The members of the Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs) and the Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM) have welcomed the proposed export and investment promotion levy that the government is planning to introduce to support the country’s export and investment promotion initiatives.
Industries Secretary for Agro Industries under the Ministry of Investment Trade and Industry, Mr. Nobby Macharia said the government intends to protect the manufacturers from unfair trade practices through increasing levies, to increase competitiveness in Kenya’s manufacturing sector.
Mr Macharia made the remarks during a public participation forum on the proposed export investment and promotion levy at the Eldoret National Polytechnic (TENP).
“We realized that some of these products that come through are some of which we can do in this country and therefore we are proposing that we can add a levy on that so that we can increase the competitiveness of the locally manufactured products,” he said.
He noted that is the only way the country can create more jobs for the youth who are entering the job market every year from universities, colleges and polytechnics and even from secondary schools.
On his part the Micro and Small Enterprise Authority MSEA North Rift Coordinator CPA Alton Kogo confirmed that the MSEs members from the region fully support the bill noting that it will boost the sector in terms of competitiveness which will in turn create more employment opportunities for many Kenyans.
“Once this bill is passed, we see an opportunity for our MSEs as you are aware that the sector employs over 90 per cent of Kenyans. There is nothing which Kenya doesn’t have capacity to produce, if we restrict imports from other countries, especially for final products which our local MSEs can produce. This will see growth in our economy, a lot of employment opportunities being created and our competitive advantage will be really growing,” said Kogo.
He pointed out that the government’s move will serve to protect the local manufacturers who are discouraged from producing own goods due to high cost of production unlike in other countries. There are some of the products like those we import from China which our MSEs have potential to produce locally, if we impose taxes on those products from other countries our MSEs will have a lot of advantage,” he said.
Kogo indicated a need to support the MSEs to produce local goods to reduce consumption of sub-standard products dumped in the local market that bring unfair competition to the local products.
The Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM) North Rift Chairperson William Ong’are also lauded the government’s initiative and called for reduction of tax on the locally produced products to promote the growth of local manufacturing industries.
The KAM North Rift Chair urged the government to come up with proper measures that will help reduce the cost of production for local manufactures to enable them produce at a cheaper cost and hence increase exports in the country.
“One of our considerations on the growth of exports in Kenya, is that we deliberate policy to support export competitiveness. We propose the reintroduction of the Export Promotion Programmes Office (EPPO) that was being implemented in the early 2000 and was successful in transformation of Kenya’s export. It is also important to administer the proposed levy simultaneously with the export promotion programme to achieve the desired objective for exports in the country,” he added.
By Ekuwam Sylvester
