How to get paid safely when selling to Kenya

A Kenyan buyer who negotiates terms, asks for samples and pays a deposit before you ship is a normal customer. The pattern that catches exporters off guard is different: an offer that is too easy — a large order accepted with no negotiation at all, followed by a request to pay a fee before the deal can supposedly "go through." This guide covers that pattern, what payment terms are normal, and how to check a change of bank details before you act on it.

What payment terms are normal when selling to Kenya?

Hold the same baseline you would use for any new buyer in a market you don't know yet: a deposit before you start production, the balance against shipping documents rather than after the goods have already landed, and both terms written into a signed purchase order instead of agreed only by email or chat. Treat a fast, no-questions-asked order as a reason to ask more questions, not fewer.

Why does an order with no negotiation and an upfront fee mean trouble?

The clearest version of this pattern was written up in 2019 by Vietnam's Ministry of Industry and Trade for its own exporters, after complaints about companies in Nigeria, Cameroon and Togo: a buyer accepts an order of $1–2 million with no haggling on price, and once the deal is "confirmed," asks the seller to pay a "brokerage," "licence" or "legal" fee of 1–2% of the contract value, or a flat "tender deposit" of $1,500–3,000, before the money can supposedly be released (Tạp chí Công Thương, Vietnam Ministry of Industry and Trade, 2019). The amounts are from that write-up; what repeats is the shape, not the price tag.

The mechanics travel: an unusually large order, accepted with no negotiation, followed by pressure to wire a fee to a third party before payment can supposedly proceed. The same shape of request can turn up anywhere a stranger needs money fast, including Kenya. A real buyer who is already going to pay you has no reason to ask you to pay them first.

B2B.Africa never asks you to pay a buyer, a tender committee or an agent.

How do I check a change of bank details mid-deal?

Between June and August 2025, Operation Serengeti 2.0 — coordinated by INTERPOL across 18 African countries, Kenya among them, and the United Kingdom — dismantled cybercrime and fraud networks, led to 1,209 arrests and recovered $97.4 million, with business email compromise named among the targeted crime types (INTERPOL).

Never change a payment detail on the strength of an email or a chat message alone. Call the buyer on a number you already had before the message arrived, not one written inside it, and confirm any change of bank account by voice before you send money to the new one.

What should I do before I ship or change a payment detail?

Confirm who you are dealing with before you rely on a fast "yes." Our step-by-step guide to checking a Kenyan company covers the registry side, including what the official search can and cannot tell you. If a buyer claims a government tender or procurement process is involved, check it against PPIP, the public procurement information portal of Kenya's Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA), rather than taking a forwarded document at face value — and check the channel as well as the name: the email domain, phone number and bank account should match the ones the organisation publishes itself, not the ones in the message. Keep every term of the deal — price, deposit, delivery address, bank account — in one written record rather than split across email, phone and chat; Messages on B2B.Africa keeps that record in one place. For ready-to-use documents, see Templates for a safe B2B deal in Africa.

This is general information, not legal advice.