Nakuru County Government has set up an investment board to seek investors from Western countries and Africa to tap into investment opportunities in the region.
According to Governor Susan Kihika, the team is tasked with establishing multi-billion shilling projects, including new industries to address high unemployment rates in the county as well as market the region’s tourism potential.
While inaugurating the Board, the Governor said the Investment Committee Board to be chaired by a prominent industrialist Mr. Martin Kariuki, will be a multi-sectoral group comprising of Chief Executive Officers from the private sector, members of the Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM), Nakuru Business Association, and the Nakuru Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Ms. Kihika explained that the board along with professionals from the county were currently conducting research on key investment opportunities that would help market Nakuru County both locally and internationally as a well-endowed, strategically located and a diverse county with a business-friendly regime.
“Nakuru is in all aspects, the preferred destination for investments,” Governor Kihika added.
She at the same time assured prospective investors that her administration had rolled out various initiatives to boost the region’s attractiveness to investors, starting with reforms in the tax regime through harmonization of fees, elimination of non-tariff barriers to trade and aggressive marketing of the Naivasha Special Economic Zone.
Kihika added that her government was reviewing a multiplicity of levies and taxes affecting the devolved unit’s intra-county and inter-county trade thereby discouraging investments while raising prices for the end consumer.
She elaborated that the County Government had funded construction of the Sh154 million state-of-the-art hospital and is also building other infrastructure at a cost of over Sh2 billion including roads, drainages and water supply systems that will serve the Mai-Mahiu based Special Economic Zone (SEZ).
The County boss said they had established a technical team of representatives from her administration and the Special Economic Zone Authority (SEZA) to guide investments and marketing of the Naivasha SEZ which she said had already attracted 11 investors who have expressed interest in injecting more than Sh50 billion to develop industries in the area.
The Governor observed that at least 75 percent of the zone space had so far been occupied and the technical team would assist SEZA in accelerating activities to enhance operationalization. Ms. Kihika indicated that she had led a delegation from the devolved unit in holding deliberations with SEZA chairman Mr. Fred Muteti and Chief Executive Officer Mr. Kenneth Chelule aimed at positioning Nakuru as an attractive investment destination in a bid to tap foreign direct investment (FDI).
The SEZ Authority has already signed lease agreements with the investors and issued letters of offer to two others to set up industries in the zone, she added. According to the Governor, Nakuru, regarded as a key food basket in Rift Valley, also seeks to lure investors to its vibrant agricultural sector to add value to its products and gain direct sales of its farm produce to foreign markets including East African countries.
The county is one of the leading producers of potatoes, carrots, milk and vegetables among other crops. “The county is committed to averting situations where businesses incur costs in multiple permits and licenses over and above the single business permit,” assured Ms. Kihika.
She said the County was keen in reducing the cost of doing business to help position Nakuru as an essential destination for local and foreign investments by actively pursuing interventions that would make Nakuru the economic powerhouse of the region, thereby making it the destination of choice where trade and investment thrives.
The multi-billion-shilling Naivasha zone was set up by the government as a Special Economic Zone on a 1,000-acre piece of land to drive the country’s industrialization agenda. Last year President William Ruto inaugurated a power plant that will serve the Naivasha Special Economic Zone and issued licenses to six local and foreign investors, who will inject Sh24 billion into the project. The investors are expected to create 2,486 jobs in various sectors including bottling, automobiles, power, steel mills and pharmaceuticals among others.
Kenya has 15 gazetted SEZs, which form part of the ambitious plans to create thousands of jobs and boost exports to spur economic growth by 2030. The National Government introduced a pilot tariff of Sh5 per kWh for the Olkaria-Kedong SEZ in Naivasha four years ago as it sought to determine how to price electricity in a bid to lure investors.
The zones are spread across Naivasha, Mombasa, Kisumu and Machakos and there are plans to provide more land for the facilities.