At a special meeting held for Church employees and volunteers, August 19, 2019, in Johannesburg, South Africa, Bishop W. Christopher Waddell annouced that Nairobi, Kenya will be the location of the Area Office for the new Africa Central Area. Present and also speaking in the meeting were Elder S. Mark Palmer, current Area President of the Africa Southeast Area and Brother Marius von Mollendorff, Director of Temporal Affairs for the Africa Southeast Area. The meeting was also broadcast to Nairobi, Kenya and Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo.

In June 2019 a letter from the First Presidency of the Church to the General Authorities, general officers, Area Seventies and stake presidents in Africa announced the division of the Africa Southeast Area of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints into two Areas: the Africa South Area and the Africa Central Area. An Area is an administrative unit which typically is composed of multiple Stakes (consolidated branches of the Church in a given geographical area) and Missions (defined as geographic administration area within which full-time missionaries are assigned). With the creation of the Africa Central Area, the Church will have 16 areas outside North America and 6 areas inside North America for a total of 22 Areas.

Countries in the Africa Central Area which will be administered from Nairobi, are: Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Eritrea, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Seychelles, and Sao Tome and Principe. The Church currently has full-time missionaries in fifty percent (50%) of the countries mentioned and over one hundred thousand (100,000) members.

It is anticipated that the newly created area will become fully operational by August 2020.