How To Register A Sole Proprietorship Business In Kenya

For most aspiring entrepreneurs, starting a sole proprietor company is more ideal. It is easy to setup and requires less financial commitment.

In order to register a sole proprietorship company, an entrepreneur needs to meet the following requirements;

1. Name of Business – A name search needs to be performed first as part of the registration process.

2. Nature of business – You will need to come up with one specific nature of business e.g. Tours & Travel, Computer Repairs, Mobile Phone & Accessories Shop etc. General words such as “shop” or “retail”, trade” are not sufficient for Company Registry to proceed to register your business. You will need to avoid things like “General Supplies” which is popularly used but it will not be approved)

3. Address of the principal place of business – (Plot No., Section and Name of Street or Road, Name of Building) – For the plot number, please find the electricity bill or water bill of your business premises. If you don’t have a business premises, you can use your home residential plot number/land reference number for registration that’s if you are starting your business from home, but you will need to update the records at Company Registry once you have a Business Premises.

4. Postal Address – If you don’t have one, you can register your very own postal office box for Ksh. 2,500 at the nearest Postal Office or ask a family or friend to allow you to use their P.O. Box temporary for the application then later on update it.

5. Address of any other place of business (Branch Office under the above name) – Only applicable to businesses that are currently operating business in other counties or have other branches under the same business name.

6. Full Names of you and any other partners – Any person who has changed his name must give all former names, unless the change occurred before he attained the age of two years. For Sole Proprietor Business, it only requires 1 person. For Partnership Business, it only require minimum of 2 people and maximum of 20 people).

7. Nationality – You will require to enter your nationality as indicated on your identification e.g. Kenyan, German, British, American, Chinese, South African etc.

8. Age – Make sure you give your correct age based on your ID/Passport

9. Gender – Male (M) or Female (F).

10. Usual place of residence -Where you currently reside e.g. Nairobi, Nakuru, Kisumu, London, Paris, Hong Kong etc.

11. Other business occupation – You will need to enter your occupation e.g. engineer, farmer, hair stylist, web designer etc. If you don’t have one you can simply write either “Businessman” or “Businesswoman”.

12. Signature on the document (usually at the back page of the BN2 Form)

Duration: 2-3 weeks

That’s it, if you have the above information then you are now closer to meet the legal obligation to starting your business in Kenya.

We no longer offer sole proprietor business registration. We only carry out limited company registration.