Agriculture experts have long held that the lack of commercialisation of the agricultural sector deprives the country of lots of revenue, particularly in the value addition chain. Kenya’s Import Dependency Ratio (IDR) worsened from 15.4 per cent in 2018 to 16.4 per cent in 2019. Recognising the high cost of starting and running a manufacturing industry, the state in its 2021-2022 budget resolved to help the sector by advancing finance to SMEs engaged in manufacturing. The move by the state to pump in cash to the manufacturing sector is seen as a direct resuscitation of the sector, which was on its knees after the pandemic struck. According to the 2020 economic survey the agricultural sector performance decelerated from 6.1 per cent recorded in 2018 to 3.6 per cent in 2019.

Source: Standard Digital July 06, 2021 12:00 UTC