In Kenya, it is important to register your business. If you do not, you will face arrest by county government officials and prosecution in a court of law. You will not be issued a business license for your business unless it is duly registered. Unless you are licensed, your business will not be allowed to operate, and it will be closed for failure to comply.
Step 1: Log in
Go to the Kenyan government citizen services portal by clicking here and registering for an account, or if you already have one, log in and go to the services section and click on “Business Registration Service”.
Step 2: Business Name Registration
After completing Step 1 above, click on the “Make Application” button. Here you will be making an application for registering your business name.
In this section, you will indicate the Preferred name of your business, the Nature of the business, the Registered office address, Ownership information, and Application documents.
Your business name will be the identity of your business. It will take a maximum of 2 working days. This costs KES150 and can be paid using mobile money, or debit cards.
Upon completion of this step, a business name awaiting registration may be reserved for a maximum of 30 days. This period may be extended for 30 more days, where you will pay an amount like the initial application fee of KES150. This will allow you more time (30 days) before you complete the business registration process.
In this step, ensure you meet the following requirements.
Preferred Name
Provide at least 3 preferred names in order of PRIORITY. The first available name will be automatically assigned to your business.
Nature of business
- Applicant’s details (Include full name as shown on your Identification Document or Passport),
- Capacity (Applying as the Proprietor or Lawyer- select proprietor if you are registering your own business)
- Address
- Postal code
- Application details (Select the nature of business from the list available or choose ‘other’ if yours is not on the list.
Registered office address – Provide the details of where your business is located, as below:
- Primary address – county, district, locality
- Name of building, plot No./Estate and house no,
- Street/Road
- Postal address
- Postal code
- Mobile number (in this format +254xxxxxxxxx)
- Company Email address
Step 3: Submission
Once you have met all the requirements in Steps 1 and 2 above, you will be required to pay for the registration fees of KES. 950 on the website (eCitizen on business registration). It takes a maximum of 3-5 working days to have your application processed, however, the duration may vary depending on the number of applications.
Step 4: Certificate
The government of Kenya issues certification for all registered businesses. Once your registration application is approved, the certificate for your business will be available for download on the eCitizen platform where you made the application. You can print it out and use your Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) PIN certificate to get a bank account that you will be using for your business.