President Uhuru Kenyatta has directed the Kenya Ports Authority, the Anti Counterfeit Agency, the Kenya Revenue Authority, and other relevant government agencies to collaborate and step up the fight against illicit trade.
President Kenyatta decried the high level of corruption and bribery in the country which he says is detrimental to not just the manufacturing sector but to the realization of the Big Four Agenda as well.
The manufacturing sector is one of the key pillars in the Big Four Agenda where the government is keen on improving the sector’s contribution to the country’s GDP from the current 9% to 15% over the next five years.
Among the various targets by the government include improving the sector’s competitiveness globally as well as promoting Small and Medium Enterprises to ensure they too contribute to the Big Four Agenda.
The sector has however been mushroomed by illicit trade which according to the Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM) is costing the country over Ksh 200 billion in revenue.
KAM says illicit trade is accounting for about 40 percent of the goods in the country.During the 8th Presidential Roundtable Forum with the Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA), President Uhuru Kenyatta put the Anti Counterfeit Agency (ACA), the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) and the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) to task to explain why the country was losing billions of shillings to this vice despite the numerous interventions and laws that have been put in place over the years.