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Business in The UK

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Why Do Business In The UK

Despite enduring the COVID-19 pandemic like much of the world, the UK has successfully maintained its appeal as a global investment destination. According to Ernest and Young (EY), UK recorded 985 Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) projects in 2023, up 6% from 2022 and ranking it second in Europe. The UK’s share of all European FDI projects grew to 17.3% in 2023, an increase on the 15.6% seen in 2022. Companies choose to expand or move their businesses to the UK because it’s an ideal location to be in. More companies locate their European headquarters in the UK than anywhere else in Europe.

The UK has:

  1. Strong Economy – The UK has a strong and diverse economy, and according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), it’s the fifth largest in the world. It is home to a range of industries, including finance, manufacturing, and creative services.  Source here.
  2. Access a Skilled Workforce – The UK has a highly educated and skilled workforce, with around 44% of the population aged between 21 – 64 holding a university degree. Source here.
  3. Business support – The UK government offers a range of support services to businesses established in the country. They include financial support and grants, tax incentives and reliefs, business advisory and many more. Fore more information visit House of Commons Library.
  4. Strategic Global Location – While it is not part of the European Union (EU), the UK remains geographically close to Europe, providing access to one of the largest consumer markets in the world. This is made possible by the UK and EU’s Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) that provides for a significant level of openness for trade in services and investment in many sectors. Read more.
  5. Innovation and Technology Hub – The UK is ranked 4th among the 132 economies featured in the Global Innovation Index 2023. Many of the world’s biggest and most dynamic companies – including Google, Facebook, Amazon, Coca-Cola – have chosen the UK as their European headquarters. Source here.
  6. Stable Legal and Political Systems – The UK has a well-established democratic governance ensuring consistency in policies and regulations, fostering confidence for investors and companies to grow, innovate, and operate securely in global markets.
  7. Strong Financial Sector – The UK has one of the most open, innovative and dynamic financial services sectors in the world. It accounts for 11% of the global fintech industry and is home to an estimated 2,500 fintech firms, with 6 of the top 10 fintech companies headquartered in London. Source here.
  8. Friendly business Environment –  Investors can access a market of more than 60 million people, diverse suppliers and partners, and benefit from a range of programmes to help businesses of all shapes and sizes grow, including a £100 billion infrastructure spending commitment. Source here.

You can find more information about doing business in UK published by the UK Government here.

Useful Links

  1. Department for Business and Trade (DBT)
  2. British Chambers of Commerce – find your local chamber
  3. Ease of Doing Business to UK – World Bank Group
  4. Doing business in the UK – HM Government
  5. A guide to doing business in UK – Private Sector
  6. Scottish Africa Business Association (SABA)
  7. UK Parliament
  8. Commonwealth Business Communications

Travel to the UK

Flights
We are in the process of agreeing competitive discounts for British Chamber of Commerce members from British Airways – who are one of our key partners.

Passport and Visa
Check if you need a UK Visa here.

Apply outside the UK
You must apply online for a Business Visitor visa.
You’ll need to have your fingerprints and photograph (known as ‘biometric information’) taken at Visa Application Centre as part of your application.

Apply outside the UK: Visit the UK Visa Application Centre in Nairobi
 
VFS Global is the official partner of UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI).

Please note that once you have completed and paid for your visa application on GOV.UK, you will be directed to the VFS Global website to book an appointment at a Visa Application Centre, so your biometric data (fingerprints and photograph) can be captured.

Please note that you can opt for additional value-added services from VFS Global, designed to make your application process more comfortable and seamless. Click here for more information on this.

Their UK Visa Application Centre is located on Principle Place, School lane. Click here to view the map and their operating times.

About Mrs. Sonal Tejpar

Sonal Sejpal is currently the Chairperson of the British Chamber of Commerce in Kenya. Sonal is a partner at ALN Kenya | Anjarwalla & Khanna, one of the leading law firms in East Africa and the founding member of ALN, an alliance of leading corporate law firms across 15 key African jurisdictions. She has been with the firm for over 24 years and leads the firm’s banking and finance practice in addition to actively supporting A&K Tanzania, A&K’s affiliate firm in Tanzania. Her practice focuses on banking & finance, aviation, syndicated and project finance, restructurings, and insolvency. She also handles corporate commercial matters and employment law.

