Manufacturers set seven-point priority agenda for robust year

Increasing access to old markets and opening up new ones are among the key pillars of a seven-point agenda Kenyan manufacturers have set for 2015.

The more than 200 local manufacturers held a forum last week to discuss priority areas for a more robust industrial sector.  

Kenya Association of Manufacturers chairperson Betty Maina said the industrial sector needed actioned-based strategies to realise maximum input to the economy.

“Different economic aspects affecting trade and the business environment take on different hues. This calls for a different agenda and strategy every year,” Ms Maina said. 

The manufacturers said the “Buy Kenya, Build Kenya” policy should be supported and proposed elimination of a double taxation structure and other regulatory overlaps brought about by devolution.

Other priority areas include securing justice for the economy, infrastructure, security, constitutional gains and the future of industry.

The forum said the seven-pillar proposal would lead to upward expansion of the sector to become the leading economic activity in Kenya.

Manufacturing contributes around 21.3 per cent of Kenya’s GDP and is ranked second after agriculture. 

StratLink Africa Ltd director Konstantin Makarov said the sector’s outlook in 2015 was brighter, thanks to reduced energy prices.

“Tumbling global oil prices bode well for manufacturers, with a discernible downtrend in the Producer Price Index in the second half of 2014. As a net importer of oil and petroleum products, the country stands to benefit from the downtrend in global oil prices,” he said.

He asked participants to continue lobbying for more cost-effective energy to mitigate the bite when prices stabilise.

Mr Makarov also called for a stabilisation fund that would target oil exports in the coming year, to cushion against price volatility and revenue shocks.