Kenya ended November with well-deserved strides that many businesses say they haven’t felt in years. Shops were buzzing, manufacturers reported fuller order books, and service providers noticed customers returning with confidence. It wasn’t a random upswing. It marked the third consecutive month of improvement, the clearest sign that something real is shifting on the ground.
The Stanbic Bank PMI rose to 55.0 in November from 52.5 in October, the strongest private-sector performance in five years. Since any reading above 50 signals growth, this jump points to rising demand and a genuine pickup in activity across most industries. For many business owners, it confirms what they’ve been sensing long before official numbers caught up.
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Fresh data from KNBS supports this renewed energy. In 2024, the private sector generated 782,300 jobs, with the informal economy contributing 703,700 of them. Unemployment eased to 5.6%. Inflation fell to 4.5%, the shilling strengthened, and private-sector lending, once stuck at a decade-low 0.9%, climbed to 4.4% in mid-2025. Together, these shifts point to an economy regaining its footing after several difficult years.
The World Bank’s latest Kenya Economic Update reinforced this view, revising Kenya’s 2025 growth outlook to 4.9%. The Bank attributes this confidence to a steady recovery in construction, a calmer macroeconomic environment, and looser monetary conditions that have reopened access to credit. Even so, it warns that Kenya’s debt burden remains a serious concern, leaving the government with limited room to manoeuvre. This makes a vibrant private sector even more crucial.
It’s worth recalling what Kenya has had to push through: pandemic shocks, repeated droughts, expensive imports, a weakened shilling, tight financial conditions, and declining foreign investment. Today’s improvement, stronger demand, more stable prices, a healthier currency, and credit that is slowly picking up indicate a possible turning of the page.
Though challenges remain. High taxes, steep production costs, unpredictable regulation, and the financing struggles of MSMEs continue to weigh on business sentiment. Public debt pressures could also limit future investment if not managed carefully. These issues don’t erase recent progress, but they remind us that economic recovery requires consistency and supportive policy, not short bursts of momentum.
Kenya’s renewed progress is happening at a time when many African economies are looking inward for strength, relying more on regional trade, domestic investment, and homegrown innovation. Kenya is well placed in this shift. Its digital finance ecosystem is still expanding, MSMEs continue to employ millions, and global investors are paying attention again as they search for stable, medium-growth markets.
The real story here is simple: confidence is returning. If policymakers stay focused and businesses get the support they need, Kenya’s private sector can turn this early recovery into lasting progress, the kind that shows up not only in reports but in everyday life, in workplaces, and in the resilience of people building something new after years of strain.
