Nairobi — Manufacturers are calling on the government to revive and industrialize Kenya's agriculture sector.

This was said during the launch of the Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM) Manufacturing Priority Agenda (MPA) 2023.

State Department for Investment Promotion Principal Secretary Abubakar Hassan Abubakar said that the government has prioritized various value chains, geared towards driving industrial growth.

"Manufacturing is known world over as a creator of jobs due to the value chains involved. As a government, we have prioritized leather, textiles, dairy, edible oil and pharmaceutical sectors among others, to drive our country's industrial growth," Abubakar said.

"This will be driven through the County Aggregation Industrial Parks across all 47 counties."

He observed that attracting investments calls for public private dialogue to improve the business environment in the country.

"We shall drive investments attraction through the National Investments Council, by attracting, facilitating and enabling investments in Kenya."

KAM Chairman Rajan Shah added that there exist endless opportunities for value addition in the agriculture sector that are untapped.

"Low-value addition in Kenya has made it impossible to realize the full potential of the manufacturing sector, hence denying citizens extra jobs, wealth retention and incentivization of the sector to increase production and economic grow," Shah said.

"In the agriculture sector, we export products with little or no value added, hence we miss out on increased income. It is paramount that we create linkages between farmers and manufacturers to reduce the share of agricultural products that are exported in primary form to derive more value from exports," he added.

Shah called for the creation of an enabling environment, saying, "This shall be achieved through sound policy, regulatory and institutional frameworks that foster forward and backward linkages, dynamic economies of scale and innovation."