Industrialise Agriculture to Support Economic Growth, Government Urged

The Government is being urged by manufacturers to revive and industrialize Kenya’s agricultural industry.

This was said at the Manufacturing Priority Agenda (MPA) 2023 announcement by the Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM).

According to Abubakar Hassan Abubakar, Principal Secretary of the State Department for Investment Promotion, the government has given diverse value chains top priority in order to promote industrial growth.

“Manufacturing is known the world over as a creator of jobs due to the value chains involved. As a government, we have prioritized leather, textiles, dairy, edible oil, and pharmaceutical sectors among others, to drive our country’s industrial growth,” Abubakar said.

“This will be driven through the County Aggregation Industrial Parks across all 47 counties.” 

He noted that in order to improve the economic climate in the nation, recruiting investments necessitates public-private engagement.

“We shall drive investments attraction through the National Investments Council, by attracting, facilitating, and enabling investments in Kenya.” 

Rajan Shah, Chairman of KAM, stated that there are countless unexplored prospects for value addition in the agricultural industry.

“Low-value addition in Kenya has made it impossible to realize the full potential of the manufacturing sector, hence denying citizens extra jobs, wealth retention, and incentivization of the sector to increase production and economic growth,” Shah said.

“In the agriculture sector, we export products with little or no value-added, hence we miss out on increased income. It is paramount that we create linkages between farmers and manufacturers to reduce the share of agricultural products that are exported in the primary form to derive more value from exports,” he added.