Three events held in Kenya in the past week went on largely unnoticed despite their importance to the economy. The first was the Afro-Asia Fintech Festival, which was followed by the launch of the country’s export development strategy. The last was Kenya hosting the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) high-level technical meeting on infrastructure.

The overarching theme for the three was facilitating trade regionally and globally through both digital and physical infrastructure. This would in turn help countries narrow the trade deficits confronting them, moving jobs abroad, weakening currencies and making imports more expensive. This is where the Integrated National Export Development and Promotion strategy comes in.

A look at trade data reveals that Kenya imports Sh1 trillion more than it exports. A host of factors have contributed to this, including lack of an integrated policy to drive Kenya’s ability to produce goods for export. In many areas, the strategy strikes the right chord — focusing on manufacturing, agriculture, livestock, fisheries, oil and gas, and handicrafts.

It is therefore almost a throwback to the import substitution policies of the sixties and seventies which came unstuck courtesy of government policies that made import goods cheaper than producing them locally.

Putting digital infrastructure at the centre of delivery of the plan presents an opportunity to boost Kenyan exports. The  focus on value addition rather than wholesale reinvention also presents an opportunity for enhancing exploitation of local resources.

More needs to be done, however, to grow the contribution of exports to the economy threefold – from eight per cent to 22 per cent of the gross national product.

Source: Daily Nation

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.