Waiguru starts onboarding of investors at Sagana Industrial Park

County Government of Kirinyaga has started process of onboarding investors who have expressed interest in setting up industries at the Sagana Industrial Park.

On Thursday, representatives from 13 companies that have committed to set up factories together with officials from Export Processing Zones Authority (EPZA) toured the facility.

County Executive Committee Member for Cooperatives, Trade, Tourism, Marketing, Industrialization and Enterprise Development, Calbert Njeru who received the officials at the facility, expressed optimism that the onboarding process would be completed by the end of June.

“The investor onboarding process is fast approaching and today we hosted another team from EPZA to take our investors through the process after they showed interest in investing in Sagana,” he said.

Njeru noted that the county had made significant progress in putting in place infrastructure required to support industries at the facility.

“In terms of infrastructural development we are at 90 percent. The road tarmacking will be done and a contractor has already been awarded the tender. For water, the Governor has already committed resources to ensure there is enough supply while electric power is already on site,” he added.

Governor Anne Waiguru said the County Aggregation and Industrial Park (CAIP) and Export Processing Zone (EPZ) facilities at the park are now at 90 percent completion as investor onboarding officially begins.

Construction of eight warehouses; two for cold rooms, two for aggregation and four for value addition is already complete.

“Everyone is excited and we can all see that the Industrial Park is developing at a very fast rate. This is what we call tangible development,” she said.

The Governor said the facility, located within the Sagana Agro-Industrial City, which is a designated Special Economic Zone (SEZ) will create jobs and open new markets for farmers by linking agricultural production to processing and manufacturing.

“Once complete, this industrial park will directly employ over 10,000 youth while an additional 100,000 others will benefit indirectly from selling their produce here and offering associated services,” she added.

Waiguru said the project is one of the county’s flagship economic transformation initiatives and will play a central role in strengthening Kirinyaga’s agricultural economy and positioning Kirinyaga as an emerging manufacturing and agro-processing hub in the region.

“The industrial park will attract investors who will establish agro-processing factories at the facility, creating a reliable market for local farm produce and boosting incomes for farmers across the county. Other investment opportunities include logistics, packaging, warehousing and other industrial activities linked to the facility,” she said.

EPZA Acting General Manager for Investment and Corporate Communication, Moses Kipkebut, said 13 investors from different sectors had already shown interest in setting up operations at the Sagana EPZ.

“Today we have come here to meet our investors who have shown interest in the Sagana EPZ and onboard them as quickly as possible in anticipation of its commissioning by President Ruto soon,” said Kipkebut.

Kipkebut said Sagana had a competitive advantage over many EPZs in the country due to its strategic location and strong agricultural base.

“Sagana EPZ has several advantages as compared to other EPZs including proximity to Nairobi and the airport especially for fresh agro-processing. It is also located in one of the leading horticultural regions in Kenya while availability of water and improved infrastructure gives it an added advantage,” he added.

He further noted that investors setting up at the facility would benefit from attractive tax incentives under the EPZ programme.