As I woke up today, it struck me anew that we’re already in Quar­ter Two. My institution’s finan­cial year end­ed qui­et­ly on March 31, bring­ing relief and renewed urgency. Like every busi­ness leader and MSME own­er across Kenya, this tran­si­tion prompts reflec­tion — eval­u­at­ing what worked, con­fronting what didn’t, and adjust­ing our sails accord­ing­ly. This cru­cial recal­i­bra­tion sig­nif­i­cant­ly aligns with Kenya host­ing the World Cham­bers Fed­er­a­tion (WCF) Africa Sum­mit 2025 this week from April 9–11, 2025, cham­pi­oned by the Kenya Nation­al Cham­ber of Com­merce and Indus­try (KNCCI). Although unex­pect­ed eco­nom­ic chal­lenges, polit­i­cal uncer­tain­ties, and logis­ti­cal com­plex­i­ties com­pelled a painful down­siz­ing, the event’s core pur­pose remains potent: to reset and strength­en our eco­nom­ic compass.

Rep­re­sent­ing over one mil­lion enter­pris­es, the KNCCI is piv­otal in advo­cat­ing for poli­cies, fos­ter­ing trade, and facil­i­tat­ing busi­ness growth. Its impor­tance can­not be over­stat­ed, espe­cial­ly for MSMEs, which make up 98% of all busi­ness­es, con­tribute about 40% to Kenya’s GDP, and employ near­ly 14.9 mil­lion peo­ple (Kenya Nation­al Bureau of Sta­tis­tics, Eco­nom­ic Sur­vey 2024).

The WCF Africa Sum­mit 2025 remains an essen­tial plat­form, even in a scaled-down for­mat. It sharply focus­es on unlock­ing intra-African trade through the African Con­ti­nen­tal Free Trade Area (AfCF­TA), which could poten­tial­ly add $150 bil­lion annu­al­ly to Africa’s trade by 2030 (World Bank, Africa Trade Report 2024). Kenyan busi­ness­es of all sizes are poised to ben­e­fit from such trade expan­sions, tech­nol­o­gy exchanges, and sus­tain­able practices.

To ful­ly har­ness these oppor­tu­ni­ties, Kenya’s busi­ness asso­ci­a­tions- specif­i­cal­ly the Kenya Asso­ci­a­tion of Man­u­fac­tur­ers (KAM), Kenya Pri­vate Sec­tor Alliance (KEPSA), and KNCCI, among oth­ers- must unite and avoid rival­ries that dimin­ish col­lec­tive bar­gain­ing pow­er. A uni­fied pri­vate sec­tor can more effec­tive­ly influ­ence pol­i­cy, enhance Kenya’s busi­ness envi­ron­ment, and pro­pel the nation forward.

A com­pelling exam­ple of strate­gic col­lab­o­ra­tion comes from Latvia, whose del­e­ga­tion will attend the sum­mit. Latvia, a small Baltic nation with approx­i­mate­ly 1.9 mil­lion peo­ple, show­cas­es impres­sive eco­nom­ic growth, achiev­ing a GDP per capi­ta of around $23,250 in 2024 (IMF, World Eco­nom­ic Out­look 2024). In con­trast, Kenya record­ed a GDP per capi­ta of approx­i­mate­ly $4,975 in the same year (IMF, World Eco­nom­ic Out­look 2024). This stark dif­fer­ence under­scores the poten­tial for Kenya to enhance its eco­nom­ic strate­gies by learn­ing from Latvi­a’s pri­vate-sec­tor-dri­ven ini­tia­tives and strong inter­na­tion­al partnerships.

Latvia’s del­e­ga­tion fea­tures com­pa­nies excelling in sus­tain­able agri­cul­ture, mod­u­lar hous­ing, dig­i­tal tech­nolo­gies, inno­v­a­tive water solu­tions, and notably, ICT inno­va­tions. Renowned glob­al­ly as an ICT pow­er­house with a thriv­ing start­up ecosys­tem, Latvia con­tributes approx­i­mate­ly 6% of its GDP through ICT and hosts over 6,700 tech firms (Latvia Min­istry of Eco­nom­ics, ICT Sec­tor Report 2024). This ecosys­tem has nur­tured star­tups thriv­ing in fin­tech, AI, and health tech­nolo­gies, estab­lish­ing Latvia as a bench­mark for inno­va­tion-dri­ven growth. Col­lab­o­rat­ing with these Lat­vian enter­pris­es and numer­ous oth­ers from around the globe presents Kenya with invalu­able oppor­tu­ni­ties for knowl­edge trans­fer, tech­no­log­i­cal advance­ment, and mar­ket growth.

Every KNCCI mem­ber, from micro-enter­pris­es to major cor­po­ra­tions, plays a crit­i­cal role in this sum­mit. Active engage­ment through the links that will be pro­vid­ed, social media updates, and robust media cov­er­age- not mere­ly as an event for the Cham­ber of Com­merce but as a piv­otal moment for Kenya’s eco­nom­ic future—offers access to glob­al insights, prac­ti­cal net­works, and direct mar­ket oppor­tu­ni­ties, empow­er­ing busi­ness own­ers to enhance their com­pet­i­tive­ness and profitability.

Glob­al­ly, thriv­ing economies have robust pri­vate sec­tors, sup­port­ed by effec­tive gov­er­nance, sound poli­cies, and effi­cient pub­lic resource man­age­ment. Kenya’s future pros­per­i­ty also hinges on empow­er­ing its MSMEs and larg­er busi­ness­es through a favor­able busi­ness cli­mate, inno­va­tion-friend­ly poli­cies, and sup­port­ive infrastructure.

As we nav­i­gate this piv­otal sec­ond quar­ter of the year, let us seize the trans­for­ma­tive poten­tial of the WCF Africa Sum­mit 2025. By pri­or­i­tiz­ing uni­ty among our pri­vate sec­tor insti­tu­tions, learn­ing from inter­na­tion­al suc­cess­es like Latvia, and reshap­ing Kenya’s eco­nom­ic tra­jec­to­ry, we can achieve unprece­dent­ed accom­plish­ments. Let us not be deceived; it is only we who read these words right now that hold the true pow­er to trans­form our nation. Think green, act green!