Tatu, Konza in a pact to woo investors

By James Wanzala

Construction work at Konza (PHOTO: FILE)

Tatu City’s owner and developer, Rendeavour, will collaborate with Konza Technopolis to attract investors to Kenya, Rendeavour’s Executive Vice President Preston Mendenhall, and KoTDA’s CEO

Eng John Tanui have jointly announced.

This comes at a time when the country is seeking to bounce back from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic that has increased uncertainty around investment opportunities.

The collaboration will focus on building both mega-projects’ investment policies and positioning the two cities at vantage positions for both local and international investors.

“We are excited as Tatu City to be visiting Konza. As sister cities with a common goal of easing the burden of urbanisation in Kenya and also promoting investment in Kenya, we shall be working together in creating these opportunities,” Mendenhall said.

”Speaking to the specific areas of partnership, Mendenhall said that Tatu City and Konza, as Special Economic Zones (SEZ), had identified several common interests to attract investment in Kenya.

“We have agreed to increase the frequency of our meetings. We have appointed teams to particularly look into the operationalisation of the Special Economic Zones to attract local and foreign direct investments by creating a favourable economic environment,” Mendenhall said.

KoTDA’s CEO John Tanui said that they were glad to continue with the collaboration following an initial engagement with Tatu City in 2017. He said that the collaboration will address mutual smart cities' issue on continuing to improve the ease of doing business in Kenya.

“By Konza being a Special Economic Zone as Tatu is, we are both very keen to attract investment in Kenya. Tatu City and ourselves are very ready to collaborate with other government and private agencies to attract more investment in our country,” said Tanui.

He said the two entities will share experience and insights and help each other in providing solutions towards building stronger strategies to attract investment in the country. Eng Tanui added that with the mega infrastructure such as the Konza National Data Centre being operational at Konza, they will explore how both entities can benefit from the resources as they look forward to more collaborations with other partners and agencies outside Kenya.