Top global investors eye deals ahead of city summit
Administration police officers on patrol along Harambee Avenue on July 12, 2015. Security in the city has been beefed up ahead of US President Barack Obama’s visit to Kenya to attend the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in a fortnight. PHOTO | BILLY MUTAI
What you need to know:
The Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Nairobi is expected to attract over 1,500 investors from across the world.
Globally acclaimed investors have arrived in Kenya for deals ahead of the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Nairobi to be graced by US President Barack Obama from July 24 to 26.
They include Richard Branson of Virgin Atlantic, Jacqueline Novogratz (founder and CEO, Acumen), Chris Anderson (curator, TED Conference), Dipender Saluja (Capricorn Investments) and Steve Jurvetson (Draper Fisher Jurvetson).
Others are Jean Oelwang (CEO, Virgin Unite), Zia Khan of the Rockefeller Foundation and Strive Masiyiwa, founder and chair of Econet Wireless.
The global business leaders met President Uhuru Kenyatta at State House in Nairobi on Saturday.
“They have expressed interest in investing in green energy, one of the fastest growing energy sub-sectors in Africa,” State House spokesperson Manoah Esipisu said at a Press briefing on Sunday.
The summit, the first in sub-Saharan Africa, is expected to attract over 1,500 investors from across the world. The investors, said Mr Esipisu, had proposed billions of dollars in investments, underlining the level of confidence in East Africa’s largest economy.
“That proposed investment will principally benefit those Kenyans who have not yet been connected to the grid. In doing so, it will have a direct, measurable effect on jobs, on further investment,” said Mr Esipisu.
Kenya has tapped into renewable energy sources such as geothermal wells and wind farms on top of its traditional hydro-electric power in a bid to expand its installed capacity for growth.
The government plans to double the number of households connected to the grid to 70 per cent by 2017 through the last mile connectivity project that has more than halved connection fee to Sh15,000.
Kenya is also among the six beneficiary nations of US-led $7 billion (Sh700 billion) Power Africa project that President Obama announced in 2013 to finance additional electricity generation and hook more households to the grid.
Mr Esipisu asked local firms to partner with the global businesses for skills transfer and growth.
“Local enterprises, from our largest to our very smallest, would do well to carefully follow the interest expressed by these investors,” he said. President Kenyatta is also expected to host the Prime Minister of Italy Matteo Renzi this week.
The owners of leading UK’s newspapers – the Independent and the Evening Standard – are also expected to visit Kenya this week, according to State House.
Kenya last month hosted the region’s first business delegation from France accompanied by France’s Minister for foreign trade Matthias Fekl.
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