Adapting our Regulatory Guillotine™ strategy, Jacobs, Cordova & Associates designed a rapid and radical approach to reducing constraints on business growth in Kenya caused by over 1,300 inefficient and costly licenses, permits, and certifications of businesses. We designed and helped the World Bank sell this reform to Ministers and reform bodies, and we helped set up the administrative, legal, and political strategies for implementation. By 2007, the government had eliminated 315 licenses and simplified another 379 out of the 1,325 licenses that had been identified as hindering growth of small businesses. As a result of this reform, Kenya received numerous international accolades for its efforts in streamlining the system of licensing and improving regulatory decision making. The World Bank’s Doing Business Indicators Report for 2008 ranked Kenya eighth among the top ten reformers in the world for improving the regulatory environment for doing business, and second within Africa. Kenya is currently working to implement our recommendations to improve future legal security by establishing a central electronic regulatory registry with positive security. Some of the results of the reforms were announced in June 2008 by the Minister for Finance. the guillotine in Kenya was described by the World Bank as among the most effective reforms on business environments in Africa.
Kenya, World Bank, 2005-2008
