How To Register A Company In Kenya: 10 Easy Steps

‘How to register a company in Kenya‘ is a common search on the internet.

I will guide you on how to register a company in 10 easy steps.

The Kenyan government has now made it easy for people to smoothly register their companies unlike in the past years when it used to be a tiring and complicated process.

Be it you are a Kenyan citizen or foreigner, you are eligible to register your company, and the process takes less than a month if your documents are well organized and in place. If your documents are not complete, it might take longer, a month or more than a month. So, you are advised to start the registration process early enough prior to when you want to launch or start your business.

How To Register A Company In Kenya

Step 1

Open an eCitizen account

eCitizen is an online portal where Kenyan government provides much of its official services to its citizens. It is easy and free to create an account online. All you need to open an account is your Kenyan national identification card (ID). Furthermore,you will be required to provide your full government name and working email address.

If you are a foreigner and would want to open an eCitizen account, you will use your foreigner certificate number instead of the national ID.

A company in Kenya can be managed by foreign directors who live abroad, but it is important at least one of the directors to be a Kenyan citizen and lives in Kenya to fill some eCitizen forms.

Lastly, on creating the eCitizen account, you will be required to upload your recognizable passport size photo, a digital copy, because you will be submitting online to complete your eCitizen account profile.

Step 2

After finishing creating your account profile, you can now access the eCitizen online portal.

Scroll down through to the service home page, you will see agencies such as National safety and transport authority, Business registration service, and Department of Immigration services that you can log in to. Select the Business registration service.

Step 3

You will now submit a business application and fill in all the required paper work.

At this step, you will begin your application by choosing the type of business you want to venture in. Click on make application, and then next click on business name application.

Choose the type of business you want to create.

There are six types of businesses to choose from:

Sole proprietorship

Registered companies (private or public)

Partnership

Limited liability partnership

A branch office of a foreign registered company and Business societies

Step 4

After choosing the type of business, now enter the name you would like your business to have. The name should be unique. If you register a name close to an already registered business name, it might be rejected. You will hear from the registration service after two working days if the name has been accepted or not. If the name gets accepted, it will be reserved for 30 days.

Also at this step, you will be required to pay a kes. 150 fee for your name search. Potential business owners are required to pay a fee for running their business name search. Payment is done online. You can pay using your card or other means acceptable. For you to know if your business name has been approved, you need to log in your eCitizen account regularly because the business registration service does not notify through email.

Step 5

In this step, fill in the company registration form CR1.

Write the company’s name and where its business office will be located. List all the names and other personal details of all other directors and shareholders including those who stay abroad. A copy of their ID cards and colored passport size photos of all the directors and shareholders should also be scanned. Print all those documents and attach them with the completed CR1 form. For directors who live abroad, include a copy of your government issued ID from the country you stay.

Step 6

You will be required to write out the company’s directors’ addresses on form CR8. The government requires all company directors to write their official residential addresses including those who stay abroad. Then, print out a copy of form CR8, write the name and business type of your company, the legal name and home address for all company directors (Do not include P.O Box) again. Sign and date the form to finalize.

Step 7

You will state your business’ nominal capital holdings in form BN6.

The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) requires all new businesses to state their capital holdings. In the form BN6, you will write your own name and business’ name. Below, state the amount of money your company possess in Kenyan shillings. Also mention how many shares the company holding is divided into if it is publicly traded.

You will also pay the stamp duty based on the amount of capital your company has, and it is the KRA that oversees this stamp duty collection. The KRA will reach out once your business name has been registered and tell you how to pay the stamp duty. You will be asked to provide a Kenyan ID number of all company employees and shareholders. This should take between 5-10 days to complete.

Step 8

Write a memorandum and article of association to state your business objectives.

The government requires new businesses to have two documents that describe the objectives, rules, subscribers and authorized share capital of a company. These documents are usually written by an advocate, but an administrative assistant or company’s director can write them. Have these documents before filing your final registration paper work.

A memorandum of association – has details of your business’ name, location, value of each company share, how many shareholders a company has, and business objective.

Article of association – has all the company’s rules, lists each member’s liability and directors’ powers, and states how the directors are appointed and removed, and the rights of all company members.

Step 9

File all the completed forms and pay fees at the Kenyan registrar’s office

Collect all the forms; CR1, CR8, BN6, Memorandum and Article of association, and seal all of them in a large envelope and send them to the registrar’s office. If you live in Nairobi you can drop them at the Business Registration offices in person.

A mandatory fee of 10,650 is to be paid through the eCitizen portal by check or credit card to enable completion of your company registration process.

Below is the mail you will use to deliver the form:

The Chief Registrar of the Judiciary,

Supreme Court building,

P.O. Box 30041 (00100).

Nairobi, Kenya.

Step 10

After all the documents have been approved, you will now download your business certificate from the eCitizen platform

The government takes about one week to review all your documents, scan the copies, and register it with the Kenya Revenue Authority.

Once the process is complete and everything approved, your business certificate will be posted online in your eCitizen portal. This might take a period of 21 days.

Once you have your business certificate, you are now good to begin running your business.

Government, Business