A policy to encourage Kenyans to buy locally produced goods will be put in place by the end of 2015, a government official said on Wednesday.
Industrialization Secretary at Ministry of Industrialization and Enterprise Development Julius Korir told Xinhua in Nairobi that the draft “Buy Kenya policy” has already been finalized.
“It will soon be presented for Cabinet approval and thereafter tabled in parliament so that it becomes law by the end of the year, ” Korir said on the sidelines of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) High Level Capacity Building Workshop.
“This will ensure that we expand local manufacturing industries by creating demand for their products,” he said.
Korir noted that Kenya is currently facing an influx of imported goods as local manufacturers are less competitive.
“We are therefore implementing a raft of measures to ensure that Kenya becomes a low cost manufacturer,” he said.
Korir said that when the policy is in place, public procurement bodies will be required to give preference to local producers. Currently, the government is the biggest consumer of Kenyan goods.
“Studies have indicated that purchasing from local manufacturers will create a huge multiplier effect in the economy, ” he stated.
The policy together with other interventions are expected to expand the contribution of the manufacturing sector to the GDP from the current 10 percent to 20 percent in the next five years.
Korir said the pharmaceutical, leather, agro-processing and construction industries have been identified as the key sectors in the manufacturing industry. Enditem
Source: Xinhua
