Kenya eyes trade surplus by 2022 in export drive
Sunday August 05 2018
Textile workers in Athi River EPZ, one of the main Agoa beneficiaries in Kenya. PHOTO | ANTHONY KAMAU | NATION
For a long time, the story of international trade in Kenya has been that of just a few key commodities — mainly raw agricultural products — exported to a handful of destinations, against tonnes of imports entering the country’s borders from across the world.
The result has been a widening trade deficit that stood at $11 billion in 2017, 33 per cent higher than in 2016.
Imports rose by 20.49 per cent to $17.5 billion, while exports expanded by a meagre 2.78 per cent to $5.94 billion.
Now the government unveiled a raft of export development and promotion initiatives that it hopes will deliver rapid annual growth in exports and a trade surplus of more than $3 million in the next four years.
“The performance of our exports has not been encouraging. In 2017, five categories of products accounted for 56 percent of all our exports and just 13 countries bought 70 per cent of all that we had to offer,” Deputy President William Ruto said during the launch of the export strategies.
"We need a solid plan to penetrate the export markets and expand our foreign trade footprint.”
Through the second Kenya National Africa Growth & Opportunity Act (Agoa) 2018-2023 Strategy, Kenya aims to expand exports to the US by 10.4 per cent annually — from $551.5 million in 2016 to $1.1 billion by 2023.
“While the apparel sector is considered the leader, we must also improve the performance of sectors such as personal accessories and processed foods that have high export potential in order to achieve our targets,” said the Cabinet Secretary in the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Co-operatives, Peter Munya.
According to the Ministry, the Agoa strategy will support the National Exports Development & Promotion Strategy target of growing exports by an average of 25 per cent per year between 2018 and 2022.
“The sectors selected — manufacturing, fisheries, livestock trade in services, agriculture, emerging sectors such as oil and gas can raise production and quality and create if well planned,” said Mr Ruto.