Sh1bn to establish five new export processing zones

The gate to EPZ Athi River. FILE PHOTO | POOL

The State has set aside Sh1 billion to establish five Export Processing Zones (EPZ) in Kenya in a plan aimed at growing exports and creating more jobs in the economy.

Export Processing Zones Authority (EPZA) acting chief executive Hussein Adan Mohamed said one of the hubs will be on a 50-acre piece of land owned by New Kenya Planters Cooperative Union in Sagana, Kirinyaga County.

Others will be set up on 500 acres owned by Del Monte in Kiambu/Murang’a county, and the 200-acre Egerton Industrial Park in Nakuru county.

Read: EPZ firms step up hiring as sales near Sh100bn

The authority will also set up a park in Busia County on 843 acres.

“The fifth Industrial park will occupy 135 acres and it will be in Eldoret in Uasin Gishu county. It will be funded by the Industrial and Commercial Development Corporation (ICDC),” said Mr Mohamed.

“The timelines for the establishment of the industrial parks lie with the Ministry of Trade.”

The industrial parks, once set up will also grow local entrepreneurship in manufacturing and services under the export business accelerator in order to improve the export business by small-scale indigenous enterprises.

“The flagship hubs will also expand the manufacturing sector to the counties under the bottom-up economic transformation agenda [Beta] and the Kenya Industrial Transformation Programme which seeks to grow Kenya’s export production through manufacturing,” he said.

Read: Vihiga residents grow anxious over delays in setting up EPZ

EPZs enjoy a range of attractive fiscal, physical, and procedural incentives including a 10-year corporate and withholding tax holiday as well as a 100 percent investment deduction on new investments.

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