Recent­ly, while vis­it­ing the San­ta Fe Plaza in New Mex­i­co, USA, I was cap­ti­vat­ed by the sight of a jubi­lant wed­ding par­ty. The groom, impec­ca­bly dressed, was not just pre­pared to impress his bride but also to earn the trust of all in atten­dance. This moment drew me into deep thought about how sim­i­lar­ly, a nation must ‘dress’ its eco­nom­ic poli­cies to fos­ter pros­per­i­ty among its cit­i­zens. Dur­ing the vis­it, a friend of mine, Tony Mban­di, excit­ing­ly intro­duced me to the con­cept of Afr­icap­i­tal­ism devel­oped by Niger­ian entre­pre­neur Tony Elumelu. This phi­los­o­phy cham­pi­ons the role of the pri­vate sec­tor in Africa’s devel­op­ment by encour­ag­ing invest­ments that gen­er­ate both eco­nom­ic pros­per­i­ty and social wealth. It aligns close­ly with the Green Think­ing Action Par­ty’s own frame­work, which rests on three pil­lars: Ethics and Effec­tive Gov­er­nance, Sus­tain­able Wealth Cre­ation, and the Dig­ni­ty of the House­hold. These prin­ci­ples ensure that devel­op­ment ini­tia­tives are con­duct­ed with integri­ty, gen­er­ate last­ing eco­nom­ic ben­e­fits, and uphold the wel­fare of every family.

First­ly, Kenya’s heavy reliance on agri­cul­ture and tourism makes it vul­ner­a­ble to exter­nal shocks. Afr­icap­i­tal­ism advo­cates for a piv­ot to tech­nol­o­gy and man­u­fac­tur­ing, sec­tors that promise greater sta­bil­i­ty and job cre­ation. Ini­tia­tives like the “Kon­za Tech­nop­o­lis,” aim­ing to fos­ter a Sil­i­con Savan­nah, can be a bea­con of inno­va­tion and employ­ment. To sup­port this shift, poli­cies should pro­vide unprece­dent­ed tax incen­tives and infra­struc­ture sup­port to bud­ding indus­tries. Glob­al­ly, the tech­nol­o­gy mar­ket is poised to grow from $8.6 tril­lion in 2021 to over $11.8 tril­lion by 2025. Coun­tries like Ger­many and India have reaped sub­stan­tial ben­e­fits from a strong focus on man­u­fac­tur­ing and tech­nol­o­gy, respec­tive­ly, with Indi­a’s sig­nif­i­cant invest­ment in dig­i­tal infra­struc­ture lead­ing to a surge in GDP and tech-dri­ven employ­ment. These trends illus­trate the poten­tial gains Kenya could achieve by care­ful­ly nur­tur­ing these sectors.

Sec­ond­ly, despite progress, sig­nif­i­cant por­tions of Kenya’s pop­u­la­tion remain exclud­ed from for­mal finan­cial ser­vices. Afr­icap­i­tal­ism encour­ages the expan­sion of mobile bank­ing and micro­fi­nance solu­tions tai­lored to rur­al and under­served com­mu­ni­ties, ensur­ing that small enter­pris­es and indi­vid­ual entre­pre­neurs can thrive. Glob­al­ly, Sin­ga­pore stands as a prime exam­ple of suc­cess­ful­ly lever­ag­ing fin­tech inno­va­tions to enhance finan­cial inclu­sion. How­ev­er, it is cru­cial to avoid over­tax­ing this sec­tor as high tax­es can sti­fle inno­va­tion and deter invest­ment, poten­tial­ly slow­ing the growth nec­es­sary to bridge the finan­cial inclu­sion gap.

Third­ly, while Kenya’s achieve­ments in renew­able ener­gy are com­mend­able, there remains vast poten­tial to expand and inno­vate fur­ther. We must not rest on our lau­rels but rather lever­age our suc­cess to set even high­er goals. By enhanc­ing ener­gy stor­age tech­nolo­gies and improv­ing grid infra­struc­ture, Kenya can man­age more inter­mit­tent renew­able sources and increase ener­gy exports to neigh­bor­ing coun­tries, boost­ing region­al sta­bil­i­ty and eco­nom­ic inte­gra­tion. This out-of-the-box think­ing not only secures our ener­gy future but also posi­tions Kenya as a pow­er­house in sus­tain­able ener­gy devel­op­ment in Africa.

Last­ly, trust between the gov­ern­ment and its cit­i­zens is cru­cial for eco­nom­ic sta­bil­i­ty. Recent con­tro­ver­sies, such as objec­tions to the Finance Act 2024, which raised con­cerns among entre­pre­neurs about increased tax­a­tion, high­light the need for home­grown con­sul­ta­tive poli­cies that are trans­par­ent and ben­e­fi­cial for the long-term. Afr­icap­i­tal­ism sug­gests that embrac­ing open gov­er­nance, where pol­i­cy-mak­ing process­es are trans­par­ent and inclu­sive, can strength­en this trust. Doubt the cost of revis­ing con­tro­ver­sial parts of the Finance Act? Con­sid­er the high­er price of los­ing the trust of Kenya’s pri­vate sec­tor and its peo­ple. His­to­ry shows that economies like Venezuela suf­fered great­ly from mis­trust and mis­man­age­ment, lead­ing to severe eco­nom­ic down­turns. I believe the Kenyan gov­ern­ment is doing its best, and it is in this spir­it of pre­cau­tion that we must stay vig­i­lant and respon­sive to any signs of mis­trust or pol­i­cy missteps.

Just as a groom at a wed­ding ensures he is well-pre­pared to fos­ter a last­ing rela­tion­ship, our gov­ern­ments and pri­vate sec­tor alike must align poli­cies to effec­tive­ly ‘mar­ry’ Afr­icap­i­tal­ism with nation­al devel­op­ment goals. This approach ensures a sus­tain­able, pros­per­ous Kenya, root­ed in ethics, wealth, and fam­i­ly dig­ni­ty. Think green, act green!