The value of Kenya’s exports for 2024 has been set at 37 percent higher after the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) revised data on goods and services shipped abroad.
The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) has disclosed that the revision by KNBS lifted the value of Kenyan exports last year to Sh1.48 trillion from a previous estimate of Sh1.08 trillion.
The higher export value is mainly due to improved capture of data relating to fuel re-exports, travel, and financial services.
“The Kenya National Bureau of Statistics has revised the balance of payments data to improve the recording of cross-border transactions related to imports and re-exports of petroleum products under the government-to-government contracts,” CBK Governor Kamau Thugge told a media briefing on Wednesday.
“The revisions also incorporate the use of alternative data to improve data on international trade in services, particularly travel and financial services.”
The adjustment in Kenya’s export value has seen the country’s current account-which measures the flows of money across borders-- improve from a deficit equivalent to 3.7 percent of GDP to 2.8 percent of GDP.
Receipts from re-exports are estimated to be more than two times greater than the previous tabulation of Sh173.8 billion at Sh580 billion.
The jump in re-exports, particularly fuel, has been attributed to a larger number of United Arab Emirates (UAE) airplanes fuelling at Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.
When foreign airlines fuel planes in the country, the resulting trade data is captured as re-exports by the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) which is the main source of data for KNBS.
“KNBS in their report capture aviation fuel as a re-export because when oil marketing companies fuel international airlines such as Emirates, the value of fuel is considered by KRA as a re-export,” Daniel Kiptoo, Director General of the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority said last year.
The rise of fuel re-exports lifted the UAE to be the second largest destination of goods from Kenya after Uganda.
The value of other major exports including tea, horticulture, and manufactured goods has remained the same with the receipts of teas sold estimated at Sh181.1 billion last year.
Horticulture exports in 2024 were estimated at Sh139.5 billion while nettings of manufactured goods sold overseas were tabulated at Sh82.8 billion.
The revision of key cross-border transaction data has also resulted in a higher value of imports at Sh2.87 trillion from Sh2.45 trillion previously.
The rise in imports at 16.8 percent has however been slower than the increase in exports, resulting in a narrower trade deficit than previously estimated.
The current account deficit balance is estimated to remain stable at 2.8 percent of GDP in 2025.
“The current account deficit was estimated at 2.8 percent of GDP in 2024 and is projected to remain stable in 2025,” Thugge added.
Kenyan main imports include cereals including wheat, rice, maize and sugar, petroleum products, animal and vegetable oils, chemicals, manufactured goods, and machinery and transport equipment.
