DP World has signed an agreement with Kenya-based investment and development group GulfCap Africa to develop the Mombasa Industrial Park. The project, which will be developed with Special Economic Zone status, aims to strengthen Kenya’s position as a trade and logistics hub in East Africa by bringing manufacturing, warehousing, distribution, and foreign trade activities together within the same infrastructure.
DP World to Be Located Near the Port of Mombasa
The industrial park, which will be developed in phases across a total area of 222 hectares, will cover 40 hectares in its first phase. The facility will be located less than 20 kilometers from the Port of Mombasa. This is expected to provide companies operating in the park with faster access to regional and international markets.
The project is expected to provide modern industrial spaces, integrated supply chain services, and market access opportunities for manufacturers, logistics operators, exporters, and technology companies. Local sources reported that the value of the investment exceeds $100 million and that numerous companies have expressed interest in operating in the zone.
Port, Logistics, and Industrial Ecosystems to Be Integrated
DP World Group CEO Yuvraj Narayan stated that Kenya is an important market for the company and a key gateway for East African trade. Narayan said that the project reflects the company’s investment approach toward integrated trade infrastructure that connects ports, logistics services, and industrial ecosystems.
Narayan also stated that they aim to create an environment where businesses can manage their manufacturing, distribution, and access to global markets more efficiently.
Thousands of Jobs Expected to Be Created
DP World Africa CEO and Managing Director Mohammed Akoojee stated that the project would strengthen regional trade and supply chain connections. Akoojee explained that the initiative aims to attract new investments, create thousands of employment opportunities, and contribute to Kenya’s socioeconomic development.
The Mombasa Industrial Park is also planned to host logistics infrastructure that will support the warehousing, order fulfillment, distribution, and cross-border delivery operations of e-commerce and retail companies.
Africa’s digital economy is accelerating at a remarkable pace, drawing millions of first-time users into mobile money, e-commerce, digital lending and AI-enabled public services. But its continued success will depend on whether people believe the digital systems they use are safe, accountable and worthy of their personal data, money and participation.
Fraud, identity theft and cybercrime are actively shaping how Kenyans choose to engage with digital services, and they are fast becoming the single most important factor in whether an organisation earns a customer or loses one. Trust is no longer a soft reputational asset – it is the critical infrastructure of the digital economy and the factor that will determine whether Kenya’s digital momentum translates into lasting, inclusive growth.
TransUnion’s H1 2026 Digital Fraud Trends in Africa report found that the security of personal data has overtaken product quality as the leading factor African consumers weigh when deciding whom to transact with online. In Kenya, 91 percent of consumers rank confidence that their data will not be compromised as their top consideration, well above the global average of 67 percent.
As the PwC 2025 East Africa Digital Trust Insights report finds, this is reshaping behaviour in ways that carry direct consequences for companies.
Fraud Has Become a Barrier to Growth, Not Just a Security Cost
Trust is hard-won but very easily eroded, and consumers are quick to act on their concerns. Eighty percent of Kenyan consumers say they will not return to a platform where fraud has occurred, and 67 percent say they have already switched to a different website because of security concerns, far above the 50 percent global benchmark.
Exposure to fraud attempts is widespread. The Global Anti-Scam Alliance’s 2025 State of Scams in Africa study found that 83 percent of surveyed adults in Kenya experienced at least one scam in the preceding year, while more than 70 percent of consumers in Kenya reported being targeted by fraud in a single three-month period, against a global average of 43 percent.
A third of those who lost money were caught through third-party seller scams on otherwise legitimate e-commerce platforms, with fraud increasingly migrating into trusted environments rather than obviously suspicious ones – a shift that makes verification and transparency more important than ever.
Identity Is Now the Front Line
What unites these patterns is identity. Fraudsters are moving away from crude, easily detected attacks towards the exploitation of genuine credentials and established trust. Microsoft’s 2025 Digital Defense Report confirms that attackers are increasingly bypassing firewalls to log in rather than break in. Deepfake incidents in Africa surged sevenfold from Q2 to Q4 of 2024, as AI tools made it easier to create fake identities and manipulate biometric data.
AI is intensifying this risk by making fraud cheaper, faster and easier to personalise. The Digital Defense Report noted a 195 percent increase in AI-generated identity documents used to defeat verification checks, with AI-driven phishing now roughly three times more effective than traditional campaigns. Attackers are also increasingly harnessing AI to craft phishing messages tailored to local languages and cultural contexts and to impersonate trusted individuals.
Data theft was the goal in nearly 80 percent of the cyber incidents Microsoft investigated on the continent, driven overwhelmingly by financial motives. INTERPOL’s 2025 Africa Cyberthreat Assessment identified online scams, business email compromise and digital sextortion as the continent’s most reported cyberthreats, with cyber-related offences now accounting for more than 30 percent of all reported crime in West and East Africa. Tellingly, 90 percent of African countries reported needing significant improvement in their law enforcement or prosecution capacity – a capability gap that fraudsters are actively exploiting.
Kenya Is Proving That Scale and Safety Can Coexist
Despite the statistics, Kenya is demonstrating that it can grow digital participation without a proportional rise in fraud. The rate of suspected digital fraud in Kenya dropped from 9.3 percent to 5.0 percent, falling below the global average. Consumer vigilance and improved controls are working in tandem. African consumers are ahead of many global peers in adopting secure verification, with fingerprint biometrics now the preferred method, reaching 63 percent in Kenya against a global average of 53 percent.
This appetite for mobile-first, layered security is a strategic asset that forward-looking organisations can build on. Kenya now has an opportunity to set global standards rather than simply catching up, proving that inclusive digital growth and hard-edged security are not competing priorities but the same objective.
