KAM CEOs Brief | 16 September 2016

Second Regional Anti-Illicit Trade Conference

East African Business Council (EABC) in collaboration with Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM) and the Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Cooperatives held the Second Regional Anti-Illicit Trade Conference on 15 – 16 September, 2016 in Nairobi.

The main focus of the conference was to seek practical solutions on the ever growing issue of counterfeits, piracy and other forms of intellectual property infringement, smuggling, substandard goods, transit fraud and dumping and trade in prohibited goods and products.

Key to these discussions was the current status of the existing regional and national regulatory frameworks for combating various forms of illicit trade and strategies on how to strengthen them. The talks also centered on how the region can achieve effective enforcement, including the need to set-up inter-agency cooperations at national and regional level; the long-existing contributors to illicit trade, information exchange and consumer education.

Annual Law and Ethics Conference Held

Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM) CEO and Global Compact Network Kenya Representative, Ms. Phyllis Wakiaga took part in plenary discussions at the Strathmore University Law School Annual Law and Ethics Conference on the Role of Law and good corporate governance in ensuring responsible leadership and establishing integrity in corporate dealings with public Sector.

The conference examined good corporate governance within the context of Companies Act 2015.

Finance Management Training Held

Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM) held a two-day training on Finance Management (SCM), the fifth module under the KAM business growth program. The primary objective of the course was to equip Small and Medium Enterprise (SMEs) with the pre-requisite skills in: budgeting, ensuring adequate working capital and cash flows for sustainable business operations; interpretation of management accounts and financial statements as well as making sound business valuation and investment choices.

It also facilitated networking, basis for review and critical analysis of the prevailing financial market environment. This also ensured improved analytical and business leadership skills, improved attainment of organizational financial goals through prudent management.

Meeting with Baringo CEC Trade and Industry

KAM held a meeting with Baringo for CEC Trade and Industry. Among issues deliberated upon included:

• Cess: Members are affected by cess charged on raw material obtained from Baringo County. This is mainly affecting the flower and timber sector.
• Timber Sector: The timber manufacturers pay charges to Kenya Forest Service and also the County Government during transportation of raw materials.
• Flower Sector: On the issue of double taxation for the flower sector where cess is charged by both the County Government and HCDA, CEC indicated that the issue requires guidance by the National Government since as far as the county is concerned they provide services to the farms hence are entitled to the cess as opposed to HCDA.
• Finance Bill: There is need for stakeholders to be involved during the drafting of the finance bill so as to give their input especially on issues relating to trade and industry. KAM will be involved in the next cycle of the finance bill
• Inter-County Trade Challenges: A number of industries have had challenges when transiting Baringo County or when distributing goods in the County. This has especially affected the Cereal millers and Plastic manufacturers. They are required to have a branding and distribution license. It was proposed that the matter needs to be addressed at the national level but discussions can be held within regional blocks like the North Rift economic block.

Nutrition Private Sector Sensitization Forum

KAM participated in the Nutrition Private Sector Sensitisation Forum at NASCOP, Ministry of Health on 15th September 2016 under the theme: enhancing understanding and the role of private sector in Nutrition. This was the second workshop on sensitisation of the private sector since Kenya joined the SUN movement in 2012. The SUN Private sector was formed in 2015, and is currently being chaired by Insta Foods and co-chaired by Unilever, while KAM is the secretariat.

Kenya adopted the Nutrition private sector network name as opposed to the SUN business network so as to cover for all private entities and incorporate both the business and corporate social responsibilities. The main focus of the network is to improve access and delivery of nutritious foods in Kenya. The topics of the sensitisation forum included:

• Scaling up Nutrition and the Kenyan nutrition landscape – This presentation highlighted the Global commitments for nutrition and the nutrition situation in Kenya. According to the KDHS study, there has been several achievement with regards to nutrition; stunting rates have significantly reduced from 35% to 26%; wasting has reduced from 16% to 11%. The other nutrition challenge the country is facing is over nutrition (obesity).
• BMS Act and workplace support – The BMS legislation was implemented to regulate marketing and distribution of breast milk substitutes. This is meant the encourage mothers to exclusively breast milk their children for six months. There is a global strategy for workplace support to enable mothers provide support at both workplace, community and family. Employers are encouraged to provide time, space and support including provision of information on breastfeeding and complementary feeding.
• Food Fortification – It is mandatory to fortify most staple foods in Kenya, this is to increase intake of nutritious micro nutrients on daily basis. The foods need to be processed centrally, with no changes in texture and colour after fortification
• Scaling Up Nutrition and the role of Private Sector in improving Nutrition and experiences from other countries – The presentation indicated that Kenya is a business hub in the East African Region which provides great opportunity for engaging the Private Sector not only in the Country but across the region for better nutrition outcome. The role of business must be indicated among the Government priorities, this will align and enhance the national goals and policies.

A landscape analysis was done in 2015 which highlighted some of the private sector engagement points for nutrition i.e., consumer education, food fortification, improve access of nutritious foods and Nutrition financing. Some of the achievements made by the Private Sector Network are:

• Food fortification adoption by many of the industries for both cereal millers and edible oils
• Business landscape analysis
• Support to the Global nutrition report and participation in the global conference calls and SUN technical committees.
• Development of the engagement guide of the PPP