Micro and Small Enterprises Authority (MSEA) is planning to introduce a supplementary budget that will, if successful, see Jua Kali artisans and other small businesses work in a friendlier environment.
Chairman Charles Waithaka said the traders need working spaces that are up to standard and ensure efficient output so that their products can fetch better prices on international markets.
He said the common user facilities will ensure artisans visit the centres for a procedures such as cutting of a material, trimming and other processes. They will ensure standardised methods which will help reduce wastage, improve quality and ensure efficiency of work.
The supplement budget is looking to net Sh600 million in the current financial year to improve traders' working conditions. MSEA is reaching out to traders under the Association of Micro and Small Enterprises Association (AMSEA).
“It is part of our key mandate to develop physical infrastructure for the sector over and above providing tents, ablution blocks, clean water, mobile toilets, electricity connection and upgrade and facilitating them to move their goods from one location to others,” he said in an interview.
He also said that through giving the traders space to operate, and empowering them with better skills, traders are able to sell their products beyond the Kenyan markets.
A number of traders from within Nairobi's Kariokor Market have sealed export deals with neighbouring countries of South Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi, thanks to exposure through various workshops and expositions, according to Waithaka.
Once the County Industrial Development Centres (CIDCs) are up and running, new businesses are expected to benefit from skills and technology transfer at their local levels which will in turn enable the traders use locally available raw materials and transform them to viable businesses.