Kenya begins sale of citizenship, permanent residency to boost economy

Kenya has followed the steps of other world nations after it announced the sale of citizenship, passports, permanent residency, and special visa programmes as products to foreign nationals in order to boost their economy.

According to ThisIsAfrica, Kenya’s government intends to use the initiative to stall the economy’s decline in domestic and foreign debt which is at a crippling Kshs 50 trillion ($50 billion).

Kenya is adopting this revenue stream to repay or considerably reduce its suffocating national debt. The country’s debt is an estimated 15% beyond the recommendations set for developing countries by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The Daily Nation reports that every Kenyan child born today owes its lenders $1,300 (Sh130,000). The Kshs 50 trillion ($50 billion) is in addition to the current annual borrowing of nearly $2 billion (Sh200 billion) to retire matured loans, finance infrastructure and address other budgetary expenditures, according to the publication.

The United States (EB-5 visa programme), Spain (Golden visa programme), Canada (The Federal Immigrant Investor Program), Thailand (“Elite” visa residency) are just some of the packages available to investors and It is expected that the revenue from these sales is meant to complement the normal tax base of a country or finance specific developmental issues such as medical research, job creation, or housing shortages.

Although desperation may have led Kenya to adopt this programme, it is not the first African country to do so.

The Pacific island nation of Vanuatu’s introduced a new citizenship scheme four years ago and its biggest source of revenue is passports.