President Uhuru Kenyatta has kicked off his plan to create
a
million jobs every year for Kenyans under his Big Four Economic Plan, even as the country waits for him to complete naming his Cabinet.
The waiting game continued yesterday as the President went about meeting several delegations expected to power his agenda for the next five years.
Uhuru and Deputy President William Ruto remained tight-lipped on Cabinet, amid speculation about naming the remaining members.
It is understood the head of state is looking for people and resources to implement his Big Four agenda that he is banking on to secure his legacy. It will also give Ruto a launching pad for his 2022 presidential bid.
During his Jamhuri Day address on December 12, Uhuru said
his second administration would focus on food security, affordable housing, manufacturing and affordable healthcare.
The National Treasury in its draft Budget Policy Statement 2018 has revealed how the government plans to implement the agenda and create thousands of jobs.
Yesterday, Uhuru met Sergio Pimenta, the Vice President for the Middle East and Africa of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), to discuss partnership with the private sector in delivering part of the plan.
IFC is a potential source of affordable, low-interest financing to enable the private sector to participate in large-scale projects.
Yesterday, Uhuru said his drive is geared to putting resources into social sectors.
"To achieve the Big Four, we will require partnership with the private sector so they can take advantage of the good foundation we have laid over the past few years to deliver to ordinary citizens," he said.
New jobs in the plan are to be generated from the manufacturing sector, which is estimated to increase its contribution to GDP from 9.2
per cent
in 2016 to 15
per cent
by 2022.
“It requires that we look at how to further support SMEs so that they
invest
in manufacturing and agro-processing,” the President said yesterday.
During the meeting,
Pimenta said the IFC, the World Bank’s private sector lending arm, was keen to partner with the government to deliver on an economic agenda focused on investment in social sectors.
“We will be looking at how we can train small and medium entrepreneurs to enable them to benefit from many tenders which are being availed in various sectors of the economy,” Pimenta said.
Withmore than 60 per cent of the budget gobbled up by recurrent expenditure, Treasury CS Henry Rotich said Uhuru will rely heavily on the private sector to realise his key agenda.
“We are clearly conscious of our limited fiscal space and will, therefore, leverage on the private sector in partnership with the Government. We shall be creating a High-Speed Public Private Partnership (PPP) Unit to attract and engage the private sector to implement most projects under The Big Four Plan,” Rotich said.
The government also plans to cut by half the cost of off-peak power to heavy industry and encourage expatriates whose skills support manufacturing.
The budget policy paper shows that
the government will seek to create 10,000 jobs in apparel, 50,0000 in the cotton sector and increase exports by $200 million (Sh20.49 billion). This is to be achieved through prioritising setting up five million square feet of industrial sheds, 200,000
hectares of cotton and training 50,000 youth and women.
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Leather and tea
In the leather industry, the aim is to create at least 5,000 direct new
jobs and increasing exports to $70 million (Sh7.17 billion) this year.
Priorities include training and setting up 5,000 cottage industries, completing the Machakos Leather Park, stopping leather imports and identifying three new parks.
This year Uhuru wants to create 20,000 new jobs in agro-processing, with key priorities in the budget, including mapping tea, dairy, meat and crops value chains.
The Treasury document also says the government this year aims to attract two global tea processors to set up base in Mombasa.
The government will start regulating milk hawking, developing warehousing and cold chain sites and seek to make Mombasa a food value-add hub.
This will involve processing of tea, coffee, meat, sugar, dairy, fruits and vegetables to obtain more value and create 200,000 jobs.
The Jubilee administration wants to grow the construction materials industry to create 2,000 jobs this year.
Priorities are identifying key housing components and manufacturers and a 70 per cent "Buy Kenya" policy for housing materials.
In ICT, the government is shopping for two
Business Process Outsourcing players to create at least 1,000 jobs this year.
Related:
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Electronics assembly
In addition, the government will seek to sign at least two investors for electronics assembly during this year.
As part of the job creation strategy, the government wants to attract one fish feed mill investor and two
processors for marine and freshwater fish processing.
The government wants to dramatically expand fish yield to 18,000 metric tonnes annually by 2022 from the current 2,500
tonnes.
The Big Four Economic Plan focusses on improving food and nutrition security by 2022.
The food security drive is expected to create additional jobs between this year and 2022.
Through public-private partnerships, the government aims to harvest six million bags of maize this year, in addition to those by other farmers.
The state will also place under cultivation an additional 700,000 acres of maize, potato, rice and feeds. It plans to expand irrigation schemes and secure water towers and river ecosystems.
It also aims to ensure 20,000 farmers have access to credit to enhance activities.
The policy says the government wants
to reduce overall post-harvest losses of fish from 20 percent to 15 percent.
This year, the government wants to secure investors to construct shipyards at the Coast to increase the domestic fishing fleet by 10 vessels.
Treasury says the government will
focus on sustaining a business-friendly by maintaining macroeconomic stability, supporting business regulatory reforms, and enhancing security. In this way it hopes to
attract and encourage investment and job creation.
The plan is to achieve 15 per cent
of GDP coming from manufacturing, 100 per cent food security, universal healthcare and 500,000 affordable new houses.
Uhuru says his administration already laid the ground for transformation, thus, the need for the focus on The Big Four Economic Plan.
The President considers the
private sector the lay partner to achieve the plan.
"It requires that the private sector looks at its investment models, looks at how they can support affordable housing and how they can invest in agriculture so we can meet our food security and nutrition goals," Uhuru said yesterday.