The Millennium Cities Initiative investors' guide
The Millennium Cities Initiative (MCI), a project of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, has recently released an investor’s guide that highlights opportunities in Kenya, including aquafeed and aquaculture.
The Millennium Cities Initiative (MCI) is assisting selected mid-sized cities across sub-Saharan Africa in their efforts to achieve the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which aim to reduce global poverty.
"Invest in Kenya: Focus Kisumu", highlights investment opportunities in Kisumu, the third largest city and one of Kenya’s economic centers, located on Lake Victoria.
Kisumu has high potential for aquaculture, agro-processing, dairy. The principal investment opportunities in Kisumu are found in the rich agriculture areas with good potential for growing sugar cane, cotton, groundnuts, rice and horticultural crops.
Fish processing and fish farming is yet to be exploited fully. Aquaculture has both domestic and foreign markets for its products, in particular for tilapia and Nile perch.
The external conditions for Kenya have changed remarkably, with the EAC re-emerging in 2000 and moving towards both economic and political integration. A number of regional and international trade agreements have enhanced Kenya’s access to foreign markets. Overseas, Kenya was one of the first countries to qualify under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) of the United States. It is also a member of the ACP agreement with the European Union and is eligible for GSP preferences, which give it preferential access not only to the EU market but also to other rich markets such as Japan.
While the country’s investment climate is not without its challenges, it is being steadily improved. For example, the licensing system is being simplified. Against these challenges, however, one needs to put the attractions of Kisumu: its strategic location, its safety, its climate and its workforce. Kisumu is thus poised to regain its former status as a hub in the Victoria Lake region. That is also manifested by the recent relocation to Kisumu of the Secretariat of the EAC’s Lake Victoria Basin Commission. Any investor interested in Africa needs at least to consider this lakeside city in the heart of East Africa.
To learn more about opportunities in Kenya, please visit the Millennium Cities Initiative website at http://www.earth.columbia.edu/mci/ or the Columbia Program on International Investment at http://www.cpii.columbia.edu/ to download the entire guide absolutely free of charge.
Invest in Kenya: Focus Kisumu was produced by the Millennium Cities Initiative (MCI) with the support of the Kenyan Ministry of Planning and National Development of Kenya, the Government of Finland, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO). The Corporate Council on Africa (CCA) and the European Business Council for Africa and the Mediterranean (EBCAM) have lent their support to this effort.
The MCI is a project of the Earth Institute at Columbia University and is assisting selected mid-sized cities across sub-Saharan Africa in their efforts to achieve the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which aims to reduce global poverty. By concentrating on research and policy analysis impacting foreign direct investment (FDI), the MCI aims to engender a climate in which foreign investment can thrive, thereby creating employment, stimulating domestic enterprise development and fostering economic growth. This work is being complemented by identifying commercially viable investment opportunities in the cities.
