In the bustling commercial area of Viken Thirty Industrial Park in Nairobi, Irene Ikiara moves confidently through her detergent manufacturing facility at Cenclean Enterprises, tablet in hand. With each swipe across the screen, she approves purchases, checks production schedules, and monitors real-time sales across distribution channels.

Three years ago, this seamless orchestration would have been unimaginable—her desk buried under invoices, inventory counts tallied manually, and profit margins calculated days after actual production.

“Many other platforms did not work for us as a manufacturing firm,” Ikiara explains, gesturing to the tablet displaying a simple yet comprehensive dashboard. “When Kidaftari was introduced to us, it was very easy to use; anybody who is not a tech pro can use it at a click of a button.”

Across Kenya, a quiet revolution is underway as manufacturers like Ikiara embrace Kidaftari, a homegrown enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution that costs a fraction of international alternatives while delivering outsized efficiency gains.

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At just Sh5,000 monthly, this affordable digital tool is rewriting the rules of business in a country where small and medium enterprises have long struggled with limited access to technology. This is affordable, compared to the Sh30,000 monthly rates of foreign ERP vendors like SAP and Oracle.

The price of efficiency

“It is very affordable and flexible—it means that you can either pay monthly, quarterly, or yearly compared to others. Number three, it’s locally available, made in Kenya, and offers great customer support. Number four, it’s cloud-based, meaning I can make approvals and recommendations from anywhere, any device,” she adds.

This affordability represents more than mere cost savings—it’s democratizing access to sophisticated business tools previously reserved for corporate giants with deep pockets. For Kenya’s SMEs, which contribute 33% to GDP according to the Central Bank of Kenya, such accessibility marks a watershed moment in their digital transformation journey.

Daniel Abok, Kidaftari’s 36-year-old founder, designed the platform specifically to address the economic realities of African businesses. A self-taught coder with formal training in accounting and computer science, he built the first prototype after witnessing his parents’ retail business collapse under chaotic manual bookkeeping.

“They lost suppliers due to payment delays and duplications,” he recalls. “I wanted to prevent that for others.”

Launched in 2021, the platform has emerged as a lifeline for businesses navigating post-pandemic recovery, inflation, and intense competition. Its pricing model—starting at Sh5,000 monthly with flexible payment options—stands in stark contrast to foreign alternatives that can cost ten times as much with less relevance to local business practices.

Efficiency across operations

At New Life Mission, a nonprofit running bakeries and water projects based in Ongata Rongai and Mashuru, accountant Teresia Ndaisi experienced a transformation in operational efficiency.

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“Before bringing in Kidaftari we had difficulties tracking our sales, customer balances, stock levels and supplier balances. Kidaftari has helped automate these tiresome processes.” At the bakery, 10 workers produce 1,200 loaves daily.

“We track our margins hourly,” Ms Ndaisi notes. “If flour prices change, we are able to see its effects on our margins and adjust prices where necessary.” The nonprofit plans to expand Kidaftari to its auto garage and car wash income generating projects, aiming for full financial visibility.

The organization currently applies Kidaftari’s manufacturing feature in its bakery operations, enabling real-time tracking of stock, production, and sales while ensuring accurate margin assessment.

“I recommend Kidaftari to organizations that would like to track their operations all the way from purchases, manufacturing, and eventually to sales. Organizations that track their expenses, customer and supplier balance and also financial reports,” she adds.

The efficiency gains extend beyond simple accounting. In Eldoret town, Ronoh Davis has transformed his animal feed manufacturing business, Valuefarm Feeds, from a paper-based operation into a data-driven enterprise.

“We used to operate manually. Document handling and retrieval of data was cumbersome. So we went looking for a system and decided to try Kidaftari to help us in our operations,” Mr Davis, who is the director of Nadacy Enterprises which owns the Valuefarm Feeds brand, tells Nation.Africa. “For the one and a half years we’ve used Kidaftari, we’ve witnessed great improvement in terms of decision making and control across the whole company.”

