The World Bank recently declared Kenya to be a middle-income country and it aims to be an industrialised country by 2030, for which the government developed the well-known ‘Kenya Vision 2030’.
Our goal is not to explain the plan in detail, for which we refer to the official site www.vision2030.go.ke , but to highlight some of the potentials and how to well prepare yourself with some facts and findings.
Kenya continues to be one of the fastest growing countries in the world (average 6% GDP growth), with the services sector as the largest contributor, and inflation fairly well under control. ( +/- 6% )
Kenya’s central position in East Africa makes it a strong strategic partner when it comes to do business with a 250 million EAC community.
With a re-elected President Uhuru Kenyatta, Kenya’s economic long-term strategy has been re-confirmed and gained in power.
This must be re-assuring all business & investment people to continue their initial plans.
Service sector
The contribution of the service sector amounts to 41% comprises out of industries including :
- the electricity and water supply
- wholesale
- retail trade
- tourism & real estate
- financial intermediation
- public administration
- education & health
The second largest sector contributor is agriculture (32%) with agriculture, forestry, fishery, tea, coffee and horticultural industries.The third contributor is the manufacturing, mining and construction sector. Kenya’s ICT sector, also referred to as the ‘Silicon Savanna’ wins importance.
To achieve Kenya’s growth plan, the current and planned projects are focussing on infrastructure, energy and transport. Kenya’s city tram project is implemented in the larger metropolitan area of the capital Nairobi that has a population of over 3 million people.The passenger train is expected to transport 300.000 people on a daily bases in the initial phase. Projects estimated budget is 145 million USD. The Konza Technology City project has been identified as one of the key drivers of the achievement of Vision 2030. The 9.2 billion USD technology park will be built on a 64 square-mile stretch covering about 5000 acres of land in Machakos county, South of Nairobi. The LAPSSET corridor project ( 22,8 billion USD ) is hoped to trigger economic activities and more than double Kenya’s GDP. Components include the Lamu Port, Lamu Ethiopia-South-Sudan Sudan superhighway, Lamu-Juba-Addis Ababa railway line, an oil refinery and a 2240 km oil pipeline connecting oil fields in South Sudan to the refinery at Lamu Port. The construction of the Mombasa-Malaba standard Gauge Railway will involve construction of a 500 km railway line from Mombasa to Nairobi at an estimated cost of 3.8 billion USD.Several opportunities for our Belgium business entrepreneurs in a number of vibrant sectors:
Healthcare
- Supply of health information systems that generate,
validate and analyse health information needed to
centralize health records - Provision of medical equipment and diagnostics
equipment to support the health sector - Drug manufacture of vital health products like vaccines
and vital medicines
Energy
- Generation of geothermal energy
- Small hydropower development
- Oil and coal exploration
- Transformer supply
- Rural electrification projects
- Wind and solar energy generation
ICT
- Software development
- Construction of the Konza ICT park
- E-business, E-Education and data services
- IT security
- Communication equipment in the security sector
Environment and minerals
- Waste management systems to manage large amount
of waste in cities - Mining technologies, mineral exploration
Infrastructure
- Construction of terminals, runways, hangars, etc. and
supply of good and services as part of the expansion
and upgrade of the international and regional airports - The construction of a port, rail, roads, airport, housing
and utilities infrastructure for LAPSSET - Consultancy and service providers for MRT
- Supply of busses and maintenance of fleet, stations,
terminals
