Peter Munaita
11 July 2005
Nairobi — Having invested heavily in the Sudan peace process, it is not surprising that Nairobi is angling to take full advantage of business opportunities in the new Sudan.
Nothing is generating more interest in Nairobi than the discovery of oil in southern Sudan close to the border with Kenya.
For instance, the oilfields at Bentiu town in Sudan are only 100 km from Lokichoggio.
Expectations are that some of the oil could be exported through Mombasa as an alternative route if a pipeline is constructed.
The distance from the oil region of Abyei to Kenya's Eldoret oil pipeline terminal is about 1,000 km, compared with 16,000 km to Port Sudan on the Red Sea. As optimism about lasting peace grows, trade and investment between the two neighbouring countries is bound to increase.
Nairobi is also hoping that the penetration of its products and services into the Sudan market will create a spillover market in Chad, which has also recently become an oil producing country.
Already, Kenya has made certain major decisions as it prepares to take advantage of the opportunities that post-conflict Sudan will offer.
A number of southern Sudanese officials are already on attachment at various public institutions in Kenya, where they are being exposed to various aspects of management of public affairs .
Currently, 19 SPLM officials are training at at the Kenya Institute of Administration and are attached to government offices, including the Central Bank of Kenya and the Attorney General's Chambers.
Early last month, a high powered delegation comprising 41 representatives from both private and public sectors visited Rumbek at the invitation of the SPLM.
During the visit, the delegation appealed to Kenya to assist in several areas, including military training, education and health management.
The SPLM leadership expressed concern about the high levels of taxation of goods entering southern Sudan. They also complained about the harassment of their nationals in Kenya and called for the easing of immigration requirements between the two countries.
At the Oslo donors conference early this year, Kenya pledged $3.5 million.
During the transitional period, Nairobi will be sending administrators to assist in the setting up of administrative institutions.
Under the comprehensive peace agreement, the national government is expected to target the recruitment of qualified southerners to occupy 20-30 per cent of the senior and middle level positions.
Kenya is offering to get the Directorate of Personnel Management and the Public Service Commission to train the staff of the government of the south and to equip them with the skills they need to participate effectively in the government of national unity in Khartoum. Nairobi has also offered to second judiciary staff to the government of southern Sudan to help staff in the area upgrade their skills.
Kenyan companies exposed to the potential for commercial gain in southern Sudan plan forays into the region, opening branches and factories.
East African Portland Cement last week became the latest Kenyan company in line for a reconstruction dividend by signing an agreement for the supply of cement to the region with a plant envisaged at Rumbek, the southern capital.
EAPC is taking the cue from regional players like the Kenya Commercial Bank, which also plans to open a branch at Rumbek and CMC Motors, which plans a longhaul truck dealership at Rumbek to meet the region's increasing trade needs.
Public and private institutions in Kenya are urging the business community to turn north, with the Kenya Bureau of Standards (Kebs) having signed a protocol with its Sudanese counterpart to harmonise the quality of products meant for trade between the two countries.
The Kenya Association of Manufacturers is urging business leaders in the Sudan to source their requirements from Kenya.
Trade between Kenya and Sudan has largely been tilted in favour of the former, which in 2003 exported goods worth Ksh4.4 billion ($57.1 million) and took in products valued at Ksh566 million ($7.3 million), according to the Statistical Abstract 2004, a Central Bureau of Statistics publication.
The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), in a report published last week, highlighted reconstruction of the physical infrastructure and poverty alleviation as the key challenge facing Africa's largest country, a task that will require $8 billion in three years.
Another $2 billion is needed annually for the strife-torn Darfur region, while the UN requires another $1 billion each year in humanitarian and social replacement support in marginalised areas worst hit by the 21-year-old war.
The World Bank country director for Sudan, Ushac Diwan, said the Sudan government would raise $5 billion for the effort from selling its 320,000 barrels per day oil output, leaving the international community to raise the rest for funding schools, hospitals, fresh water systems and resettling refugees expected back in the south.
Although $4.5 billion was raised for Sudan at a summit in Oslo, Norway, last April, a lot hinges on containing the crisis in Darfur.
The US, which pledged $1.7 billion, said its contribution would be unlocked by the government's ending hostilities in the western Sudan region, that have claimed about 100,000 lives.
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