No doubt, the relations between Kenya and the United Kingdom have taken a new turn in the face of the changing world dynamics that call for adjustments and changes in the way strategic partnerships are conducted.
It’s also manifestly clear that the partnership between Kenya and post-Brexit Britain will result in commensurate gain through solidifying their cooperation.
At last month’s UK-Africa Summit, President Kenyatta secured major investment deals worth more than Sh170 billion (£1.3 billion) with the British government to be channelled to housing, finance, renewables and entrepreneurship.
Additionally, foreign direct investments (FDIs) and public-private partnerships (PPP) could boost the economy and create job opportunities in the production and service industries.
The Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KNCCI) continues to advocate high market integration with global partners to facilitate access to the international market and transfer of technology through e-commerce and job creation.
As a private sector body, we’re keen to adopt sustainable consumption and production practices in various sectors, especially in agriculture, and also engage with the British business community so that we can advance each other’s economies together.
That is why the private sector must seamlessly support the government agenda, particularly on the ‘Big Four Agenda’ delivery pillars, namely, manufacturing, universal health coverage, food security and affordable housing.
This year, we’ve prioritised job creation for youth and women as one of our key agenda to boost growth of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and other start-ups.
Foreign investors
SMEs account about 80 per cent of all enterprises in the country and employ two-thirds of the population.
Ranging from raising KNCCI’s direct membership and laying a policy framework for local and foreign investors to facilitate the ease of doing business in the country, the chamber has projected focus to gain access into the international markets through international trade cooperation with business lobbies and foreign embassies.
In 2018, Kenya exported £237.5 million (Sh31 billion) worth of goods to the UK and imported goods worth £303.6 million (Sh39.7 billion).
In his inaugural speech at the UK-Africa Summit, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson cited mutually beneficial partnerships as the way to go. Said Mr Johnson: “A relationship that benefits us all and makes a lasting difference. And the same is true of the UK government’s $53 million (Sh5.3 billion) investment at the port of Mombasa.
“A serious, commercially minded development like many other overseas investments in Africa. But rather than being arranged on extraordinarily one-sided terms and delivered by a vast imported workforce, without wishing to cast aspersions on any other potential partner, it was a sustainable deal that created jobs for ordinary Kenyans now and in the future.”
He added: “I’m told that probably partly as a result of what is going on in Mombasa, half of all the tea drunk in the UK comes to us from Kenya. Think of that.
“Britain without a nice cup of tea is barely worth thinking about, and that means Britain without Kenya is barely worth thinking about.”
The strategic partnerships are bound to address the existing trade imbalance between Kenya and UK as the former looks to entrench trade ties with post-Brexit Britain.
Last year, Kenya attracted FDIs worth Sh300 billion. It is instructive to note that a report released last month by Overseas Development Institute (ODI) that was funded by the UK Department for International Development (DfID) ranked Kenya among the top four African countries that present a business opportunity for foreign investors targeting a place with a growing market base and higher returns.
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The rest were Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa.
Another survey, whose report was released by the World Bank late last year, ranked Kenya at position 56 globally on attractiveness to investors as regards the ease of doing business, up from position 61 in 2018.
This is a clear manifestation that Kenya is an assured regional economic hub with vast resources and supportive infrastructural projects like the Port of Mombasa and the standard gauge railway (SGR), just to mention a few, which are prerequisite conditions to ease the flow of capital.
The author is the president of the Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KNCCI).