A promotional photo of Jikokoa energy-saving jiko. [Photo|Jikokoa/Facebook]The manufacturer of energy-saving jikos, Jikokoa and Kuniokoa, has expressed optimism that 2018 will be a better year economically than 2017 was.Peter Scott who is the CEO of BURN has said that 2018 promises to be a better year after a year-long campaign period (2017) that hampered business greatly.“We hope the economy stabilises in 2018 and give us more opportunities to invest and improve our sales. Kenyans should not let politics creep in this year as this will jeopardise our economy further,” Scott said on Wednesday in Thika during a promotional campaign.He noted that 2017 was a very difficult business year, warning that if politics are left to take the forefront this year many businesses shall close down leading to many job losses and a sluggish economic growth."To have investments in this country thrive and more coming in, we must tone down on politics to give investors confidence to continue with their investments and more to come in," he added.Scott said that BURN hopes to partner with the government in a campaign to encourage more Kenyans to buy locally made products likeJikokoa. The Ruiru based firm, Scott said, has served over 1.4 million Kenyans with jikos in the last three years.He acknowledged the importance of the 'Buy Kenya Build Kenya' campaign and hoped that the government came up with similar initiatives to ensure that the locally manufactured goods got prioritized."We are appealing to the government to encourage local investments by giving support to homegrown investors,” he said.Is there a newsworthy accident, incident or event happening in Kiambu that you want Hivisasa to cover? Tell us what is happening by joining this group and have it published.

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