Understanding President Rutos push to increase foreign remittance

The Kenya Kwanza administration is yet again dipping the hand in the pockets of Kenyans living abroad, with a view of increasing foreign remittance from the current Sh400b to a-trillion-shilling income, President William Ruto has said.

Touting the Kenyan workforce as the best in the region, the president told Kenyans living in Rwanda that the government’s resolve is to increase earnings and cut down on debts and exorbitant borrowing.

President Ruto has tasked Foreign and Diaspora Affairs Cabinet Secretary Dr Alfred Mutua to ramp up efforts and crystallise revenue streams from Kenyans in the diaspora, even as the earnings significantly rebound after the turbulent coronavirus pandemic, global inflation and the war in Ukraine.

“We have to move from the current Sh400 billion to at least a trillion. I have told Mutua (CS Mutua) and Roseline (Diaspora Affairs PS) and we should be able to support you. We want to avail services online so that it is easier to access them in our consulates,” Ruto told Kenyans in Kigali on Wednesday.

In what appears to be a renewed strategy, CS Mutua has asked Kenyans abroad to ship their ideas and establish businesses back at home, even as a new-look website for the diaspora that will host crucial services, investment, jobs among other businesses information from the government, is being finalised.

“We want to make you business people and trade with other Kenyans back home. We also want you to not only invest where you stay, but also back in Kenya,” Dr Mutua said.

“We will be launching a new website that will be used to also source for ideas from Kenyans abroad and increase government-to-Kenyans abroad interactivity,” he added.

In 2022, Kenyans living and working abroad defied the tough economic times to send home a record Sh497.2 billion mostly channelled to families and friends, data from the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) shows. This was an 8.3 per cent jump compared to Sh458.9 billion sent in 2021.

According to the CBK, inflows were strong in December at Sh44.1 billion, an increase of 3.4 Per cent compared to Sh42.6 billion in November.