The Leadership Imperative
The lesson for Kenyan business and government leaders is that trust can no longer be delegated to the security team as a technical afterthought. It is a boardroom-led growth imperative that requires organisations to design friction-right customer journeys, communicate openly when incidents occur and extend protection across the entire customer lifecycle rather than concentrating it at onboarding.
This will require investment in adaptive, real-time fraud detection, continued adoption of strong digital identity verification and phishing-resistant authentication, and deeper collaboration and intelligence-sharing across sectors and borders.
In Kenya’s digital economy, trust is the infrastructure on which everything else is built. The businesses and governments that understand this first will not only reduce fraud; they will earn the loyalty of digitally engaged Africans who have made it clear that, if these objectives are not met, they will take their trust and their transactions elsewhere.
The writer is the Microsoft Chief Security Advisor for Africa.
The United Kingdom and Kenya have officially launched negotiations on a comprehensive digital trade agreement designed to strengthen economic ties, expand digital commerce, and attract greater technology investment between the two countries.
The proposed agreement is expected to establish a modern framework for digital trade by improving the flow of online services, supporting innovation, and reducing barriers for businesses operating across both markets. The initiative reflects the growing importance of digital economies in international trade and builds on the long-standing commercial relationship between the UK and Kenya.
Focus on E-Commerce and Digital Innovation
Negotiators aim to create rules that facilitate cross-border digital transactions while encouraging investment in technology-driven industries. The agreement is expected to benefit businesses ranging from startups and fintech firms to e-commerce platforms and digital service providers.
Among the key objectives are improving regulatory cooperation, promoting trusted digital trade, supporting secure data flows, and creating a more predictable business environment for companies expanding internationally.
The partnership is also intended to encourage innovation by enabling businesses to adopt new digital technologies and expand access to international markets.
Strengthening Kenya’s Digital Economy
For Kenya, the negotiations represent another step in advancing its ambition to become a leading digital economy in Africa. The country has experienced rapid growth in mobile payments, online retail, financial technology, and digital entrepreneurship over the past decade.
A digital trade agreement with the UK could help Kenyan businesses access new export opportunities while attracting foreign investment into technology infrastructure, digital services, and innovation ecosystems.
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which make up a significant share of Kenya’s economy, are also expected to benefit from simplified digital trade processes and improved market access.
Expanding Opportunities for UK Businesses
For the United Kingdom, the agreement supports its broader strategy of deepening trade relationships with high-growth economies following Brexit. By strengthening digital cooperation with Kenya, British companies could gain greater access to one of Africa’s fastest-growing technology markets.
The agreement is expected to create new opportunities for businesses operating in sectors including cloud computing, financial technology, cybersecurity, digital logistics, artificial intelligence, and professional digital services.
Building on Existing Trade Relations
The negotiations complement the existing trade partnership between the UK and Kenya while shifting greater attention toward the digital economy. As global commerce increasingly moves online, both governments are seeking to establish trade rules that reflect modern business practices and support long-term economic growth.
If concluded, the agreement could become one of Africa’s most significant bilateral digital trade partnerships, serving as a model for future digital economy agreements between developed and emerging markets.
Officials from both countries will continue discussions over the coming months as they work toward a comprehensive framework that promotes innovation, enhances digital connectivity, and supports sustainable growth in cross-border e-commerce and technology investment.
Kenya has launched a feasibility study for a potential state-backed online marketplace for micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). The project will enable millions of small businesses to access online trade.
According to a statement by Kenya’s State Department for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development, the project is being carried out under the Kenya Jobs and Economic Transformation Project (KJET), a multi-component initiative supported by the World Bank. Accordingly, the government is seeking consultants to evaluate alternatives such as scaling up existing private digital marketplaces or developing a government-led or public-private partnership platform. The government is focusing on how MSMEs, which are the backbone of Kenya’s economy, can be integrated into formal digital commerce channels.
The feasibility study for the state-backed e-commerce platform has been structured to keep multiple implementation pathways open. Within this framework, the option of expanding existing private platforms by identifying policy, financial, and coordination mechanisms through which the government can increase MSME participation is being evaluated.
As part of the project, MSME segments will be profiled. Then, priorities will be determined, and demand for the digital marketplace will be analyzed within the scope of both sellers’ and buyers’ needs. In addition, mobile money use and the digital payment system will also be examined. The study will also evaluate the feasibility of an e-commerce marketplace to be established under government leadership or through a public-private partnership.
Evaluations Will Be Requested from the Consultant for the State-Backed E-Commerce Marketplace
The consultant who will evaluate the planned state-backed e-commerce marketplace in Kenya will be asked to estimate operational and financial costs, identify potential revenue streams, and determine the scale and duration of any public subsidies that may be required. The consultant will also be asked to analyze issues such as governance structures, oversight mechanisms and risk mitigation measures, licensing, registration requirements, consumer protection rules, data protection obligations, cybersecurity standards, dispute resolution mechanisms, and platform accountability.
One of the central components of the study will also be to assess Kenya’s readiness to support broader participation in digital marketplaces. In this context, connectivity and device access, interoperability of digital payments, hosting and cybersecurity capacity, and the effectiveness of last-mile logistics systems that remain uneven across the country will be examined.
According to data from the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK), there are approximately 7.4 million MSMEs in the country. These businesses employ an estimated 14–16 million people. The sector accounts for approximately 40 percent of GDP. Available data also shows that MSMEs in Africa are held back from the digital marketplace due to a lack of operational capacity to use e-commerce platforms and fear of fraud.
