Corporate News
Mr Dennis Awori, Toyota Kenya chairman and former Kenyan ambassador to Japan. PHOTO | FILE
By VICTOR JUMA, vjuma@ke.nationmedia.com
In Summary
Japanese conglomerate Toyota Tsusho Corporation is
eyeing more big-ticket contracts in Kenya after signing a support deal
with the government.
The Nagoya-based company, a unit of the Toyota Motor
Corporation, says it is ready to undertake several projects in diverse
sectors of the economy including mining and power generation.
This will significantly expand its business in
Kenya from the mainstay motor dealership which it serves through several
directly and indirectly-owned subsidiaries including Toyota Kenya and
DT Dobie.
“Together with an executive committee of the Kenyan
government, we are now working on the development of the nation’s
electric power and energy, oil and mineral resources, environmental
preservation, and agricultural industrialisation sectors in addition to
our endeavours in the automotive business,” Toyota said in its latest
annual report.
Details of the specific projects are expected to
emerge in the coming months. Toyota has expressed interest in expanding
and undertaking new power projects including the geothermal Olkaria
series by state-owned KenGen.
The ongoing talks between Toyota and government
bureaucrats are a product of a 2012 MoU signed by the multinational and
officials of the Vision 2030 which is in charge of designing the
country’s major development projects.
“That cooperation is unfolding in conjunction with
Kenya’s Vision 2030 programme for raising incomes and standards of
living,” Toyota says in the report.
“In addition to fostering skills and enterprise in
Kenya’s automobile industry, we are participating in geothermal power
development and in other undertakings for tapping the nation’s
potential.”
The new projects will add to Toyota’s rising
profile in public sector projects which has been dominated by Chinese
companies in recent years.
Toyota and Hyundai Engineering last year completed
the construction of KenGen’s Olkaria I and IV which have a combined
output of 280 megawatts (MW). Turbines and generators for the plant
were supplied by Toshiba Corporation.
It was Toyota’s first major deal outside the motor
vehicle business in Kenya. Mitsui and Toyota in 2014 won a Sh2.5 billion
contract to supply and install cranes at Mombasa’s new container
terminal in a restrictive tender opened only to Japanese companies.
Toyota’s latest project is a Sh103 billion fertiliser factory that is being built in phases.
The multinational is also conducting a feasibility
study for Kenya’s crude oil pipeline and has made a proposal to build a
water desalination plant for Mombasa County.
Toyota’s expansion in Kenya has been aided by
former Kenyan ambassador to Japan Dennis Awori who has emerged as an
insider in corporate and government circles. Mr Awori is the chairman of
Toyota Kenya and an advisor of the conglomerate’s African operations.
The multinational positioned itself for more public
sector projects in the country and Eastern Africa by establishing a
regional headquarters, Toyota Tsusho East Africa, in Nairobi in 2013.
Toyota said it has been attracted by investment
opportunities created under the East African Community, an economic
integration of five regional states.
The EAC common market is becoming increasingly
important to investors, offering access to a market of 146 million
people with free movement of factors of production.
“The know-how that we are deploying in Kenya is
bolstering a foundation for sustainable development, and we hope to
propagate that positive momentum in neighbouring nations,” Toyota says
in the report.
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