President William Ruto called on the United States to review its economic partnership with Africa, saying the continent must be regarded as an investment destination and not a trade destination market for manufactured goods.
10 key deals sealed during Ruto's trip to US
President William Ruto's busy itinerary has seen him hold several crucial meetings in the US
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President Ruto, who was addressing the US-Africa Summit on 'The Future of Africa's Trade and Investment' called on the US to take advantage of Africa's huge population, the prospects under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
With a global workforce and green energy potential in Africa, the AfCFTA is on the verge of taking off and driving global prosperity.
President Ruto also used the opportunity to position Kenya as one of the most favourable investment destinations for the US, attributing its competitive advantage to a maturing constitutional democracy and well-developed financial and commercial ecosystem.
President Ruto was also hosted at a high-level roundtable at Arizona State University's Thunderbird School of Management, on innovating, accelerating, and scaling the Konza Technopolis also known as the Silicon Savannah.
The event brought together corporate executives and stakeholders across various sectors.
Some of the key announcements from Ruto’s visit to the US include;
- Commitment to work with Kenya to advance space technology.
- Commitment to collaborate towards the establishment of robust Kenya Creative Industries.
- Commitments to work with Kenya towards Climate Innovations / Carbon Removal Collaborations and carbon trading technologies/carbon markets.
- Commitment on mobilizing the network to extend research for the ethical and responsible deployment of ocean-based Carbon Dioxide Reduction.
- Commitments on Direct air capture, Carbon Products, and waste to energy solutions.
- Commitment to Host the Kauffman Fellow Africa Venture Capital Summit in Kenya Sept 2023, bringing 300 of the world's top venture capitalists to Nairobi.
On Wednesday, President Ruto also secured the following commitments;
- Commitment by Visa to support Kenya's Financial Inclusion Fund (Huster Fund), e-commerce growth, Government digitization and e-government initiative.
- Commitment by Microsoft to support Kenya trading on digital skilling for jobs, support in digital infrastructure development, empowering SMEs and Startups through digital technologies.
- Commitment by Google to establish a product development centre in Kenya and support digitization plan on government services.
- Commitment by Rockefeller Foundation to make Kenya a clean energy destination.
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