The Cabinet has made deliberate moves to spur the manufacturing agenda in the country through revitalization of the Special Economic Zones (SEZs) which are located in Dongo Kundu, Naivasha and Isiolo and Export Processing Zones (EPZAs), located in Sagana, Del Monte, Eldoret and Busia. This will be facilitated by the recently approved debt free,100 percent equity investments of Kenya shillings 420 billion from the Pan African Financial Institution – African Export Import Bank (AFREXIM). These regional centres will be critical in aiding and rolling out of the Electric Bodabodas through the soon-to-be-launched E-Mobility Programme as per the dispatch of the top government decision making body.
This is encouraging in many ways for Kenyans. First, it shows that African and local institutions, contrary to what we have believed for some time, are critical to our development financing arrangements and goes a long way to support the clarion call of the government to reduce our debt obligations and burdens by exploring alternatives that can support our development matrix. Secondly, the plan will revitalize our manufacturing and industrialization potential which is key for employment and job creation to absorb the more than 2.97 million Kenyans who may have been pushed to joblessness by many factors, some of which are beyond government control. The importance of this bold decision is that manufacturing sector is among priority sectors identified by the Kenya Vision 2030 as one of the most effective ways of catalyzing Kenya’s leap to a higher middle-income economy. As a key pillar, manufacturing should be contributing over 20 percent of our GDP by the 2030 to achieve the middle-income status desired under the Kenya Vision 2030.
Manufacturing goes hand in hand with industrialization, this is because it has been found that newly industrialized economies, such as China, Malaysia and Botswana are also some of the fastest growing economies due to the expansion of their manufacturing base, and because of that, their growth is registered to be approximately 7 per cent for three decades. This manufacturing and industrialization made these countries to quickly achieve middle income status and as such, our own vision of an upper middle-income country must be underpinned by manufacturing and industrialization.
These countries have strong industry brands thriving beyond their borders. The industrial revolution in Great Britain was a critical juncture moment that propelled the country into modern economic growth by shifting from agrarian based economy to the world’s first industrial based economy. Thirdly, the Cabinet plan makes some of the urban areas with the SEZ’s and EPZA’s to be revitalized. Key of them being Thika, which has been nicknamed the “Birmingham” of Kenya, and is a top industrial and manufacturing area in Kenya but it has massive potential that needs to be exploited through strategic planning and implementation. Dr Giti is an urban management, public – private partnerships (PPP) and environment specialist. mutegigiti@gmail.com , @danielgiti
Dr. Daniel Mutegi Giti 