New United Kingdom-Kenya investment partnership rings in United Kingdom trade visit

 

The Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) and UK government programme MOBILIST, have announced a new partnership at a launch event in Nairobi. The launch was attended by His Majesty’s Trade Commissioner for Africa, John Humphrey, at the start of a three-day visit to Kenya.

The partnership aims to drive the listing of new investment products in the Kenyan market and increase the amount of private sector capital available for development and climate projects in Kenya, and generate growth.

MOBILIST, an innovative part of the UK Government’s investment partnerships offer, provides investment and technical assistance to help businesses that contribute to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to overcome the barriers that keep them from listing on a stock exchange.

The programme has similar partnerships with several emerging market exchanges, including the Nigerian Exchange and the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), and will consider applications from eligible Kenyan firms.

Trade Commissioner Humphrey’s visit to Kenya, which comes after recent trips to Egypt and Ethiopia, will focus on delivering long-term investment projects that support the UK-Kenya Strategic Partnership – an ambitious five-year agreement that is unlocking mutual economic benefits for the UK and Kenya, without loading Kenya with unsustainable debt.

In Nairobi he will meet the Cabinet Secretary for Investments, Trade and Industry, H.E Salim Mvurya, to drive forward the implementation of flagship UK-Kenya climate projects that support President Ruto’s Africa Green Industrialisation Initiative (AGII). He will also launch the British Business Breakfast Club, to listen to the challenges facing British-Kenyan enterprises.

Mr Humphrey will also visit Naivasha to meet one of Kenya’s biggest exporters of cut flowers, Flamingo Flowers – a British business that employs 11,000 people in Kenya. They are benefitting from the global suspension of the 8% export tariff for cut flowers entering the UK, an example of the UK supporting markets that matter to Kenya, by removing barriers in areas which aim to have an immediate economic impact.

His Majesty’s Trade Commissioner for Africa, John Humphrey, said:

Mobilising investment solutions in Kenya are vital to economic growth as they provide a platform for Kenyan businesses to raise the capital they need to expand their operations, increase cross-border trade, and employ more Kenyans – and at the same tackle climate change and achieve critical development goals.

Long-term investments that deliver lasting change for the people of both our countries are the cornerstone of the UK-Kenya economic relationship. We go far when we go together – I am delighted to be back in Kenya to deliver our mutually beneficial partnership which is rooted in respect.

Nairobi Securities Exchange CEO, Frank Mwiti, said:

The NSE is delighted to partner with the UK government-backed MOBILIST Programme. The strategic partnership between the NSE and MOBILIST aligns with our new strategic focus aimed at enabling the NSE to play a more dynamic role in mobilising and channelling capital to sectors that have the most significant capital needs, with a special focus on sustainable development. As a market, we will continue providing a pivotal intersection connecting capital to investment-grade opportunities in Kenya for sustained economic growth

MOBILIST Programme Lead at the UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), Ross Ferguson, said:

Public markets in Kenya and other African economies hold great untapped potential to mobilise the private capital the continent urgently needs to gain ground in addressing the SDGs and the severe impact of climate change. MOBILIST is proud to partner with the NSE in building a local capital market that can give the African firms working on these challenges access to the capital they need to grow.”

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Government of UK.