborate with peers and market Nairobi as an access point for global investors.
The government has created the legal and tax framework to back this ambition. The Nairobi International Financial Centre Act, 2021, established the institution, while recent amendments to the Income Tax Act introduced preferential rates for NIFC-certified firms — a 15% corporate income tax rate for the first decade, rising to 20% thereafter. That compares favourably with Kenya’s standard 30% rate.
Supporters argue that these measures make Nairobi more competitive against established centers like Johannesburg and Casablanca, both of which are also members of WAIFC. Whether tax breaks and new regulations can overcome longstanding concerns about Kenya’s political risk, regulatory unpredictability, and currency volatility will be the real test.
NIFC CEO Daniel Mainda described the membership as a milestone, but the question is whether global investors will follow. WAIFC’s annual meeting in Frankfurt this week puts Nairobi alongside other centres shaping debates on finance, technology and sustainability. For Kenya, the task now is to prove the label translates into real capital inflows.
