During the event Chief Guest Cabinet Secretary Ministry of Industry, Trade and Co-operatives Peter Munya announced that Kenya will this coming week commence the first direct sales of coffee to the United States in the state of Nebraska. He added that the government was in the final stages of creating an SME fund to be controlled by Micro and Small Enterprises Authority. The SME fund to be rolled out by January 2020 will start with an initial budget of Kes 2B and will be accessed via biashara centers. The government is also working on the credit guarantees scheme to enable SMEs access finance from banks with no collateral. On constituency industrial centers the CS said the government will roll out 35 centers in December and another 100 in the next 100 days after the national launch

The Kiambu Governor Nyoro in his speech emphasized on the need to create employment through enabling a 24 hour economy and reopening collapsed industries such as the bacon factory in Uplands, Kiambu which he said the county government was in the process of refurbishing and is expected to be reopened in the next 9 months.

Chamber President Richard Ngatia highlighted the numerous achievements the Chamber has seen in the past 100 days including the improved relations with the government and development partners which he said have seen many benefits extended to SMEs. He emphasized the importance of value addition of crops that grow in the Central Kenya region so as to ensure they fetch better prices in the market. He also called on the national and county government to restore the Nairobi Nanyuki railway line so as to ease transportation of goods.

The post KNCCI HOLDS THE CENTRAL REGION SME BUSINESS FORUM & EXPO appeared first on KNCCI.

Key speaker at the event 2^nd Chamber Vice President Fatma Elmaawy termed the study as vital in accelerating the agenda for sustainable agricultural growth and development in the country and in supporting Agriculture Sector Growth and Transformation Strategy (ASGTS) and National Agriculture Investment Plan (NAIP).

“This initiative should be complemented with technology transfer, enhanced knowledge and experience sharing in value addition to accelerate economic diversification and industrialization,” said 2^nd Chamber Vice President Fatma Elmaawy.

She added that the chamber will continue to strengthen & deepen its engagement with county governments and other stakeholders through the regional economic blocs established by counties.

“The Chamber intends to support & establish policies that need to be reviewed to support an enabling environment for agricultural competitiveness & sustainable growth,” Fatma added.

Speaking at the same event KNCCI Chief Executive Officer Angela Ndambuki said the Chamber will continue to play our critical role in supporting agricultural competitiveness to improve export market readiness, enhance skills on value addition, farm profitability optimization and wastage reduction.

“The Chamber is committed to supporting national agricultural development program by enhancing key drivers of dynamic growth and productivity,” Chamber CEO, Angela Ndambuki told the forum.

The chamber added that it is committed to addressing market development for commodities and processed goods through value chains and potential ways of strengthening the competitiveness of firms and farms within those value chains based on the studies.

On her part Chairperson of the CEC Agriculture caucus, Mary Nzomo termed the engagement between the private sector and county governments timely since agriculture has been devolved and there is a need to attract investment from the business community.

Data collection was undertaken at the County level using the CEOs of the KNCCI County chapters as the data collection agents. The full report is expected before the end of the year.

The county executive members and chief officers present represented the six regional economic blocs.

The post KNCCI HOSTS THE COUNTY ECONOMIC BLOCS FORUM OF AGRIBUSINESS CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES appeared first on KNCCI.