Economy

Construction projects set to create most jobs in 2015

rail

A ballast leveller works on a railway line near Mariakani, Mombasa. Kenya is building a modern high speed, high capacity standard gauge railway for passengers and freight within the Northern Corridor. PHOTO | FILE

The multi-billion-shilling projects lined up for 2015 are set to make the construction sector the leading creator of formal jobs in Kenya.

For a long time, the agriculture, retail and manufacturing sectors have been the biggest generators of jobs. But the construction sector is set to change this formation as Kenya launches large-scale infrastructure projects, including building a new airport adjacent to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, construction of a 10,000-kilometre road network and the building of the 609 kilometres of railway from Mombasa to Nairobi.

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The first phase of constructing the Konza tech city also promises to create at least 17,000 direct jobs next year. Policy makers reckon that about 200,000 new jobs will be created by the four mega projects over the next four years—a huge figure considering that in 2013 the sector generated 14,000 new jobs.

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Kenya has embarked on major infrastructure projects to make up for decades of under-investment that stunted economic growth and cement its status as a regional commercial hub.

The Transport and Infrastructure ministry reckons the ambitious road plan will create demand for engineers, surveyors, technicians, machine operators and labourers. This will ease the biting unemployment among Kenya’s growing population. The construction of the first phase stretching 2,000 kilometres will start next year.

A new financing model dubbed annuity concessions has been crafted to accelerate construction and will see contractors design, build, finance, operate and maintain the roads for some time, with the Treasury acting as a guarantor for their bank loans.

“We expect about 137,000 jobs to be created directly by the annuity programme during the construction,” said Kenya Rural Roads Authority’s director-general Mwangi Maingi in an interview.

The first phase of the roads upgrade in this fiscal year will create 29,000 jobs. The jobs will increase in the subsequent phases with 43,750 workers earmarked for a 3,000 kilometre stretch in the 2015/16 fiscal year and another 64,250 employees to build the remaining 5,000 kilometres by 2017.

Equipment like earth-movers, excavators, rollers and concrete equipment will be in high demand, watering the market for dealers in these products.

New demand will also be created with the construction of the Sh327 billion new railway line linking Mombasa to Nairobi that is targeted to employ about 30,000 local workers. Their recruitment started in October.

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