Uhuru Kenyatta is in Kigali for East African Business Summit

What you need to know:

  • The summit will later focus on how to stimulate the competitiveness of East African enterprises through deeper regional integration.
  • The President was seen off at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport by Deputy President William Ruto.

President Uhuru Kenyatta left the country for Kigali, Rwanda on Thursday morning to attend the East African Business Summit.

The summit, whose theme is “positioning East Africa for inclusive prosperity in 2020 and beyond”, brings together participants from governments and the private sector from the East African region.

The highlight of the summit will be a session to be graced by President Kenyatta and President Paul Kagame of Rwanda on Thursday that will focus on improving partnerships for inclusive growth.

President Kenyatta and his Rwandan counterpart will give their views on the issue while also acting as panellists for the session.

The summit will later focus on how to stimulate the competitiveness of East African enterprises through deeper regional integration.

Cabinet Secretary of Industrialisation and Enterprise Development Aden Mohamed will be among the panellists during this session.

WEALTH CREATION

On Friday, delegates will listen to presentations on regional fiscal policies and how they are being employed to further liberalise and inter-connect East African economies for wealth creation and competitiveness.

Kenya Revenue Authority boss John Njiraini will join his counterparts from Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania as the main presenters during this session.

The newfound mineral wealth in the region and how best East Africa can benefit from the resources will also be a hot topic during the conference.

Athi River Mining Chief Executive Officer Pradeep Paunrana will be among panellists who will discuss how to manage the resources and the opportunities in the mineral wealth value chains.

Other topics that will be discussed at the conference include how to accelerate m-commerce and regional labour policies and practices.

CONFLICT PREVENTION

Nation Media Group CEO Linus Gitahi is among the key speakers at the conference.

Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore, Kenya Association of Manufacturers CEO Betty Maina and Airtel Money's director and Africa head, Chidi Okpala, will be among key speakers at the summit.

The conference has also dedicated time for deliberations on how the private sector can play a bigger role in contributing to regional peace and security.

Discussions on regional security will be led by the United Nations, with a presentation whose theme is "the role of private sector in crisis and conflict prevention, preparedness and response in East Africa".

The President was seen off at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport by Deputy President William Ruto.