Kenya ranks 115 in the Competitive Industrial Performance (CIP) Index Report, 2020 among 152 countries in terms of the ability to produce and export manufactured goods competitively.
Egypt and South Africa rank at positions 64 and 52 respectively whereas Tanzania is 123 and Uganda is position 128.
It further indicates that China, which is ranked second in the CIP Index report, is very strong in manufacturing due to the use of high technology which is applied by 30.6% of its manufacturers whereas only 9.3% are resource-based manufacturers.
Comparatively, Kenya’s manufacturing sector export structure is dependent on resource-based manufacturers at 42.9% with high tech manufacturers only accounting to 5.5%.
“This is far from our expectations and calls for an urgent need to collaborate to achieve faster growth in the sector. We will continue to collaborate with various stakeholders to achieve targets in the policy-making formula to get Kenya in the global competitiveness map,” said Principal Secretary Ministry of Industrialization, Dr. Francis Owino.
Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM) Chairman, Mr Mucai Kunyiha highlighted that Kenya’s competitive performance needs to be improved to spur productivity, growth and development.
“We must also look at our ability to produce goods for which there is a market at a price and quality that their market is willing to pay for. Whilst Kenya ranks top position within EAC countries in this CIP Index, a lot still needs to be done in order to be competitive at a global scale,” added Mr Mucai.
Principal Secretary for National Treasury, Dr Julius Muia noted, “Competitiveness is very key to our industrialization. With robust industrialization, we can create employment for our people, get more taxes and provide more tax incentives and waivers. Quantifying the competitiveness of the manufacturing sector provides an evidence-based basis to which we can make policies.”
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