President Uhuru Kenyatta government has proposed to allocate the state department of industrialisation Sh6.8 billion in the 2021/2022 financial year, in line with his 'Big Four Agenda'.
According to a report by the National Assembly committee on Trade and Industrialisation, the figure proposed by the National Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yatani is to be unveiled in the next budget early next month before Parliament.
Of the amount, Sh2.2 billion is for recurrent expenditure and Sh3.7 billion is for development expenditure.
The proposed allocation represents an increase of Sh 65.9 billion from the Budget Policy Statement (BPS) approved ceiling.
An analysis by the committee states that the key outputs for the coming financial year and Medium Term period will be the promotion of Industrial development and investments, standards and business incubation, development of Athi river textile hub and development of Special Economic Zones (SEZs).
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The department is also expected to modernize the foundry plant at Numerical Machining Complex (NMC), a one-stop-shop centre for investment facilitation, modernization of Rivatex machinery and cotton extension subsidy and provision of credit to MSMEs.
Other key output areas will be the construction and equipping of industrial research laboratories in Nairobi and upgrading and completion of stalled infrastructural projects at KITI.
The committee chaired by Adan Haji also oversees the state department of cooperatives, state department for trade and enterprise development, state department for cooperatives and the National Treasury.
In the next financial year and over the medium term, the state department for cooperatives will implement one programme- co-operative development and management. Key targeted outputs include registration of SACCOs, rehabilitation of Coffee Cooperatives, Restructuring of the Kenya Farmers Association and a Co-operative share trading platform
The single programme in the 2021/2022 Financial Year also includes increasing coffee production, value addition technologies adopted by co-operatives, modernization of new KCC processing plant and completion of Co-operative Management Information System (CMIS).
The submitted budget estimates is proposing to allocate the cooperative department Sh1.6 billion of which Sh1.2 billion is for recurrent expenditure and Sh374.6 million is for development expenditure.
In an analysis seen by Standard, the state department for trade and enterprise plans to implement one programme in the coming financial year under which it will enhance trade development and promotion.
The key targeted outputs include the completion of negotiations for a bilateral free trade agreement between Kenya and the US as well as Kenya and the UK.
The department will also focus on the seizure and destruction of counterfeit goods, promotion of domestic trade and entrepreneurship through construction and completion of CIDC and operationalization of Kenya National Multi-Commodities Exchange Limited (KOMEX) trading platform.
“The submitted estimates for the financial year 2021/22 is proposing to allocate state department for trade and enterprise Sh3.3 billion of which Sh2.1 billion is for recurrent expenditure and Sh1.2 billion is for development expenditure,” read an analysis from the committee on trade, industry and cooperatives.
The 202/2022 Financial Year budget estimates have been prepared against a background of a recovering global economy from the effects of the outbreak and the rapid spread of the Covid-19 pandemic.
There is still uncertainty on when Kenya and the entire world will be able to contain the pandemic, however, there are expectations of a vaccine powered economic recovery with the continued reopening of economies that are improving economic activities.
In the FY 2021/22 revenue collection including Appropriation-in-Aid (AIA) is projected to increase to Sh2 trillion (16.4 per cent of GDP) up from the estimated Sh1.8 trillion (16.6 per cent of GDP) in the FY 2020/21.