Davis’s company produces tens of tonnes of animal feed monthly. Before Kidaftari, coordinating six sales outlets and two manufacturing hubs meant endless spreadsheets and guesswork. Now, real-time data syncs across all branches.

“With Kidaftari, across all branches, we are able to track in real-time our expenses, customers, sales, purchases and inventory. It has helped us streamline our processes. Additionally, we can track the cost of production all the way from the purchases of raw materials, consistently informing us on our margins,” Davis affirms.

The software’s optimization for manufacturers enables precise inventory management. “We know exactly when to restock maize or soybeans,” Davis adds. “No more overstocking or shortages.”

Local solutions for local problems

For Cenclean Enterprises, Kidaftari automates everything: raw material procurement, production, expenses and customer invoices. This comprehensive approach eliminates inefficiencies that once plagued the operation.

“We use Kidaftari for procurement, production, invoicing, sales, and also for customer data—so basically we use all the features in Kidaftari,” says Ms Ikiara.

The software also features Kilipo, an in-built M-Pesa integrated digital wallet that allows businesses to receive and make payments seamlessly, ensuring all payments are recorded real-time. Users can also generate project cost assessments, financial performance reports, and automate critical accounting tasks

This deep integration with local payment systems offers an efficiency advantage that foreign software cannot match. By connecting directly with M-Pesa, Kenya’s ubiquitous mobile money platform, Kidaftari eliminates manual reconciliation of payments—a time-consuming task for most businesses.

“Foreign software is complicated and not built with our local market in mind,” Abok asserts. “Kidaftari simplifies how manufacturers capture their operations and draw critical reports that enhance decision making. It takes a day or two to implement and train Kidaftari.”

The rapid implementation timeframe represents another dimension of efficiency. While conventional ERP systems can take months to deploy, Kidaftari’s streamlined approach gets businesses operational within days, minimizing disruption and accelerating return on investment.

Future efficiency horizons

No system is perfect. Users crave enhanced dashboards with visual analytics. “More graphs would help,” Ikiara suggests. Manufacturers like Davis want deeper production insights: “Tracking machine efficiency or labor costs would be a game-changer."

Abok acknowledges gaps. “Kidaftari is made up of 4 years worth of feedback so far. There is what you imagine the market wants and what the market tells you it wants.”

He envisions the ERP platform growing beyond his initial vision. “It is time for Kidaftari to grow. I might have started it, but this is bigger than I am,” he says. “My work now transitions to building the appropriate team that would then take it to the next level as it serves its purpose. Getting investors would ease this process for Kidaftari.”

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With over 150 active users in the manufacturing, retail and non-profit industries, Kidaftari has proven to be a valuable tool for businesses seeking affordable digital solutions. 

"We target partnerships in order to better serve our clients. We offer our clients ETIMS integration through our DigiTax partnership. We are in discussions with WorkPay towards having them as our Payroll partners,” Abok says. “We are looking to partner with accountants and auditors as business partners towards recommending Kidaftari as a Kenyan-made ERP solution to their clients. Additionally, partnering with the government through MSEA will help drive digitization to Kenyan SMEs.”

Kidaftari’s rise reflects a broader shift across Africa: homegrown solutions gaining ground by addressing local business realities. Just as Nigeria’s Piggyvest thrives by embracing informal savings habits, Kidaftari’s deep integration with M-Pesa and its simple user-friendly interface resonate with Kenyan entrepreneurs.

With SMEs driving 80% of Kenya’s employment, according to Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA), Kidaftari’s affordability and intuitive design make it more than just an ERP—it’s a lifeline for businesses navigating an unpredictable economy. In a region where 70% of startups don’t survive beyond five years, this Kenyan-made innovation is rewriting the narrative, one thriving enterprise at a time.

Back at Cenclean Enterprises, Ikiara reviews the day’s production reports in seconds rather than hours, a simple action that represents the confluence of affordability and efficiency that Kidaftari has brought to Kenya’s manufacturing sector. In a global economy where digital transformation often comes with prohibitive costs, this homegrown solution proves that innovation need not be expensive to be transformative.