Kenya eyes Sh200bn in foreign investment - kenyadetails

Kenya eyes Sh200bn in foreign investment

Kenya projects a doubling of foreign direct investment this year to over Sh200 billion on the back of renewed investor interest and confidence in the country.

Speaking at the Kenya-Japan investment forum in Nairobi, Kenya Investment Authority (KIA) Managing Director Moses Ikiara, said the improving business environment coupled with recent and planned high profile investment forums continue to attract investors.

“The FDI is growing very strongly. This year, we expect FDI inflows to grow by more than 100 per cent because of an improved business environment,” he said.

MULTI-BILLION SHILLING DEALS

Last year, inflows into the country stood at over Sh115 billion according to the 2015 African Economic Outlook (AEO) 2015 launched by the African Development Bank (AfDB) on May 25.

During the Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) held in Nairobi between July 24 and 26, a number of global firms announced multi-billion shilling deals that would see the value of FDI increase substantially this year.

The AfDB report indicated that Kenya is increasingly becoming a favoured business hub, not only for oil and gas exploration, but also for manufacturing, transport and information communication technology.

Mr Ikiara was giving a presentation to the Japanese business delegation who were in Nairobi to explore investment opportunities.

PRIORITY AREAS

Japanese Ambassador to Kenya Tatsushi Terada said priority areas of his country’s investment in Kenya include infrastructure, human resource and agriculture development, health and medical services and environmental conservation.

The volume of trade between Kenya and Japan has, however, grown much slowly in the last five years, but heavily skewed in favour of the Far East country.

According to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, the country’s imports from Japan have grown from Sh58.2 billion in 2010 to Sh86.6 billion in 2014.

Exports, on the other hand, have grown from Sh2.1 billion in 2010 to Sh3.5 billion in 2013.