President Uhuru Kenyatta on Monday witnessed the signing of a private sector agreement that seeks to expand trade and investment between Kenya and the United States.

The agreement, signed between the Kenya Private Sector Alliance and the Corporate Council on Africa (CCA), provides a framework for Kenyan and American businesses, especially the small and medium enterprises to partner through information sharing, training, logistics and financing.

Established in 1993, CCA is the largest umbrella body of American companies operating in Africa with the objective of promoting trade and investments between the US and Africa.

Speaking at the signing ceremony in New York on the first day of his two-day visit to the US, the President said the pact was part of efforts to support the growth of Kenyan SME sector as a key enabler of wealth and employment creation.

Jua Kali

He noted that the agreement will create new opportunities for Kenyan SMEs saying the sector plays a key role of guaranteeing the country’s economic resilience especially in times of turbulence.

“Kenya is a country that people always wonder where the resilience of our economy comes from.

A country where despite a myriad of shocks, occasioned over the years, always prove to be very resilient.

“That resilience comes from our small and medium enterprises. It comes from what you refer to as the informal sector, what many in Kenya refer to as the Jua Kali,” the President said.

He noted that both Kenyan and US economies are largely driven by SMEs saying the agreement would help accelerate Kenya’s economic recovery efforts from effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“As we look into the future, the future where we are all focused on recovering, it will be this sector that will be the foundation of recovery that we all seek to see in the months and years ahead of us,” the President said.

Uhuru thanked CCA for its commitment to the strengthening of African-American economic ties saying the improving trade and investment relations between the US and Kenya was largely due to the organisation’s good work.

The President assured of his administration’s support in the implementation of the trade pact.

At the same time, Uhuru challenged the American government to be a reliable and predictable trading partner for the initiative to succeed.

“Reliability and predictability in a partner is something that is critical. To our American friends, I would like to say you cannot start and stop a discussion with partners on the basis of one administration after another. Relationships are between countries and people not between administrations.

“There is need to understand that if we really want to establish a base to be respected and to be known as a reliable partner, you cannot stop and start every five years.

People don’t know about Democrats and Republicans, they know and understand the United States of America,” he said.

Kepsa Chief Executive Carole Kariuki said her organisation’s focus was to ensure Kenyan small enterprises tap into and benefit from the American market by leveraging on the networks and expertise provided by the trade and investment pact.

Focus on SMEs

“Our focus is to scale up the SMEs so that we really can move into development. We want to connect them with the stores in the US and help them access the market.

Many of the SMEs do not know how to access AGOA (African Growth and Opportunity Act)-the training, the logistics, the financing and that is what we want to do,” said Kariuki.

CCA chief executive Florie Liser commended the President for creating a conducive business environment for local and foreign investments to thrive by championing progressive policies and setting up enabling infrastructure.

Uhuru was accompanied to the meeting by the Leader of Majority in the National Assembly Amos Kimunya, Cabinet Secretaries Betty Maina (Industrialisation) and Raychelle Omamo (Foreign Affairs).

Earlier, the President held talks with the United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guteress at the UN headquarters.

The two discussed several subjects of global importance, among them the security and humanitarian crises in Haiti and Ethiopia’s Tigray region and preparations for the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland.