Kenya sees expansion after US House Agoa renewal nod

Investments, Trade, and Industry Cabinet Secretary Lee Kinyanjui said that the decision renews certainty in the EPZ sector.

“The uncertainty that had engulfed the sector will now give way to renewed confidence and expansion. We aim to grow exports of additional products under the Agoa framework beyond textiles, ensuring that Kenya fully leverages this opportunity to create jobs and generate wealth,” the CS said.

In Kenya, the textile and apparel industries operating within the EPZs employ over 80,000 people directly and an additional 250,000 indirectly.

The Agoa pact allows the entry of more than 6,000 products, such as food and beverages, wood, plastics, and rubber, to the US market from sub-Saharan Africa. But Kenya has largely tapped the apparel line, alongside small quantities of macadamia nuts.

Agoa extension would offer relief to Kenyan exporters who have been relying on the pact for more than two decades, building an industry that exported Sh60.5 billion goods in 2024 alone.

Read: Exporters eye Trump tariff relief with Agoa renewal deal

Over the past five years, firms exported 518.3 million pieces of textiles and apparel to the US under Agoa, with the number of companies operating under the framework increasing from 28 in 2020 to 40 in 2024.

Players, including manufacturers who have benefitted from the programme and the government, have been lobbying for its extension since early last year, with delegations dispatched to the US in recent months.

The manufacturers said that shipments to the US had been slapped with full duties ranging from 15 to 42 percent since the lapse of Agoa last September.

“Currently, manufacturers are paying a full duty range of 15 to 42 percent, plus a 10 percent reciprocal tariff. This is a high cost that would be waived through the negotiated agreement or Agoa extension,” Tobias Alando, the chief executive officer of the Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM) told Business Daily in an earlier interview.

The Kenya Private Sector Alliance indicated that the extension of Agoa provides an opportunity to grow apparel exports from nearly $600 million (about Sh77.40 billion) to $2 billion (Sh258 billion), potentially creating 200,000 new jobs through backward integration in textiles, yarn, and cotton.