Mwaniki Wahome
9 May 2008
Nairobi — The best way for weavers and apparel makers to benefit from the African Growth and Opportunities Act initiative is by working together.
Industrialisation minister, Mr Henry Kosgey, said it is through this linkages that the garment dealers, working in the Export Processing Zones, could ensure that the country realises more returns.
Agoa, started by former American President Bill Clinton, gives sub-Saharan countries duty and quota free access to the US market. "The weavers can produce materials and pass them to the apparel manufacturers for stitching and making the designs that are demanded on the international market," said Mr Kosgey.
Currently, most of the material in apparel industries under EPZ are imported after being processed there. The minister, however, said ways in which local producers can raise output needed to be explored to meet demand.
Cotton farming
Among them, he said, will be more farmers taking to cotton farming, rearing of wool-producing sheep and silk farming.
Speaking during the Cotton Handloom Weavers Craft Fair and Conference in Nairobi, on Thursday, Mr Kosgey said weavers were beneficiaries of a Sh250 million pilot project funded by World Bank.
The value chain-based grant, under the micro-small and medium enterprise competitiveness project, is in its third year and has focused on coffee, pyrethrum and cotton sub-sectors. The project will take five years.
Mr Kosgey also said that the leather industry will soon receive similar funding to improve the quality of products.
He said the textile sector was the driver of industrialisation in developed nations and the same could be replicated locally.
Participants at the fair asked the government to establish a marketing centre for their products that can be easily accessible to tourists.
They complained of high charges levied on them by the Nairobi City Council at Maasai market that normally operates on Tuesdays. Those with a table are charged Sh500 and a tent is charged Sh6,000.
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