Sonal is the Chairperson of the British Chamber of Commerce and sits on the board of the Employment Law Alliance and is Regional Chair for Africa & the Middle East.

She is a Solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales, an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya and is a licensed Insolvency Practitioner in Kenya (one of only two lawyers in the entire country to have qualified as such).

She is ranked as a leading lawyer in Kenya by Chambers Global, IFLR1000, and Legal 500. Sonal graduated with a Bachelor of Laws degree at the University of Westminster, England.

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About Mr. Anthony Muthusi

Anthony has over 22 years of experience gained working with the Big Four that covers restructuring and turnaround planning, mergers and acquisition, financial due diligence, business valuation and private equity advisory. He is a licensed insolvency practitioner and a Certified Trustee from College of Insurance of Kenya.

Anthony holds an MBA from Warwick Business School and a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Nairobi. He is a Certified Public Accountant and a member of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Kenya (ICPAK) and has served as a board member at Endeavor and the British Chamber of Commerce.

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About Mrs. Jane Karuku MGH

Ms. Jane Karuku is the Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer EABL. Ms. Karuku has been the Managing Director of Kenya Breweries Limited (KBL) since July 2015, a member of the EABL Board since 2013, and a Board member of the British Chamber of Commerce Kenya.

Ms. Karuku is a dynamic business leader, with strong management experience spanning over 20 years in FMCG and Non-Governmental organisations. Prior to her appointment to KBL, she was the President of Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA). She has also previously held a number of senior positions in various companies including Deputy Chief Executive and Secretary General, Telkom Kenya and Managing Director, Cadbury East and Central Africa. Prior to that Ms. Karuku worked with Farmers Choice Kenya and Kenya Cooperative Creameries.

She has been a member of the board of Barclays Bank of Kenya and Junior Achievement-Kenya. She is currently the Chairperson of the Kenya Covid-19 Fund, Chairperson of Kenya’s Vision 2030 Board, a Trustee at the United States International University (USIU) and is a board member at Kenya Association of Manufacturers.

Ms. Karuku holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Food Science and Technology from the University of Nairobi and an MBA in Marketing from the National University of California.

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About Mr. Robert Hutchinson

Robert Hutchinson (Group Head – Corporate Risk
Management, Castor Vali Africa Limited; Board
Member BCCK)

Robert is a seasoned strategic leader and risk
management professional with over 20 years’
experience guiding organizations through complexity,
uncertainty and change. He is the Group head –
Corporate Risk of Castor Vali Africa, leading business
strategy, client engagement and regional growth. Robert
advises boards and executive teams on identifying and
managing risks to enable responsible, scalable
investment across Africa, with particular focus on
infrastructure, climate risk and societal resilience. He
has supported multinational clients and development
finance institutions in fragile and conflict-affected
environments, including Sudan and Ethiopia.

Previously, Robert was Business Resilience Director for
PwC Africa, where he led enterprise risk management,
physical security, and crisis coordination for 16
countries during COVID-19. His earlier career includes
senior consultancy roles in natural resources and
distinguished service in the British Army, achieving early
promotion to Major and serving in operational and
strategic intelligence roles.
Robert combines deep African market insight with
international risk expertise and mentors emerging
leaders on decision-making, resilience and team
development.

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About Ms. Joyce Kibe

Joyce joined the Bank in 2021. Her strong commercial acumen, skilful stakeholder engagement and ability to transform insights from data into award-winning marketing strategies has led to her achieving extraordinary business results throughout her career. Joyce has 22 years of experience in marketing, communications, consumer insights, innovation and strategic planning having worked for British American Tobacco and East African Breweries. She has held various leadership roles in Kenya, Nigeria, UK and Zimbabwe.

