Intro

COVID-19 adversely affected the global community and like most countries, Kenya was not spared. The first case of COVID-19 in Kenya was reported on March 13^th, 2020. This resulted to containment measures such as a nightly curfew, lockdowns and travel restrictions. Small scale business suffered reduced business operations and incomes, and disrupted supply chains. Large scale businesses were affected by loss of labor, decreased demand for goods and services. Increased cost of raw materials, reduced demand and disrupted logistics affected manufacturers.

Body

The government implemented unprecedented measures at this time of an unprecedented crisis. This included the reduction of Personal Income Tax top rate (PAYE) from 30% to 25%, SME Turnover Tax reduced from 3% to 1%, reduction of Resident Corporate Income Tax rate from 30% to 25%, reduction in VAT from 16% to 14%, 100% tax relief for low-income earners, expediting payment of VAT refunds and pending bills. The CBK lowered its rate from 8.25 to 7%. Payment service providers and commercial banks eliminated charges for transfers between mobile money wallets and bank accounts.

The use of mobile money eased in the running of SMEs during the height of the pandemic. Most businesses had their employees working from home to keep running this cut down the cost of physical meeting and travelling expenses. Online meetings become the new norm. Companies increased their online presence so as to reach more clients as most people were looked in and glued to their devices. Some firms resulted to downsizing so as to keep running.

Conclusion

Since the pandemic started Kenya’s economy has shown an incredible resilience and a large part due to the private sector. In the first quarter of 2022 Kenya’s GDP expanded by 6.8 % showing that the economy rebounded above pre-pandemic levels according to the latest Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) data. There are new business practices that were born as a result of the pandemic and they have proven quite effective some of which include:

• A steady rise in e-commerce with many business developing apps and websites.
• Increased adoption of digital payments across urban and rural areas
• Many businesses have diversified their portfolios
• Working from home became the new norm for some SMEs
• The use of social media platforms to conduct business saw a steady increase

We at Uniglobal Business Solutions Ltd are working efficiently to improve our customer centric services and ensure they maintain compliance to the new way of doing business. Our goal being customer satisfaction placing your compliance needs first.