East African Business Week

Kenya Investment Authority (KenInvest) is the institution charged with promoting investments in Kenya both locally and to the world.
The core functions of KenInvest include; policy advocacy, investment promotion, investment facilitation, investor tracking and after care services.   The body is targeting to yield Kenya a staggering Ksh 571 b (US$46.2b) in investments in two years.
 Susan Kikwai the managing director of KenInvest spoke to EABW's Brian Ngugi. Excerpts below:
 
Q. What is the level of investment in the country?
Ans. We expect to bring in Ksh 571b (US$ 46.2b) by the year 2012-2013. That is our strategic plan. That means that at about Ksh 190 b (US$ 2.3b) per year.
This year we are expected to bring in the country Ksh 100 b(US$ 1.24b). Our ability to market is hinged upon the resources we get. Last year we brought in Ksh 156b (US$ 1.93b). In 2009, we brought in Ksh 164b (US$ 2.03b).

Q. Which areas attracted most investment?
 A: In the last quarter 60% of investments went into into the construction industry. Over 65%  enquiries were in the services sector which includes Information Technology, Banking, Tourism, Consultancy among others. We are seeing a trend of investors from China , India and South Africa . We also see quite a bit coming in in Agro-processing and Tourism. But of late the building and construction sector is of very high interest .

 Q. Rwanda has in the scope of the East African region been hailed as very investment friendly, what are they doing that we can borrow from them?
A. In that World Bank survey, doing business indicators were measured against certain parameters like starting a business and that's where Rwanda came top in Africa . In starting a business Rwanda is able to register for instance in two days. Our Act says we have 21 days, we could do it within a week but it all depends on the ability to register your business on Sheria House very fast. What Rwanda has done is make that process very short which makes investors very happy. Kenya is however also ranked highly in other areas.

Q. What are some of the conditions that investors deem unfriendly?
 A. I think the new constitution is now giving us a chance to retune all the challenging trade and investment policies in the country. We have serious conflict with certain laws. For instance our investment laws conflict with those of the National Environmental Management Authority, (NEMA) and the Immigration ministries. These are some of the laws that need to be harmonized. The high cost of energy and transport has also proved a challenge to many.

 Q. Are you engaging relevant authorities towards changing those laws?
A. Yes, through policy advocacy. Through the Prime minister's round table we have brought up a lot of issues raised by the private sector. We also have our investor round table tables which we hold in different parts of the country. We merge all those views and proposals and forward them to the Treasury.

 Q. Counties are shaping up to be the new centres of development as per devolution model of the new Constitution, what are you doing in line with this?
 A. We started our work on a regional basis in 2004 in collaboration with the European Union on how people can promote their own villages.
We already have forums in Kitui, Makueni and Central. We have worked with Coast, Central and Western provinces and we will in future be linking our business development services to each of the 210 counties in the country.

 Q. What is the way forward on that note in line with improving Kenya 's investment climate?
 A. We want to have a one stop shop that has an approving role. Right now what we have is a facilitatory one stop shop and that means we usually go to the different departments to get approvals, but what we want is to have the departments domiciled here and investors can come and get everything under one roof. This includes even paying for certain charges that Government may have.