• The President's team has focussed on industrialisation and manufacturing sectors as the key pillars of his Big Four Agenda.
• The Export Processing Zone Authority has provided direct employment to 57,158 people.
Image: PSCU
President Uhuru Kenyatta's team has ramped up efforts to showcase his achievements in the delivery of the Big Four Agenda amid criticism by Deputy President William Ruto's camp.
On Thursday, the team focussed on industrialisation and manufacturing sectors, laying bare statistics of how new industries are changing Kenya's fortunes.
Industrialisation Cabinet Secretary Betty Maina led ministry officials on a daylong tour of the Athi River-based Export Processing Zone Authority, which has become one of the country's biggest industrial hubs.
According to statistics from the government, the EPZA alone has provided direct employment to 57,158 people with a cumulative investment value of Sh116 billion.
A number of the firms set foot in Kenya over the past five years as part of government efforts to enhance industrialisation.
One of the firms the CS toured was MAS Intimates, a Sri Lankan company that established its 57th factory in the country in 2020.
The firm has employed 2,000 Kenyans. It hopes to scale up the number of employees to 3,500 in its second face of growth and 7,000 by 2024.
The company is in 17 countries around the world and the Kenyan branch is the only one in Africa.
It manufactures apparel products for top global brands, including Calvin Klein, and exports them to western markets, mainly the United States and Europe.
The firm made a total of Sh1.8 billion sales in June this year and targets Sh10 billion worth of sales by 2024.
The CS and her team also toured Africa Coffee Roasters, an EPZ-based coffee processing installation exporting its products to European markets.
The firm that sources green coffee from all over East Africa, roasts and packs for the export market began production in 2016.
However, according to data from the EPZA, the garment sector remains the most dominant one in the country's manufacturing portfolio.
It constitutes 17.52 per cent of enterprises, 81.95 per cent of total local jobs created and 68.83 per cent of exports.
Data shows Kenya has leaped forward to be declared the largest exporter of clothing products to the US under the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).
"In 2019, textile and apparel exports to AGOA from Kenyan-based companies were valued at over US$450 million (about Sh49 billion). Moreover, the authority's data suggest that the president's pet manufacturing dream could have taken off with data showing that last year, the export processing function contributed 17 per cent to the growth of Kenya's manufacturing portfolio.
Agro-processing is the second dominant sector and was the highest performer in enterprises in 2020, according to the data brief from the authority.
The authority's 2020 annual report also shows that there are some 47 agro-processing enterprises that form 34.31 per cent of all the enterprises and their value of export is over Sh12 billion, the equivalent of 18.8 per cent of total export value for the country.
Currently, 37.2 per cent of all enterprises at the EPZ are wholly Kenyan-owned, 22.6 per cent are joint ownership ventures while 40.2 per cent of the enterprises are foreign investments.
The export processing zones are spread all over the country, in places that include Mombasa, Kilifi, Machakos, Bomet, Kwale, Nakuru, Kiambu, Embu, Nandi, and Muranga. Others are in Kajiado, Taita Taveta, Elgeyo Marakwet, Uasin Gishu, Laikipia, Meru, Kitui and Homa Bay.
The CS, for her part, assured the investors that the government had completed negotiation with the European Union to allow Kenyan export products to access their markets.
"We've also made substantial progress in renegotiating AGOA with the United States government so that it does not terminate when it expires in 2025," she said.