The 3^rd Kenya International Investment Conference (KIICO2023) came to a close on 31^st May 2023 with deliberations focusing on women in trade and investment as well as discussions on counties as new frontiers of investment. KEPSA was led by the Chairperson, Ms Flora Mutahi, who joined other key speakers on the final day of the international event that sought to deliberate on strategies for unlocking Africa's potential in investments and trade.

During the event, Kenya Investment Authority (KenInvest) launched Wekeza Dada, an initiative aimed at promoting women in trade and investment. The initiative will target scalable innovative women-led enterprises and provide them with necessary growth support through capacity building, access to funding, product development support, market expansion assistance, mentorship and networking, financial education and investment training, access to resources and a supportive ecosystem. 

In a session on the Role of Digitization in Enhancing Women’s Participation in Trade and Investment, the KEPSA Chairperson highlighted that KEPSA has equally been a champion of empowering women in business to encompass full automation in a new model adopted by the organization by providing training, networking opportunities, financial linkages, access to markets and value chains and mentorships & coaching opportunities. She further highlighted the Ajira Digital Program which linked 921,000 women to digital and digitally-enabled jobs and over 8000 youth and women-led businesses that were part of the KEPSA’s MSME Recovery and Resilience Program that provided interest-free loans as well as training and capacity building to the beneficiaries.

“Despite the many efforts put in place by both the public and private sectors in enacting policies and awareness creation, digitization has been of great significance in establishing gender parity in the ease of doing business space. Through digitization, women are able to trade efficiently, create employment opportunities, reduce cases of monetary fraud, and overcome the stereotypic notion that exists of the need for a mandatory male accompaniment to acquire necessary resources such as rental space,” Said Ms Mutahi.

Speakers in the session emphasised the need to uptake digital initiatives as women-led businesses and the need for both the private and the public sectors to come up with innovative ways that will promote SME inclusion in the country. Other speakers included Hon. Abubakar Hassan, Principal Secretary of the State Department for Investment Promotion; Ms Veronica Nduva, Principal Secretary, State Department for Gender and Affirmative Action; Ms. Susan Auma Mang’eni, Principal Secretary, Micro Small and Medium Enterprises; Ms. Harriet Chiggai, Women Rights Agency Advisor, Office of the President.

The session also featured a panel discussion with Ms. Maryanne Akoth, Director for Programs, Institute for Small Business Initiatives; Ms. Beth Muthui, Director Consumer Banking, SBM Bank; Dr. Dinah Mwinzi, Vice Chancellor, KAG EAST University; Ms. Angela Kariuki, Founder & CEO, Angie’s Closet; Ms. Ciiru Waweru, Founder and CEO, FunKidz Ltd; and Dr. Ify Ogo, Regional Program Specialist, UNDP.

Speaking on behalf of the Council of Governors, the Governor of Nandi County H.E Stephen Sang emphasized the need to create awareness of the potential of county investment plans, create industry-specific targets and promote inter and intra-county collaborations. He also reiterated the commitment of the county governments to promote trade and investment by working closely with the private sector. “The Council of Governors has developed Maarifa Centre to promote cross-pollination of ideas and adoption of best practices and innovations with a goal of sharing Kenya’s devolution success solutions,” said Governor Sang who is also the Whip at the Council of Governors.

In his closing remarks, Cabinet Secretary for Co-operatives and MSME Development Hon. Simon Chelugui noted the work the Government was doing towards promoting and growing supply value chains to international standards by also improving packaging, production and raising the standards of products in preparation to venture into the African market. He also pointed out the issue of reviewing interest rates and finance arrangements, collateral which is a big issue for many businesses, especially the MSMEs. “There is a need to look into other ways and products to fund and finance our businesses, with ways like growing credit scoring,” he said, adding that digitalizing businesses will boost connectivity across Africa. He also reiterated the importance of adopting a unified payment system in Africa to ease business transactions.