Domestic Services Sector Key to Economic Growth

That Kenya is increasingly tapping a growing number of industries to drive economic expansion is a no-brainer. By and large, the growth of any country, is driven by interconnected sectors. The 2016 Kenya Country Economic Memorandum (CEM) by the World Bank, for example, notes that between 2006 and 2013, 72 per cent of the increase in gross domestic product (GDP) came from the service sector.

Expansion in services such as those in financial and communications sector stimulated demand for other services, such as trade, according to the report. Surprisingly, Kenya’s domestic services sector largely remains untapped, despite its immense potential to contribute to the Kenyan economy. Domestic workers; cleaners, cooks, gardeners, nannies and housekeepers comprise a substantial part of half of the global workforce that is in informal employment.