A $50 million (Sh7.7 billion) World Bank project has named Kenya Industrial Research and Development Institute (KIRDI) as the technical advisor to 90 SMEs seeking to fine-tune their products for the mass market.
KIRDI will improve the innovation, productivity and competitiveness ability of the participating SMEs by strengthening their managerial and technical capabilities thereby enabling them to better compete for local and international market opportunities.
At KIRDI, the youth, women and persons with disability-led SMEs identified under the Kenya Industry and Entrepreneurship Project will have their existing manufacturing gaps addressed through research, product development and improvement.
The SMEs will also benefit from KIRDI’s business incubation and common manufacturing facilities with key emphasis on gender mainstreaming in all the project activities.
According to Principal Secretary, State Department of Industry Juma Mukhwana, said that the program will focus on value addition, especially for products destined for the export market.
“We are now in the fifth industrial revolution with Artificial Intelligence (AI) as the main driving force. This is changing how we do everything including manufacturing. This is why we should expand our innovation capabilities,” said Mukhwana.
He however, noted that innovations by Kenyans never get to the markets due to their small nature calling for partnerships to scale local enterprises.
KIRDI board of director’s chairperson Dinah Mwinzi, said bringing SMEs together via the KIEP project enabled KIRDI to offer its expertise to already existing and established businesses.
KIEP, being implemented by Ministry of Trade and Industry, with support from the World Bank Group is a five-year initiative that aims to increase innovation and productivity in the private sector firms in Kenya.
The direct beneficiaries are formal private sector firms in Kenya (startups, SMEs,), including intermediaries (incubators, accelerators, bootcamp and technology skills providers).
BETA identifies and promotes entrepreneurship as a key driver to job creation hence enabling more Kenyans to participate in the economic development irrespective of their social status.
