Dubai company pledges 10,000 new Nairobi jobs

Corporate News

Industrialisation and Enterprise Development secretary Adan Mohamed during the launch at a Nairobi hotel on September 16, 2015. PHOTO | SALATON NJAU 

By NEVILLE OTUKI, notuki@ke.nationmedia.com

In Summary

• United Aryan (EPZ) Ltd is expanding its Nairobi subsidiary at a cost of Sh4.2 billion that will see it double its workforce to 20,000 employees by 2018.
• The firm’s Nairobi operation currently employs 10,000 workers based at Balaji Export Processing Zone in Ruaraka, where it manufactures apparels for export.

A Dubai-based textiles company is expanding its Nairobi subsidiary at a cost of Sh4.2 billion ($40 million) that will see it double its workforce to 20,000 employees by 2018.

United Aryan (EPZ) Ltd founder and chairman Pankaj Bedi says the expansion is intended to meet rising orders for garments and a “competitive manufacturing climate.”

The company’s Nairobi operation currently employs 10,000 workers based at Balaji Export Processing Zone in Ruaraka, where it manufactures apparels for export.

“We are looking at doubling our capacity to meet the demand,” Mr Bedi said on Wednesday during launch of Kenya’s first industrial blueprint.

Mr Bedi said that there is fresh impetus to do business in Kenya following the recent renewal of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) by the US, granting Kenyan apparels duty-free access to the American market.

The US government in June granted Kenya and other sub-Saharan African countries tax-free market access for over 6,000 products for an additional 10 years following the expiry of the previous one.

Revamping Kenya’s textiles industry for growth and jobs creation is a key plank of the government’s industrial action-plan.

Industrialisation secretary Adan Mohamed said rising labour costs in Asia, often described as the world’s factory, will likely favour the low-cost East African markets and attract investors in the sector.

READ: Adan bets on textiles for industrial growth

Kenya is now racing to attract increased foreign direct investments by easing cost of doing business in efforts to create jobs and improve its current account.

Mr Bedi said that the firm has also set aside Sh2.1 billion ($20 million) for building a plant at the Olkaria geothermal fields in Naivasha, a Special Economic Zone, to enjoy lower electricity costs.

Kenya plans to develop industrial parks around its geothermal fields in Naivasha and Nakuru that will see manufacturers offered discounts on power bills because of lower transmission costs.

President Uhuru Kenyatta in May said that the standard gauge railway, which is under construction, will extend to Naivasha to link Olkaria’a special zones to Nairobi and the port city of Mombasa from 2017 to enable smooth flow of goods and inputs.