Cadbury plans to close its manufacturing plant in Nairobi.

Just the other day, in an article titled, ‘‘Re-basing’ of Kenya’s economic calculations means GDP grows by 25%‘, we discussed how how thousands of Kenyans risked losing their jobs following the government’s failure to sign up to an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the European Union. The agreement allows for goods originating from the region to be exempted from import duties but not anymore.

CARDBURY KENYA MOVES HOUSE

As if that’s not bad enough, Cadbury Kenya announced its plans to close down its manufacturing plant in Nairobi this month.

The company says that the move is as part of a global transformation strategy to reinvent its supply chain and has maintained that it still has plans of invest in the country as only the manufacturing operations in Kenya will be terminated. The marketing and distribution functions will remain. The company will import its products from Egypt to sell locally.

“It is our intention to more than double our business here during the next three years. To achieve this, we plan to invest substantially in marketing and our distribution network to reach more and more consumers,” said Ms Bechan-Sewkuran, Cadbury’s corporate and government affairs lead for Southern, Central and Eastern Africa.

Sadly, the anticipated closure will leave at least 300 employees jobless all this coming at the height of tough economic times.

EVEREADY LTD SHUTS DOWN

Early this week, Eveready East Africa which has been in the country for decades closed down its Nakuru manufacturing plant sighting competition from cheap imports from the East that evade tax and hence make it difficult to provide a level playing field.

Inflation is on the peak in Kenya and unemployment continues to be the biggest challenge facing Kenyans and it’s depressing to see people losing jobs instead of jobs being created.

WHY IT’S NOT EASY TO DO BUSINESS IN KENYA

Nairobi was listed as the most expensive city to live in Africa early this year in a survey by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) and the country’s position in the list that ranks a nation for the ease of doing business, based on the ’World Bank’s Doing Business 2014 report, keeps falling.

Among the factors that contribute to making Nairobi less favourable for investment in the continent include;

• ease of obtaining electricity connection;
• protecting investors;
• ease of dealing with construction permits;
• easy registration of property;
• making it easy to access credit;
• making it easy to pay taxes.

The government has to get its house in order if we are to make Kenya the hub of investment in the region otherwise the country will keep losing out to our neighbouring countries.