Nairobi, July 2 -- Every budget season in East Africa arrives with familiar promises. Jobs, industrialisation, youth empowerment, digital transformation, value addition, exports and inclusive growth.

The language is right. The ambition is necessary. But too often, the people expected to turn these promises into reality are kept at the fringes of national planning. The small trader. The food processor. The creative agency. The software developer. The small manufacturer.

The fundi training two apprentices. The woman running a logistics operation from her phone. The farmer group trying to move from raw produce to packaged goods.

These businesses are not side characters in East Africa's growth story. They are the story.

East Africa will n...