The USA (US) authorities has renewed the African Development and Alternative Act (AGOA), a commerce settlement that gives duty-free entry to the US marketplace for chosen items.
The renewal will run by December 31, 2026, extending entry to the American marketplace for eligible African exports and providing a political lifeline to nations betting on digital commerce for jobs and development.
Kenyan officers and trade teams had warned that greater than 66,000 export processing zone (EPZ) jobs and as many as 800,000 livelihoods, together with 3,000 to 7,000 tech‑associated roles tied to export processing, may have been hit after US President Donald Trump signalled that AGOA may very well be scrapped as a part of a wider tariff transfer.
That prospect raised the stakes had the commerce deal lapsed with out renewal.
However the renewal lands in a world the place the true check for hubs like Kenya can be whether or not digital exports, together with name centre work, software program improvement, and AI knowledge labelling, can nonetheless create steady and nicely‑paid jobs whilst Washington sharpens scrutiny of cross‑border knowledge flows and digital companies.
Kenya has spent years cultivating its “Silicon Savannah” model, constructing an IT‑enabled companies sector that ranges from enterprise course of outsourcing (BPO) to area of interest AI annotation outfits serving giant world tech corporations.
Data and communication know-how (ICT) export earnings fell from KES 227.0 million ($1.76 million) in October 2025 to KES 208.1 million ($1.61 million) in November, in accordance with knowledge by the Kenya Nationwide Bureau of Statistics (KNBS). ICT imports grew from KES 4.4 billion ($34.1 million) to KES 5.1 billion ($39.5 million) over the identical interval, widening the commerce hole and underscoring the rising weight of digital funds and the labour market.
That focus makes the roles pipeline extremely delicate to coverage indicators from the US. A tariff on particular digital companies or a brand new knowledge‑localisation rule can immediate giant shoppers to shift contracts in a single day, leaving Kenyan corporations scrambling to fill capability and staff watching their shifts disappear.
Kenya’s official unemployment charge of about 5.6% obscures an financial system during which greater than 4 in 5 non‑farm staff function with out formal contracts or social safety.
For these staff, fewer US‑going through contracts imply weaker earnings and thinner remittance flows to their households.
Business foyer group Kenya Affiliation of Producers (KAM) mentioned on Tuesday that the extension helps corporations keep away from provide chain disruption and order cancellations that had began to weigh on export planning in late 2025.
“The USA of America is one among Kenya’s most necessary buying and selling companions, accounting for about 9% of our exterior market. Kenya’s exports to the USA stood at $788.6 million in 2025, in comparison with imports of $930.8 million,” Tobias Alando, the CEO of KAM, mentioned.
AGOA’s renewal retains Kenya amongst nations with preferential entry to america market, shopping for time for exporters, however it does little to sluggish the shift in direction of tighter checks on digital commerce tied to nationwide safety and knowledge privateness.
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