By john oyuke
Kenya is on a search for an investor in steel plant in an effort to enter the global steelmaking industry. A team of Kenyan experts has already visited Pohang Iron and Steel Company of South Korea, the world’s second-largest steel maker by market value and Asia’s most profitable steelmaker.
According to Industrialisation permanent secretary, Karanja Kibicho, the ministry is seeking to secure collaboration in three main areas that include, manufacturing of spare parts, setting up of a mini steel mill and larger integrated steel mills.
Last year, the ministry chaired a cross-ministerial taskforce that devised a plan to develop a steel industry in the country within the Vision 2030 framework, following a Presidential directive.
It is estimated that the country spends more than Sh60 billion every year in the importation of iron and steel, considered the driving force behind all industrial development in modern day economies.
Kibicho made the disclosure during a meeting organised to discuss efforts being made to help drive transformation of the country into a newly industrialising, middle income country providing high quality life for all the citizens by the year 2030.
Participants at the strategy meeting in Nairobi last week were however told that the country faces major obstacles in attracting investments in the technology and energy-dependent fields.
Mugo Kibati, the Director General of Vision 2030, called for more investment in energy sector, cautioning nobody would come to invest in a steel plant unless he is sure of cost and supply of power.
"Nobody will come to establish a steel plant in Kenya if they are not sure of cost and quality of power," he told the forum on "training and skills requirement for Kenya’s Industrial sector."
Grand dream
He identified the challenges facing the power sub-sector as a weak power transmission and distribution infrastructure and high cost of power. In the country’s Vision 2030, energy is one of the six enabling sectors, which must be developed for the grand dream to be realised.
Presenting a paper titled "Strategy for Engineering Capacity Building in Kenya," Kibicho called for increase in the level of "technical" ingenuity to propel industrialisation in the country. He disclosed that the country is facing a serious shortage of engineers who can tackle the industry’s most pressing problems.
"If you crunch all the numbers," said Kibicho, Kenya has 6,000 qualified engineers against the 30,000 needed to facilitate rapid economic development and realization of the Vision 2030 blueprint.
"Without qualified engineers being in charge of various sectors of the economy, sound infrastructure can’t be in place," he said. He said in about 19 years, Kenya hopes to join the club of the industrialising nations like South Korea and South Africa via Vision 2030.
To achieve Vision 2030, goal, he reiterated, engineering experts would be needed to design and build reliable superhighways.
