By Rogers Aghan, February 28, 20123, The Kenya Association of Manufacturers launches the 2023 Priority Agenda on Tuesday, 28th February. The Association has today, called on the government to industrialize and revive Kenya’s agriculture sector.
The principal secretary, State Department for Investment Promotion, Mr. Abubakar Hassan Abubakar stated that the government has prioritized different value chains, directed towards fostering industrial growth, during his speech at the launch.
“Manufacturing is known world over as a creator of jobs due to the value chains involved. As a government, we have prioritized leather, textiles, dairy, edible oil and pharmaceutical sectors among others, to drive our country’s industrial growth. This will be driven through the County Aggregation Industrial Parks across all 47 counties.”
He acknowledged that attracting investments requires public-private dialogue to enhance the business environment in the country, stating that investments must be driven through the National Investments Council and by attracting, facilitating and enabling investment in Kenya.
The Chairman, Rajan Shah observed that while there are endless opportunities for value addition in the agricultural sector, there are still many untapped opportunities in the space.
“Low-value addition in Kenya has made it difficult to realize the full potential of the manufacturing sector thus depriving citizens of jobs, the opportunities to create wealth and incentivization. Thus limited economic growth and production.
In the agriculture sector, export of products with little or no value added occurs rampantly.
“Therefore, individuals miss out on increased income. Creation of linkages between farmers and manufacturers is paramount, to reduce the share of agricultural products that are exported in primary form to derive more value from export.” said the chair.
Mr Shah advocated for the initiation of a suitable environment, reiterating that it could be achieved through regulatory and institutional frameworks, and sound policy that fastens forward and backward linkages, dynamic economies of scale and innovat
