Nyanza Investment Conference To Unlock Business Potential

By Chris Mahan­dara

Worth Not­ing:

• “Devel­op­ment is all inclu­sive. It is not a pre­rog­a­tive of the nation­al or coun­ty gov­ern­ment. You have so many con­tacts out there which you need to lever­age to sup­port the devel­op­ment of this region,” he said.
• The gov­ern­ment, he said, will con­tin­ue to cre­ate an enabling envi­ron­ment for the busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty and investors to tap into the region’s huge poten­tial.
• He point­ed out the blue econ­o­my, which he said has a lot of poten­tial, with the gov­ern­ment already con­struct­ing a Sh3 bil­lion aqua­cul­ture cen­tre in Kisumu besides mod­ernising fish land­ing sites along the lake to sup­port the fish­ing com­mu­ni­ty.
• The Kenya Kwan­za admin­is­tra­tion, he said, was focused on the com­ple­tion of all stalled road projects in the area to cre­ate a con­ducive envi­ron­ment for busi­ness­es to thrive.

Prepa­ra­tions for the inau­gur­al Nyan­za Inter­na­tion­al Invest­ment Con­fer­ence are in top gear, with the organ­is­ers con­fi­dent of secur­ing pacts to unlock the region’s poten­tial.

The con­fer­ence, slat­ed for June 28–29, tar­gets to show­case invest­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties in the six coun­ties of Kisumu, Siaya, Homa Bay, Migori, Kisii, and Nyami­ra with a view to attract­ing investors from around the world.

Organ­ised by the Nyan­za Pro­fes­sion­als, the con­fer­ence aims at secur­ing pub­lic pri­vate part­ner­ships (PPPs) between investors and the coun­ty gov­ern­ments in the region to spur eco­nom­ic growth in the area.

Infor­ma­tion, Com­mu­ni­ca­tions, and the Dig­i­tal Econ­o­my Cab­i­net Sec­re­tary Eli­ud Owa­lo said the con­fer­ence to be held in Kisumu has the full back­ing of the gov­ern­ment, with Pres­i­dent Dr. William Ruto sched­uled to offi­cial­ly open and make a key note address.

Cab­i­net Sec­re­taries and Prin­ci­pal Sec­re­taries from the var­i­ous dock­ets where oppor­tu­ni­ties for invest­ments have been iden­ti­fied, he said, will also par­tic­i­pate in the con­fer­ence.

Speak­ing in Kisumu dur­ing a break­fast meet­ing for the event, Owa­lo laud­ed the Nyan­za pro­fes­sion­als for com­ing up with the ini­tia­tive, say­ing it will go a long way in fast-track­ing devel­op­ment in the area.

“Devel­op­ment is all inclu­sive. It is not a pre­rog­a­tive of the nation­al or coun­ty gov­ern­ment. You have so many con­tacts out there which you need to lever­age to sup­port the devel­op­ment of this region,” he said.

The gov­ern­ment, he said, will con­tin­ue to cre­ate an enabling envi­ron­ment for the busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty and investors to tap into the region’s huge poten­tial.

He point­ed out the blue econ­o­my, which he said has a lot of poten­tial, with the gov­ern­ment already con­struct­ing a Sh3 bil­lion aqua­cul­ture cen­tre in Kisumu besides mod­ernising fish land­ing sites along the lake to sup­port the fish­ing com­mu­ni­ty.

The Kenya Kwan­za admin­is­tra­tion, he said, was focused on the com­ple­tion of all stalled road projects in the area to cre­ate a con­ducive envi­ron­ment for busi­ness­es to thrive.

Nyan­za Pro­fes­sion­als Cau­cus Chair­man Japh Olende said the team has devel­oped a cat­a­logue pro­fil­ing top invest­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties and projects for each of the six coun­ties.

The projects, he said, cut across all the sec­tors, includ­ing, health, agri­cul­ture, tourism, min­ing, the blue econ­o­my, water and irri­ga­tion, infra­struc­ture, and infor­ma­tion and com­mu­ni­ca­tion tech­nol­o­gy (ICT).

Olende, who signed a mem­o­ran­dum of under­stand­ing with the Kenya Nation­al Cham­ber of Com­merce and Indus­try (KNCCI) on host­ing the event, urged local investors and the busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty to reg­is­ter for the two-day con­fer­ence in large num­bers to make it a suc­cess.

He said that besides the pan­el dis­cus­sions, there will also be exhi­bi­tions to show­case var­i­ous projects and inno­va­tions.

KNCCI Nation­al Direc­tor Ken Ondi­ti said the Cham­ber will ral­ly its mem­bers to attend the con­fer­ence and active­ly engage in the dis­course.

The con­fer­ence, he said, will be an oppor­tu­ni­ty for the busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty to net­work and take up oppor­tu­ni­ties tar­get­ing a wider mar­ket.

“We have had two invest­ment con­fer­ences, one in Kisumu and anoth­er in Kakamega. How­ev­er, this one is unique because it cap­tures a wider mar­ket with four coun­ties,” he said.