Government bets on Agoa deal to grow women’s trade

Kenya will diversify its export profile to the US to help women entrepreneurs access the American market following the 10-year AGOA renewal.

According to Industrialisation Cabinet Secretary Adan Mohamed, Kenya is keen to benefit beyond the textiles market and will prioritise products it has comparative advantages in producing.

"Kenya exports less than 10 of the 6,300 products allowed into the US market. The minimal non-oil Agoa trade gains for the last decade provide an opportunity to exploit the pact further for the benefit of our entrepreneurs," said Mohamed.

He said Kenya is targeting Sh100 billion ($1 billion) in export earnings in the next two years and Sh1 trillion ($10 billion) by the time the renewal expires.

He was speaking at the African Women Empowerment Program (AWEP) Summit organised to educate women business leaders on the available opportunities through AGOA, including the new products that could be exported and the requirements.

The Cabinet Secretary said Kenya is committed to make policy amends including in reducing the cost of doing business, mitigation of non-tariff barriers and development of value chains, key to seizing the particular opportunities.

He said Kenya will push for value addition of its products to deliver greater financial returns and support economic growth more strongly.

"In the immediate term, we would like to focus on the products we produce in abundance like skins and hides to produce shoes for the US market under quota-free and tax-free access to the multi-billion dollar footwear market," he added.

He added: "Kenya has plans to move into processing skins and hides into finished leather, which would yield four times the value potential yielding Sh15 billion ($150 million) to Sh20 billion ($200 million) in GDP terms and 35,000 jobs."