Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja has defended the county’s Unified Business Permit (UBP), saying the single licensing system has made it easier for traders to meet county requirements without spending long hours moving between offices to obtain multiple certificates.
Speaking during the Nairobi Business Forum on Thursday, September 17, 2026, Sakaja said the reform was introduced to end a licensing system that forced business owners to deal with several county departments before they could legally operate.
Under the UBP system, different licences and permits required by businesses are brought together under one permit. The requirements covered include trade licences and health-related approvals, depending on the nature of the business.
Sakaja said the previous arrangement placed an unnecessary burden on business owners, who had to visit different county offices and make separate payments before completing the compliance process.
“Before, you would come to City Hall and find a long queue at the cash office. Then you would be sent to the fire station to pay for a fire certificate. After that, you would be told to go and pay for advertising, and then to another office for other requirements. You would end up moving from one office to another just to get the different certificates you needed to operate your business.”
The governor said businesses could previously end up with several certificates after undergoing different assessments and meeting separate requirements from various county departments.
“They would assess your business and tell you they would come back the following day, and you would have to pay for that assessment. Then you would be asked to obtain other requirements, such as pest control and food hygiene certificates. In the end, a business could have six or seven different certificates just to comply with county regulations. A businessperson was spending half their time dealing with compliance instead of running the business, and I said that had to stop.”
The current UBP system builds on an earlier Nairobi licensing arrangement that brought five permits together. These included the single business permit, fire clearance certificate, advertising signage licence, health certificate and food hygiene licence.
The World Bank’s Doing Business 2020 report indicated that the Nairobi UBP could be obtained online, with the process listed as taking five days at the time.
Sakaja said the county also changed its revenue collection system as it moved businesses towards the unified licensing model.
The county closed its cash office and introduced a no-cash policy, requiring residents and businesses to make payments through digital platforms. In January 2024, Nairobi County announced that it would stop accepting revenue payments in cash and directed residents to use county revenue accounts, USSD and the Nairobi e-services portal.
According to Sakaja, the UBP was later activated as a single licence, allowing business owners to complete the process without making a physical trip to City Hall.
“Today, Nairobi has a single business licence, and you do not have to come to City Hall to obtain it. You can apply online by providing details about your business, including the type of business, its capacity, number of seats and number of employees. You will then receive your bill and can display the permit at your premises. There is no need to visit City Hall physically.”
The unified permit has also emerged as an important source of revenue for Nairobi County.
County revenue data reported in July 2026 showed that Nairobi collected Sh2.68 billion from Unified Business Permits during the 2025/26 financial year. The county’s total own-source revenue stood at Sh15.399 billion during the same period, compared with Sh13.8 billion collected in 2024/25.
Nairobi has continued to expand the digital UBP system, with the county’s current online platform presenting the permit as a way of cutting paperwork and making it easier for businesses to meet licensing requirements.
Sakaja said the changes were aimed at making compliance simpler for businesses while reducing the need for traders to physically interact with county officials.