Nairobi, September 24, 2015 – TradeMark Africa (TMA) has today entered the second phase of its partnership with The Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM), to create a better business environment for manufacturers and to enhance the sector’s competitiveness in the region.The signing ceremony was presided over by TMA Kenya Country Director Dr. Chris Kiptoo and the KAM CEO, Ms. Phyllis Wakiaga at TMA’s headquarters in Nairobi.

This partnership aims to support KAM’s policy advocacy and engagement with relevant authorities, in a bid to address the challenges identified in the first phase. The two organizations are particularly looking into implementing advocacy campaigns especially related to Non-Tariff Barriers, Trade in Counterfeits, Anomalies in the CET and access to trade and Market Information. The first phase of project focused on building an evidence base for advocacy in the key priority areas identified by the private sector which include Tax Reforms in Kenya, Cost of Quality Compliance, Domestic non-tariff barriers affecting industry in Kenya, Constitutional issues affecting business, Overlapping Regulatory roles and the Severity of Counterfeits.
Speaking at the ceremony, Ms. Phyllis Wakiaga, noted that TMA’s keenness to support KAM has carved out a productive space for advocacy and engagement with the necessary sections of the government.
“We are pleased to be entering into the second part of this partnership with TMA. I cannot place more emphasis on the need for intervention in the sectors main challenges and impediments to ensuring a successful business environment. The manufacturing sector estimated to employ an average of 13% of the labour force in the formal sector according to the economic survey 2013. We would like to improve this percentage and we can only do so if there’s effort in ensuring the sector’s contribution to Kenya’s economic growth is awarded with better policies.” Echoing these sentiments Dr. Chris Kiptoo spoke of TMA’s role in growing the manufacturing sector;
“Manufacturing activities have recorded a drop in sector growth from 3.4% in 2011 to 3.1% in 2012 due to high costs of production, competition from imported goods, high cost of credit, high cost of doing business related to the impact of non-tariff barriers, compliance to standards and access to information. As a key driver for the enhancement of trade and business environments in the region, TradeMark Africa is keen to see through the second part of this partnership which promises to open up more channels to engage policy-makers and more importantly to find solutions to the hindrances of the sector’s growth.”
KAM Manufacturing Priority Agenda 2014 identified trade hindrances in unfriendly tax regimes and proliferation of counterfeit goods as some of the areas that contribute to the increased cost of doing business and lead to reduction of regional trade.

Source: TradeMark Africa (TMA)

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of TradeMark Africa.