Ndung’u outlines his four solutions to reviving Kenya’s economy
Treasury CS Njuguna Ndung’u has outlined four strategies he believes will help revive Kenya’s economy.
Speaking during his vetting before National Assembly Committee, Ndung’u termed the four points as his vision to give Kenya a strong economy from the medium term to the long term.
First, Ndung’u said, Kenya must begin by protecting private investments from all areas of human capital development including health, education and nutrition outcomes.
The second term, he said, will be to develop regulate and regulate markets.
“This is where everything have gone wrong. If markets are not properly governed, then it means they cannot distribute the economic rent in the market place. Markets provide signals for increased production downstream and increased incomes upstream,” he said.
Thirdly, will domestic resource mobilisation, were Ndung’u said Kenya can for instance optimise the tax instruments.
“We need to optimise tax instruments and develop a family of instruments in the domestic resource mobilisation to improve our revenue base,” he said.
Lastly the CS nominee believes digital evolution will be a major influence in reviving the country’s economy in the long term.
In a move likely to please Kenyans grappling with the high cost of living, Ndung’u said, “When poverty is biting and cost of living rising, that is not the time to increase taxes.”
Inflation has been on a rising trend this year with latest Government data showing the cost of living hit the highest level in 63- months in September at 9.2 per cent up from 8.5 per cent in August.
The Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) attributed the high cost of living to a sharp increase in the cost of food, fuel and cooking oil over the past 12 months.
The last time the country witnessed this kind of inflation was in June 2017 when it hit 9.21 per cent.