East African Business Week (Kampala)
Bosco Hitimana
28 June 2008
Kenya's president Mwai Kibaki has called upon potential investors to invest in energy and Information Communication Technology (ICT) sectors in his country.
He made the remarks during his keynote address at the first East African investment conference and the 12th EAC heads of state retreat and summit concluded in Kigali last week.
Kibaki said that his government had strongly reformed the ICT sector which is also boosting telecommunication sub-sector to the extent that an estimated 12million people in Kenya use telephones, which is seen as a major contributor to the country's economic growth.
"We are therefore inviting investors to come to Kenya to invest in this rapidly growing sector," Mr. Kibaki said. He said his government is working tirelessly to unite Kenyans and to address their development challenges.
Kenya, which is recovering from wounds of post election violence, is trying to pick up the pieces by rebuilding lost confidence by some investors.
"I therefore assure investors and other visitors that Kenya is safe and your investments are secure," president Kibaki reiterated. Kenya which was supposed to host the first EAC investment conference lost the chance because of the of post election chaos early this year and Rwanda picked the interest to host it.
Kibaki stated that investments in the ICT sector would create more jobs and reduce the cost of ICT services.
He also noted that there is increasing demand for power in consumption by the productive sector which needs more investments to match the increasing demand.
The government of Kenya is trying to implement several projects to generate up to 600MW of power by 2010 and up to 2000MW by 2030 mainly from geo thermal sources.
He urged EAC partner states to invest in regional electricity pools that would also enable them to enrich themselves on electricity and reduce on the cost of power.
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