KAM CEOs Brief | 12 November, 2016

KAM Engages Members on Delayed Payments by Major Retail Supermarkets

Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM) met to deliberate on delayed payment issue following the recent media reports of major retail supermarkets facing financial challenges.

Speaking at the meeting, KAM Chairlady Flora Mutahi cited the urgent need by the government to protect suppliers from incurring losses from delayed payments for goods. “Members have lost confidence in supplying major retail supermarkets due to increasing debts owed to them. With increased demand of goods in the upcoming festive season, manufacturers are concerned over payment status on the goods supplied to the major retail supermarkets,” added Ms. Mutahi.

Retailer supermarkets owe suppliers huge sums of money for unpaid goods which is affecting their operations. There is need to develop short term strategies to ensure all delayed payments are paid.

KAM CEO, Phyllis Wakiaga reiterated the need to promote fair trade practice and to develop frameworks that encourage prompt payments in the country. “As KAM, we appreciate Government’s efforts in trying to address this issue. The recently formed Taskforce, under the leadership of Trade PS, Dr. Chris Kiptoo, promises to find long term solutions on the concerns between retail supermarkets, suppliers and manufacturers,” added Ms Wakiaga.

KAM recommends that retailer supermarkets who have unreasonably delayed payments to pay up and avert the increasing financial and administrative costs being incurred.

The taskforce is composed of Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM), Retail Trade Association of Kenya (RETRAK), Association of Kenya Suppliers and Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KNCCI).

For more information contact: Miriam.Bomett@kam.co.ke

Employment Contracts and Redundancy Training

KAM Manufacturing Academy held the Employment Contracts and Redundancy Training on 9 – 10 November 2016 in Mombasa.

The highly interactive program gave participants legal insights on how to handle employment contract terminations which has seen many companies lose out due to lack of enforcing policies.

The training sought to enable participants get a deeper understanding of different types of employment contracts and impact of labour laws on employment relationship; Design and formulate employment contracts in line with the requirements of the employer in tandem with the Employment Act and to Improve participants legal and Managerial skills in terminating employment contracts and handling staff separations and managing redundancies.

For more details contact: Catherine.Mukoko@kam.co.ke

Speakers Round Table Meeting held on 14th October 2016

KAM participated in the Speaker’s Roundtable meeting on13th – 14th October 2016 in Mombasa between the National Assembly and Private Sector.

The annual meeting was convened by the Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA) to provide a platform for its members and legislators to discuss legislative issues of concern.

The discussion issues were largely on the progress made by legislators towards developing laws that promote business growth, competitiveness and ease of doing business nationally and social issues affecting the business environment such as corruption and the upcoming elections.

From the discussions, the National Assembly has passed several laws that have impacted on the ease of doing business. The laws include, Companies Act; Business Registration; Insolvency Act, Special Economic Zones Act, Tax Procedures Act; Finance Act, 2016 and Mining Act. Bills of interest to the private sector pending to be passed include, the Anti-bribery Bill; Insurance Amendment Bill; Private Security Bill; The Land Interest Investment Bill; and Public Private Partnership Bill.

The National Assembly was represented by the Speaker, Rt. Hon. Justin Muturi, the Leader of Majority Hon. Aden Duale, the Leader of the Minority Hon. Francis Nyenze, Minority Chief Whip Hon. Jakoyo Midiwo, the Chairpersons and Vice Chairpersons of Departmental Committee and other Members of Parliament.

The legislators urged the private sector to;

• Propose amendments to laws that exists and hinder business growth and competitiveness.
• Present detailed research and analysis on laws being developed to support fact based decision making in Parliament.
• Support addressing social issues in the country such as the health, education or water, due to their economic impact on business and trade.

For more information contact: miriam.bomett@kam.co.ke

Meeting of Experts Motor Vehicle Regulations – Urt Comments Review

KAM participated in the Meeting of Experts on Motor Vehicles and Trailer Assemblers Regulations in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania.

The objective of the Mission was to review United Republic of Tanzania comments on the Motor Vehicle and Trailer Assemblers Regulation. Tanzania had made 37 comments to an earlier developed draft regulation. During the meeting, 17 comments were agreed upon and concluded. The outstanding twenty (20) were partially agreed upon by the four partner States of Rwanda, Burundi, Kenya and Uganda, except Tanzania.

For more information contact: samuel.Matonda@kam.co.ke

Technical Committee Retreat on the Development of a National Capacity Building Programme for the Facilitation & Promotion of Investment at County Level Held

KAM participated in the Technical Committee Retreat on the Development of a National Capacity Building Programme for the Facilitation and Promotion of Investment at County Level from 25th – 28th October 2016 in Naivasha.

The meeting was convened by the Ministry of Devolution and Planning in partnership with KenInvest to deliberate and draft an investment promotion policy framework and a training curriculum for the same at the county level and to validate/review the draft Kenya National Investment policy spearheaded by Keninvest.

The draft National Investment policy applies to all institutions at both levels of government involved in investment targeting, attraction, promotion, facilitation (including regulators) and retention in Kenya. The retreat further discussed emerging issues in facilitation and promotion of investments at the county level. The emerging issues were clustered into 3 broad thematic areas of; (1) Policy (2) System (3) Training chaired by KAM, Keninvest and Council of Governors representatives in the retreat respectively.

Emerging issues in the policy thematic areas were; Need to harmonize County taxation regime, need to adopt Single Business Permit, need for county revenue legislations, profiling of investment opportunities in specific counties, Enactment of Investment promotion policy, setting up of business development services / investment promotion centers in all county governments, need for a credit guarantee scheme in Kenya, automation of business registration process and creation of one stop shop to ease the bureaucratic procedures in the setting up business and development of an SME graduation framework and policy among others.

The draft report for policy interventions on Policy issues, System and Training thematic areas is to be shared by MoDP for review by stakeholders and inform next steps.

The retreat was attended by representatives from Keninvest, MoDP, ODP, National Treasury, KEPSA, CoG and Inter-governmental Relations Technical Committee (GTRC).

For more information contact: Elijah.Ambasa@kam.co.ke

Kenya Business CEOs Exploratory Trade & Investment Visit To Goma, DRC

Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM), in partnership with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Kenya organized a Trade and Investment mission to Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) on 10 – 14 October 2016. The aim of the trade mission was to make contacts with both Government and Businesses of DRC and to explore Trade and Investment opportunities in the DRC market.

The Objectives the exploratory Trade and Investment Mission were:

• To establish Kenya’s market share in Eastern DRC;
• To identify other export potential products for the market;
• To strengthen distributorship network for those companies that are already established in these markets
• To gauge the intensity of the competition for the Kenyan products
• To identify investment opportunities in Eastern DRC
• To enhance brand, corporate and country image

With the guidance from the Trade and Tax board committee in KAM, it was resolved that DRC is a virgin market which if explored would provide Market opportunities for Kenyan Products.

The following were various reasons for the identification of DRC market.

• Has a population of about 79.4 million (2015 estimates)
• Projected GDP growth of almost 7.7% per annum
• Close proximity to Kenya
• DRC is a member of the Common Markets for East and Southern Africa (COMESA); and are in the final stages of joining COMESA Free Trade Area (FTA)
• Trade between Kenya and DRC is in Kenya’s favour averaging at Ksh. 14 Billion in exports from Kenya to DRC as opposed to Ksh. 1
• Billion in imports from DRC to Kenya. Over the past decade, exports to DRC have been on a steady increase.

For more information contact: jacinta.Mwau@kam.co.ke