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About Mr. Titus Mukora

Mr Titus has specialised in transfer pricing for the last 16 years. Before that he was a legal associate and a general tax consultant. He has performed numerous transfer pricing studies across industries in numerous territories in Africa including Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Nigeria, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and South Africa. He has also performed transfer pricing studies for companies in Australia. He has experience in compliance, structuring and defense work and is currently focusing on the incorporation of transfer pricing in the business strategies of companies from a compliance, transaction and supply chain perspective.

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About Mrs. Patricia Ithau

I am a true believer in my continent Africa, and need to build on our human capital so to market ourselves in order to transform our fortunes on the global stage. Passionate and drawing inspiration from making a difference in everything I do, I believe I have the opportunity to build role models in the corporate and entrepreneurial world, serving as a catalyst and connecting resources to help enterprise overcome adversity and seize opportunities to realize their full potential.
That belief is underpinned by my love for identifying enduring consumer and commercial insights to support the development of brands and grow businesses, that actualized in a career spanning 25 years across 3 global companies, Unilever, Diageo/EABL and L’Oreal. In the last 8 years of that career my focus was on setting up new organizations and opening new frontiers as Managing Director Uganda Breweries Ltd, Managing Director EABL International and my last role in the FMCG sector, setting up L’Oreal East Africa Ltd, a subsidiary of the Global multinational as its inaugural Managing Director. This was indeed a crowning glory having in a little over 3 years grown a business with $25million revenue, employing over 270 people, manufacturing 40 million units p.a. and closing one of the first of its kind acquisitions of a local business, in this market.
I pivoted my passion to drive scaling and transformation of SME’s the largest job creation sector in all emerging economies. I make this a reality as the Regional Director for the Stanford Institute for Innovation in Developing Economies - Seed, an initiative out of the Graduate School of Business, that supports transformation of SME’s in the East and Southern Africa region, through a year-long program. The program in the last 5 years has supported scaling of over 200 small to mid-size companies, demonstrating real impact through the age old idiom ‘teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime’.
I currently sit on the Boards of; ABSA Bank Kenya Ltd; the Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA), Jambojet Ltd and Vivo ActiveWear Ltd, all of which lean on my expertise growing enterprise. I build on the positive impact of development funding, as a board member of Trade Mark East Africa (TMEA), the multi donor initiative with the overall goal of reducing poverty in the East African region through reduction of trade barriers and increased trade competitiveness of the region; and bring to life my enduring desire to connect corporate business with social sustainability investment, as a Trustee on the Board of the Vodafone Foundation, UK.

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About Mr. John Rogers

John leads the East Africa business for Turner & Townsend – a global professional services firm operating in the real estate, infrastructure, and natural resources sectors. He is a member of the Turner & Townsend Africa Board and a chair of the East Africa Board. Before joining Turner & Townsend, he was the managing director for MML formerly Mentor Management Limited, an Actis owned company. In 2018 he oversaw the merger between MML and Turner & Townsend. Since Joining Turner & Townsend he has increased the companies’ footprint to 7 countries in East Africa and is now leading the entry into other new markets. He is a commercially astute, engaging and results driven executive with more than 15 years’ construction experience and has worked previously in the Middle East, UK & Ireland. He has led multicultural teams through the complete process of project development, procurement and realization in both Private and Public Sectors. He has worked with governments, industry authorities, asset owners, investors, capital programmes and supply chain partners. Through leading teams to deliver great outcomes on projects, John has helped deliver lasting benefits for organisations, economies, and societies. Some of the recent notable projects that he has led include; The Nexus Green Solar Water Pumping systems funded by UKEF, the East Africa Breweries Limited Biomass Steam Plants in Kenya and Uganda, the Nairobi Gate Industrial Park, the Kenya Roads Annuity Programmes (Lot 15 and Lot 18) and Tilenga project that is part of the East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline project;just to name a few. He is passionate about data, technology and raising standards in construction in Africa, driving productivity, safety, efficiency, and sustainability. He believes that by leading the way digitally, there’s an opportunity to set the pace and make a positive contribution in the transformation of our industry.
John brings with him a wealth of knowledge from different geographies and profiles and his involvement on the board will see him;

Connect organisations and programmes to leading practice,
Support opportunities for successful investment,
Unlock and explore innovation opportunities and global best practice

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