Uhuru Kenyatta's Administration says it's committed to supporting Kenya's Private sector

President Uhuru Kenyatta has assured of his Government’s commitment to supporting private sector growth in the country.

Emphasizing the need to create and sustain conditions that are conducive to private sector development, President Kenyatta said the Government is improving the policy framework for the private sector which is central to the Jubilee manifesto.

“Our manifesto and Kenya’s Vision 2030 identifies a number of elaborate policy interventions aimed at enabling, guaranteeing and funding the economy,” President Kenyatta said.

The President was speaking today when he addressed the African Trade Insurance (ATI) Agency’s 13th Annual General Meeting at a Nairobi hotel.

He acknowledged ATI’s support during Kenya’s election, saying the agency provided financial security to key sectors of the economy and ensured that several businesses continued to operate.

The President also noted that Kenya is a major beneficiary of ATI’s activities with cumulative investments of more than 2 billion US dollars in diverse sectors including road, port infrastructure, agribusiness,
power sector and the banking sector.

“ATI has thus made significant contribution to Kenya’s economy and I believe this is true of all ATI’s member countries,” the President said.

Apart from increased trade and investment activities in African economies, President Kenyatta said ATI has also helped to increase capacity and innovation in the insurance and financial sectors, and contributed to the
growth and competitiveness of the continent’s exports.

The Head of State, however, said there was still need to work towards reducing the continent’s vulnerability to external shocks, especially volatility in the Euro zone - a region which provides a large market for many African exports including Kenya.

Said the President: “The European Union for instance accounts for 26 per cent of Kenya’s total exports.”

President Kenyatta also urged African countries to remove structural impediments that stand in the way of businesses as well as lower the administrative barriers that impede trade and investments.

Despite the difficult global conditions, the President noted, Africa has maintained its economic resilience and its output is now growing at a faster pace than any other region in the world today.

He pointed out that regional output is set to rise in 2013 with overall economic growth projected to increase at an average of 5.6 per cent.

“Factors that influence this growth include high public investment spending, strong commodity export prices, new resource exploitation, and increasingly diversified trade with growing emerging economies such as China, Brazil and India,” the President said.

Noting that Kenyans have just come out of a complex election process in which they managed to navigate their way without major disruptions to the economy, the President said that is solid evidence that the continent is
coming of age and the democratic culture is taking root.

In addition to the efforts made by individual governments to remove institutional bottlenecks to business and the democratic change sweeping across the continent, the President called for common regional approaches in increasing Africa’s contribution to the global economy.

Given the small sizes of many of Africa’s economies, the President said regional co-operation will help the continent to exploit the synergies that exist and speed up integration so that African countries can be key players in the globalized economy.

In this regard, the President observed that the creation of ATI by African governments is part of the regional approach to development.

He added that the establishment of ATI came out of a need to address the negative perception of Africa.

“For too long our continent had been perceived as a region where unstable political leadership and governance problems were posing unacceptable risks to foreign businesses,” the President said.

The Head of State said by creating a credible mechanism in which governments were agreeing to take responsibility for losses caused by political risks, member countries were committing themselves to being the
ultimate risk takers.

Notwithstanding the gains in democratic governance in Africa, President Kenyatta said African countries have a responsibility to enhance business confidence for both domestic and foreign investments.

He observed that the ultimate objective of ATI is to facilitate Africa’s economic development through the provision of investment and trade credit insurance.

The President added that ATI’s goal is also to facilitate bank lending for trade and investments, assisting exporters to reduce the cost of trade finance and improving terms under which financing is made available by
banks, and the diversification of the exports of member countries.

In this regard, President Kenyatta expressed satisfaction that ATI has continued to achieve major milestones towards the fulfillment of its objectives.

“The agency has facilitated the flow of investments and financing to support productive activities for contracts in excess of US$ 7 billion.
These are investments and trade flows which would not have taken place without ATI’s support,” President Kenyatta said.

He urged African countries that have expressed interest in joining the Agency to hasten their internal processes so as to enable ATI extend its services to businesses in those countries.

The President noted that the expanded membership has the added advantage of speeding up the economic integration of Africa and enhancing the region’s ability to compete effectively in the global marketplace.

“I wish to congratulate the new countries which have joined the Agency and those which are in the process of joining.  These include Benin, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone and Ghana,” the President said.

Speaking during the occasion, the ATI Chief Executive Mr. George Otieno said his agency is diversifying its investment portfolio in order to ensure that its services remain competitive not only among the member
states but the continent.

Mr. Otieno pointed out that ATI is further seeking innovative ways of
collaborating with other key players in the member states and globally to
deliver on its mandate.

On her part, Tanzania’s Finance Deputy Minister Janeth Mbene who is the
acting Chairperson of the AGM, rooted for more African countries to join
ATI in order to enhance its capital investment base.

Mrs. Mbene noted that ATI, the African premier insurer’s rating should be
based on the number of ordinary Africans benefitting rather than the
number of transactions.

Other speakers included the Sierra Leone Consul-General Mr. Abdul Ko
Kargbo who read a goodwill message from his country’s President Dr. Ernest
Bai Koroma, ATI Chairman Mr. Israel Kamuzora and African Development Bank,
Regional Director Mr. Gabriel Negatu.