The Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KNCCI) today successfully hosted the Kenya–Saudi Arabia Business Forum in Nairobi, bringing together business leaders, investors, and policymakers from both countries to explore new opportunities for trade and investment.

The forum provided a platform for dialogue and collaboration between the two nations, with over 28 companies from Saudi Arabia and more than 30 Kenyan enterprises participating in the Business-to-Business (B2B) sessions designed to foster meaningful partnerships across key sectors including agribusiness, energy, manufacturing, logistics, and financial services.

Delivering remarks on behalf of the Chamber leadership, KNCCI National Director for North Eastern Hussein Jama, representing Vice President Mr. Mustafa Ramadhan, reaffirmed KNCCI’s commitment to deepening economic ties between the two countries. He noted that the Chamber, which represents over 50,000 businesses across Kenya, stands ready to facilitate credible partnerships, policy linkages, and regulatory support for Saudi investors exploring the Kenyan and East African markets.

“Kenya and Saudi Arabia share a vision for economic transformation through investment, innovation, and trade diversification,” he said. “Our bilateral trade currently stands at approximately USD 1.2 billion annually, but this forum marks the beginning of a stronger, broader collaboration that will unlock new opportunities for both nations.”

KNCCI National Director and Head of Economic Diplomacy, Ms. Cynthia Nyawira in her opening remarks emphasized the importance of leveraging the B2B sessions to forge strong, mutually beneficial relationships.

“Today’s engagement is more than just networking—it is a gateway to transformative partnerships. We encourage both Kenyan and Saudi enterprises to identify synergies, form joint ventures, and explore new avenues for trade and investment that advance our shared prosperity,” she said.

The Saudi delegation featured key speakers who underscored Saudi Arabia’s commitment to expanding its investment footprint in Africa under the Vision 2030 framework. Among them were representatives from leading Saudi government institutions and private sector organizations who highlighted opportunities in food security, renewable energy, manufacturing, and technology transfer.

Participants expressed optimism that the B2B engagements would yield tangible outcomes, including joint ventures, distribution partnerships, and increased exports of Kenyan goods such as  and leather products to the Saudi market.

The forum also spotlighted Kenya’s position as a strategic gateway to regional markets within COMESA, the East African Community (EAC), and the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) — offering Saudi investors access to over 600 million consumers across Africa.

In closing, Ms. Nyawira commended both delegations for their active participation and reaffirmed KNCCI’s readiness to continue facilitating trade and investment dialogues that advance Kenya’s Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda (BETA) while supporting Saudi Arabia’s diversification goals under Vision 2030.

The Kenya–Saudi Arabia Business Forum was a resounding success, setting the stage for a new era of trade, investment, and partnership between Nairobi and Riyadh.

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In the discussions the Ambassador highlighted that Ethiopia has opened up major sectors that Kenyan businesses can take advantage of including: banking, telecommunications, forex, trading services and mining. He also pointed out that efforts are ongoing to ensure that Kenya and Ethiopia have a one stop border stop to facilitate trade.

In particular the Ambassador said Ethiopia is looking for investments in its priority sector including:

• Manufacturing: Textile & apparel, leather & leather products, agro-processing, pharmaceuticals, chemical products, metal & engineering industry, electronics & electrical products, paper & paper products, and construction materials.
• Agriculture: Horticulture (flowers, fruits, vegetables and herbs), plantation of cotton, palm tree, rubber tree, coffee, tea, sugarcane, oilseeds, livestock, apiculture, and high-value crops such as barley for malting.
• Mining: gold, potash, platinum, opal, iron, tantalum, marble, granite, limestone etc
• Tourism: grade one tour operation, star designated hotels, lodges & restaurants, grade one construction, information & communications technology (ICT) and general & specialized hospitals
• ICT: 200-hectare ICT dedicated Industry Park in Addis Ababa, Opened Telecom sector, business in software development, setting up data centers, business process outsourcing
• Banking and Forex Bureaus: 31 banks present, 9 companies and the existing banks licensed to buy and sell foreign currencies

Other opportunities include the establishment of investments in the health sector to handle chronic diseases, trading services with the government having allowed foreigners to participate in the imports and export business and logistics. The Ethiopian government has also set up industrial parks and special economic zones for investors to establish their companies in.

The chamber has pledged to organize an educational opportunity for its members at the Embassy so that Kenyan companies can better be informed of investment opportunities within the next month. Later the chamber will organize a trade mission to Ethiopia for its members in the priority sectors including a business matchmaking session with Ethiopian companies.

Ethiopia at a glance

• Population: 2nd most populous country in Africa with a population size of over 120 million
• Economy: 3rd largest economy in sub-saran Africa with GDP of USD 205 billion
• Exports: Leading exports: coffee, oilseeds, gold, pulses, horticulture, live animals, growing manufacturing export (textile and apparel, leather and leather products etc)

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