Kenya is losing out economically

A few days ago I came across an advert for home ownership. There are reasons why housing interests me to such an extent that I feel the sector is full of contrasts.

Real estate has become one of the most attention-grabbing phenomena in Kenya, yet mortgages remain out of the reach of most people. Inversely though, I came across an article in the paper which stated that since its launch in 2013, the invitation for bids to investors and developers to build low-cost housing for civil servants failed with abysmal uptake.

Back to the advert though. Since it was being aired on satellite TV, and the images looked foreign, I assumed that the product was one developed for Southern Africa and I was curious to see how their mortgage pricing compared to Kenya’s. Surprisingly, when the end of the advert came up, I discovered it was a Kenyan institution and a Kenyan product that was on offer.

While this is not the first time we have come across ads for this market being shot in other countries, these incidents go far beyond ads into many other aspects of media including printing (magazines) and movies.

In some cases, I do acknowledge that where pan-African organisations are concerned, their policies could dictate diversity in the locations featured in the adverts.

However, apart from these policy-driven instances, the preference of other countries for different aspects of media signals a disconnect in our own national policies and the potential economic gain.

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Historically, Kenya has been regarded as an ideal location for filming movies or iconic scenes therein. From ‘Theo’, the first movie about a former US President Theodore Roosevelt’s Safari screened in 1910, the country emerged as a favourite location for Safari adventure films. This was followed by notable productions such as ‘Out of Africa’, which gained international acclaim and established the country’s landscape as an ideal backdrop for dramatic scenery.

In comparison to these early years though, the country is now in what seems to be a losing bid to reclaim its lost glory. More and more instances of lost opportunities are surfacing, and with them the preferences for locations such as South Africa and more recently Morocco taking precedence for filming indigenous Kenyan scenes.

It is said that the ‘Westgate’ movie, a Hollywood film about the 2013 terror attack on the Nairobi mall by the same name may be filmed in South Africa.

Government representatives are on the record stating that this is not a done deal and that the country is in talks regarding Kenya as the location of choice.

Apparently, we are hoping that the rebates put in place for Kenya’s film industries will incentivise producers to abandon South Africa and come running to Kenya. This is in spite of a clear implementation framework for these incentives being released, and as far as we know, the said rebates only exist on paper so far.

And this is where our problem lies. Our challenges are not around fancy and appealing blueprints, rather the goodwill and commitment towards carrying them out.

Implementation is the one thing that eludes us and as long as we are not able to effectively do what we say we are going to do, we have nothing.
Wrestling away South Africa’s status as new kid on the block where movies and television series are concerned appears wishful thinking right now.

The country has been the favourite for producers who have made it the destination for scenes in such illustrious movies as Safe House, the Blood Diamond, Chronicle and Avengers: Age of Ultron. And while we claim to be ‘on the right track’ with year old policies that have not been implemented, new movies are still being slated in for the now better favored country.

It would appear that we need to familiarize ourselves with business 101, a concept that seems completely lost on our public servants who are tasked with going on a charm offensive to woo back investors. Business is less about emotions and diplomacy and more about the bottom line.

The greenlighting aspect of movie production is a lengthy process that looks at every aspect of the value chain culminating in profitability and therefore dictates all decisions up to and including movie locations.

And South Africa has clearly kept this in mind, ensuring that incentives cover foreign locations shot in the country and additional location for in-country post production work.

It is said that these incentives total over 40 percent of tax rebates and have contributed over $400 million to the country’s GDP and created more than 20,000 jobs annually.
But it is not just media that has taken a beating as regards these location changes.

Consumer goods companies too have over the last few years taken the often difficult but money-wise decision to move their manufacturing operations out of Kenya as the country becomes less competitive.

That these instances do not spur immediate policy changes and implementation to make the country more competitive is a misnomer.

As we engage in empty rhetoric, the country is becoming a shell of its former competitive self with no regard to how this impacts our economy.