Waheshimiwa, mabibi na mabwana, hamjambo!
It’s wonderful to be here with you. Thank you to the East Africa
Business Council, the East African Community, and the Government of
Kenya for the kind invitation. Your participation in this conference is
a testament to your commitment to deepen economic partnership,
regionally and internationally.
I am also pleased to see so many innovators and entrepreneurs.
President Obama said it best during his remarks at the Global
Entrepreneurship Summit last year here in Kenya:
“Entrepreneurs embody a spirit that we need to take on some of the
biggest challenges that we face in the world — the spirit of
entrepreneurship, the idea that there are no limits to the human
imagination; that ingenuity can overcome what is and create what needs
to be … make[s] life better for all of us.”
Entrepreneurship,
innovation, and investment are critical to the future of Kenya and East
Africa. And, the U.S. government is working to help with each of them.
When President Obama launched Trade Africa,
the U.S. government’s program to build trade capacity across the
continent, he recognized “Africa [as] the world’s next major economic
success story” and emphasized the United States’ commitment to be a
partner in that success. Much of the groundwork of that partnership has
been laid, through initiatives such as the Global Entrepreneurship
Summit, the recent 10-year extension of the African Growth and
Opportunity Act (AGOA), and assistance initiatives that support private
sector trade and development, including the Feed the Future and Power Africa programs.
This week’s conference is an essential part of the follow-up on that
journey to success. Together we are building a legacy of African
entrepreneurship that is central to integration, regional economic
growth, and social inclusion.
The United States and our EAC partners recognize that entrepreneurs
cannot do it alone. Those of us in government must create a conducive
and enabling environment that allows innovators to bring their ideas to
life. To this end, the United States has invested in over 1,000
initiatives focused on promoting entrepreneurship globally. Many of
these programs are focused on generating opportunities for women and
youth, and increasing access to capital for entrepreneurs. Here in East
Africa, we have seen real results from a number of new – and what we
hope are game-changing – programs.
Earlier this year, for instance, we launched the WECREATE|Kenya Women’s
Entrepreneurship Center, fulfilling a promise President Obama made
during his visit. The center has now provided over 1,300 Kenyan women
with training and mentoring to help start or grow their businesses. The
Startup Academy at the WECREATE center, which is an intense 15-week
program to strengthen revenue-generating potential of new women-owned
businesses–– just graduated its second class and is in the process of
selecting members for its third cohort.
We have collaborated with the African Women’s Entrepreneurship Program
(AWEP) to expand the capacity of women-owned businesses to export to the
United States. In fact, WECREATE and AWEP are now cooperating on a
program to provide training to ramp up the capacity of women-owned firms
to export under AGOA. AWEP also helps empower victims of gender-based
violence through entrepreneurship training.
We also launched the second phase of the USAID’s Feed the Future Kenya
Innovation Engine, a project that identifies, fosters, and works to
scale up innovative and market-based agricultural businesses to address
persistent food insecurity problems. This project has already funded 18
Kenyan startups focused on accelerating growth and reducing poverty.
Three of the top innovators to come out of the program are here this
week. I hope you will take the opportunity to visit them in the
Innovation Engine booth that is part of the conference’s exhibition
showcase.
Among other priorities, President Obama’s Trade Africa initiative
set a goal of increasing AGOA exports from East Africa by 40 percent,
and bringing $100 million in U.S. and other investments to East Africa
in sectors critical to growing intra-regional and export trade. USAID’s
East Africa Trade and Investment Hub is focused on delivering against
these targets, with the result of promoting entrepreneurship through
these increased trade and investment efforts.
On the AGOA targets, the Hub has been working with government ministries
and agencies in Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, and Madagascar to develop
national strategies that prioritize actions needed to better take
advantage of AGOA. In Kenya, these efforts are focused on updating
government’s existing strategy. The Hub has also been helping companies
across East Africa to improve their products, access market
information, and better connect with U.S. buyers. In the last two
years, this support has helped the region’s exporting companies to
increase AGOA exports to the U.S. to over $1.1 billion, of which over
$114 million came from Hub-supported firms.
Regarding the investment goals, the Hub has leveraged $26.3 million
dollars in new private capital investments in the region, in sectors
such as agriculture, mobile services, and logistics. They have another
$225 million dollars’ worth of deals in the investment pipeline. The Hub
further plays an investment promotion role by building the capacity of
East Africa’s Investment Promotion Agencies (IPAs) to showcase and
attract their own investment capital. Increased access to such
investment capital is a major driver of growth and job creation. As you
are hopefully aware from visiting their booths, five regional IPAs from
across the EAC are here at the Conference to present their portfolios.
They have collectively come prepared with at least ten investment-ready
deals as well as other long-term opportunities. If you haven’t already,
I hope you will stop by to see them.
Another key U.S. resource to help meet these ambitious investment goals
is the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, or OPIC. I am pleased to
report that OPIC has recently established a presence here in Kenya to
better serve the region. Our new resident advisor, Suresh Samuel, will
be speaking on a panel later today. He is charged with actively seeking
to facilitate American investments in sectors such as energy,
infrastructure, agriculture, and water. I hope you will learn more
about OPIC’s investment mandate and the opportunities their presence
offers for regional businesses.
OPIC’s commitment to financing power is particularly important to
enterprises for whom access to affordable, reliable, and sustainable
energy is just as important as access to investment capital. The U.S.’Power Africa program
aims to create 60 million new electricity connections and generate
30,000 megawatts of new and cleaner power in sub-Saharan Africa. Last
month, during the U.S.-Africa Business Forum in New York, the U.S. Trade
and Development Agency launched its largest, single investment in
Kenya’s power sector to date, signing grant agreements for six projects
that will use U.S. solutions to increase access to electricity across
Kenya and help diversify the country’s energy mix. If you want to track
the Power Africa deals in the region, “there’s an app for that” – look for the Power Africa app in the Apple Store.
With all these partnership tools and commitments in place, this
conference and exhibition are more than a tribute to the entrepreneurial
spirit that unites our great cultures – it’s a place where real
business happens. Network! Explore! Brainstorm! Partner! Link up
and link in! Find investors and start closing the deals on those
transformative transactions that will grow jobs, promote integration,
advance technology, and make this region, and our world, a better place
for ourselves and , most importantly, for our children. Let’s all work
together to seize this extraordinary moment.
Pamoja tusonge mbele. Asanteni sana.
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