Expatriates have ranked Nairobi as the best African city to work in and the 45th globally in a new cities survey, thanks to friendly residents and fair weather.
In the survey conducted by International, the largest community for expatriates, Nairobi was ranked the 45th best city to work in globally. “About 82 percent describe the locals (Nairobi residents) as friendly and 62 percent find it easy to make friends.
In the Expat City Ranking 2019, Nairobi beat Johannesburg (59th) and Cape Town (65th) – both in South Africa – and both of which ranked in the lower half of the survey. Lagos in Nigeria was 79th — among the bottom 10 cities in the global survey whose findings were released recently.
The survey noted that respondents had picked Nairobi for being easy to settle in, ranking it third worldwide in the respective index, just behind Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia and Manama in Bahrain.
The ranking surveyed more than 20,000 respondents in 82 cities around the globe. InterNations has more than 3.5 million members. The latest survey analysed five areas of expatriate life — quality of urban towns, getting settled, work-life balance, finance, housing and cost of living, to reveal the likely city of choice for expats to move to in 2020.
“About 82 percent describe the locals as friendly and 62 percent find it easy to make friends,” the report says.
“The local climate and weather has been a top highlight for expat life, with 91 percent of expats rating this factor positively compared to 59 percent globally”.
However, the country was quoted as one of the most expensive to live in with expatriates tying this to their well-being. In the ranking, Kenya’s personal-financial satisfaction index declined to 53 from 44 out of 64 destinations that were surveyed during the period.
Just about three in five expatriates in Kenya (61 percent) were happy with their financial situation compared to 70 percent in 2018. The survey indicated that 32 percent of expats pointed that their disposable household income was not enough to cover all living expenses compared 18 percent in 2018.
