Kenya says foreign investments in 2015 to hit 2 bln USD

Kenya's Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) for 2015 is projected to hit two billion U.S. dollars up from the 1 billion dollars recorded last year, officials said on Friday.

Kenya Investment Authority (KenInvest) Managing Director Dr Moses Ikiara said that capital inflows has been growing by an average of 100 percent in the past three years.

"Due to our diversified economy, the capital have been injected in the mining, oil and gas, agro-processing, manufacturing and renewable energy," Ikiara said on the sidelines of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Tenth Ministerial meeting.

All the 162 WTO members states are meeting in Nairobi to negotiate a number of trade agreements. Ikiara said efforts by the government to promote Kenya as an investment destination are now paying off.

"Investors who want to tap into Africa's high economic growth are coming to Kenya due to its strategic location," he said.

According to KenInvest, the high capital inflows are sustainable as they are going into many sectors and is coming from all regions of the world.

Ikiara said Kenya has one of the largest proportions of middle class as a percentage of the total in Africa as a result of undergoing a long period of sustained economic growth.

"This has created a large domestic market that investors can serve," he added. Experts have noted that Kenya is the regional economic hub of East and Central Africa.

Ikiara said that Kenya is a member of several economic blocs and so goods produced in the country can easily access other markets.

KenInvest is targeting investments that have a huge social impact on the economy.

"We prefer investments that will create a lot of employment opportunities so that we can reduce income inequality," Ikiara said.

The East African nation has already set up a Cabinet Committee on the ease of doing business to look at investment procedures that can to be eliminated or merged in order to attract capital into the country. Endit