Today PS Abubakar Hassan, joined the AMCHAM in the 2024 AMCHAM outlook forum as a Chief Guest at the Villa Rosa Kempinski.
The key highlights of the forum were: the priorities of the business reforms agenda and the expected positive economic outlook for 2024.
Including the macroeconomic indicators of inflation, interest rates, exchange rates, and the significant role that Artificial Intelligence will play in catalyzing sustainable growth in Kenya and Africa.

H.E. the President, William Ruto, launched the Riwa Special Economic Zone (SEZ), one of the first 3 county SEZ. The zone admitted its anchor investor Victory Farms to set up a fish processing plant.

Homabay County has been leveraging on the Four investment promotion strategic tools to profile and brand herself with a focus on investment climate/ business environment, promotion and facilitation of investment-grade opportunities, incentivizing ( through SEZ/EPZ), and derisking private investments through co-investments.

Kenya, UAE announces historic Trade and Economic Partnership Kenya and the United Arab Emirates yesterday evening made a bold pronouncement to mutually advance trade, investment, and economic cooperation. The two countries have reached concurrence on the Kenya — UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), an instrument that will simplify trade procedures, enhance investor confidence, advance digital trade, and strengthen cooperation between the private and public sectors, among other measures. This in effect creates a great opportunity for increased investment in Kenya.

The PS Abubakar Hassan delivered the keynote speech as he opened the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Seminar on Special Economic Zones.
He focused on the role of Special Economic Zones in transforming the investment landscape of Kenya.
PS Abubakar Hassan took lawyers through the various benefits and incentives that accrue from investing in the SEZ. He had a chance to engage lawyers on the opportunities in the SEZ.

Textile and Apparel is a labor-intensive value chain. The state department is determined to double Job creation and double the export of apparel through our EPZ and SEZA Programs.  Executive Director Justin Highstead, together with his team from Gatsby Africa, paid me a courtesy call. With the PS Abubakar Hassan was CEO of EPZA and Keinvest/Seza senior management team.
We explored areas of partnership and collaboration in strengthening the Textiles & Apparel Value Chain which is a priority area in our bottom-up economic transformation agenda

Investing in Kenya will offer Japanese enterprises access to the East African Community (EAC), COMESA, the Tripartite Free Trade Area, and Africa Continental Free Trade Area markets of more than 1.4 billion people and a combined GDP of $3.4 trillion. A good return on investment is guaranteed, especially in our renewable energy, manufacturing, agriculture, and technology sectors.

Today the PS Abubakar Hassan had the pleasure of meeting with the World Bank delegation led by Dr. Hassan Zaman, Regional Director for Equitable Finance and Institutions (EFI Africa East Region).To discuss critical engagements led by the State Department of Investment Promotion (SDIP) on access to finance for MSMEs, green private capital mobilization and business-enabling reforms set up to spur investment and trade at the subnational level.

Principal Secretary for the State Department of Investment Promotion, Abubakar Hassan, hosted a workshop today with Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) from select Business Membership Organizations (BMOs) to deliberate on the implementation roadmap for the Business Reform Action Plan for Kenya (BRAP-K), specifically focusing on reducing the cost of doing business in the country.

KDC is one of the tools given to my state department to assist in attracting and enabling private investments through a de-risking mechanism (co-investment). The vision is to transform KDC into the Kenya Sovereign Wealth Fund. Below is the 2023 Look Back and 2024 Look Forward

PS Abubakar Hassan toured the facility and noted after the launch 100 youth have already been employed and onboarded and 700 more youth are to be onboarded in the year. The first BPO Enterprise ( Majorel) in the EPZ Program at the Coast Region was launched by CS Miano in October last year.

BPO is a new but promising job creation sector for Kenyan youth. We aim to become the top BPO destination in Africa.