According to a ranking by global private language tutor, Education First (EF), Kenyans are the second most fluent English speakers in Africa
Despite Kenya coming second after South Africa, Kenya’s capital city, Nairobi, emerged as the highest placed African city.
Overall, the Netherlands is the best english speaking country in the world according to the Switzerland-based company.
Globally, Kenya was placed at position 18 while South Africa came in sixth, followed by Nigeria (29) and Ethiopia at 63.
The reason why there’s so much fuss over just one single language is because English is considered the global lingua franca of business, and has since been adopted in the world as a bridging language to lower transaction costs across borders.
The EF report links English proficiency to innovation, public investment in research and development, number of researchers per a population of one million as well as technicians per capita.
The Queen's English also helps economies to remain competitive by removing the communication barrier.
“Although there is evidence that the pace of globalisation is slowing, international trade is a significant portion of the world economy, with exports making up around 20 percent of the world’s economic output. We consistently find a correlation between ease of doing business and a country’s English proficiency, as well as speaking English and a range of logistics-related indicators,” the report says.
