The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) has established a cash centre in Nyeri to ease the movement of transit cash from banks to CBK units which poses high risks.

  The general infrastructure, is okay, though needs much improvement. The exception is the water infrastructure, with well-distributed clean and safe drinking water being available straight from the tap. Phone and internet services are widely available, generally affordable and reliable,internet speeds and bandwidth are quite average, and wireless internet hot-spots quite few. Electricity provision is also reliable, more so, in fact, than in most of the rest of the country.

The biggest formal employer in Nyeri, as it is the administrative headquarters of Central Province, is the Government of Kenya. The local Municipal Council and utility providers are also significant employers. The various sectors of the service industry, including retail, hospitality, banking, insurance, the charity industry and professionals also provide jobs.The main industrial plants are a Coca-Cola bottling plant, Highlands water a bottling plant, Maisha Floor mills, Raka cheese makers, a water and a number of tea and coffee processing factories, a milk processing and packaging factory owned and ran by the Kenya Co-operative Creameries Ltd, a number of maize millers. There are also a wide range of largely unsophisticated light industries, including motor vehicle repair garages, electronics repair shops, furniture workshops, tailoring shops, and bakeries.

Tourism is also significant, as there are many tourist destinations nearby, including the Aberdare and Mount Kenya National Parks.The infrastructure to this is fairly good and maintaned with one airstrip at Mweiga, and one at Nyeribo that is currently under renovation.

The main industry though, is farming, which is mostly unmechanized. The town area is actually part of the surrounding rural greater Nyeri districts, and farms within the municipality blend seamlessly into the rural area. The main cash crops are Coffee and tea, grown mainly by smallholders who are organized into quasi-private state-supported and supervised co-operatives or companies for farm input distribution, basic processing and marketing purposes. The main food crops are Maize, the staple food in most of Kenya, legumes (especially beans and peas), tubers (mainly potatoes), and vegetables (especially tomatoes, cabbage, spinach and kales). Livestock, mainly dairy cattle, goats, sheep, and chicken are also widely kept. Food crop and livestock farming are also done by smallholders, with marketing and distribution of surplus produce (after farmers' own consumption) being done privately.