Kisii Governor James Ongwae has challenged investors to take up any plausible business ideas and innovations from young people and help them reach the market.

Ongwae was speaking yesterday when he addressed over 2500 participants in the inaugural Kisii Entrepreneurship Summit, KES 2016 at the Kisii University grounds.

Former Prime Minister Raila Odinga, Homabay Governor Cyprian Awiti, PS for Cooperatives in the Ministry of Industrialization Ishmael Noor, Senator Chris Obure, Deputy Governor Joash Maangi and County Woman Representative Mary Otara were all present in the opening ceremony.

The theme for this Summit is ‘Tapping Trade and Investment Opportunities in Kisii County.’

The County chief explained that over the last three years of the county’s existence they have made significant strides in laying the necessary institutions and infrastructure ready for takeoff.

During the Summit, participants had an opportunity to interact with high profile guests among them entrepreneurs, industrialists, leaders in the corporate world, mentors, educators and policy makers.

Governor Ongwae called on the young innovators present not to be shy to pitch their ideas before some of the accomplished industrialists and entrepreneurs in the Summit.

“Entrepreneurship is the way to go if we are to build a robust and sustainable economy. Indeed, global economic tigers like India, China and Japan were built through cottage industries,” said Ongwae.

“As a County Government, we long to see innovations in entrepreneurship take the lead in our development agenda. We intend to promote entrepreneurship in Kisii by encouraging the youth and the general public to embrace business and innovation as a means to wealth and employment creation,” he added.

Besides creating a platform to celebrate entrepreneurs, the Summit will help create meaningful connections, build cross-county bridges and spark much needed conversations aimed at generating sustainable investments and partnerships.

Currently Kisii residents have access to better healthcare services. Kisii Hospital has been elevated into a Teaching and Referral facility with state of the art diagnostic equipment and improved human resource capacity. “Our people can now access healthcare services hitherto only available in Nairobi and other parts of the world,” said Governor Ongwae.

The county government has installed over 360 solar powered streetlights in Kisii Town sparking a 24hour economy and following the success of this project; 52 other market centres across the County have been lit.

Transition rate in Kisii County schools has improved following the disbursement of County bursaries to needy students. “As a result of our support to Early Childhood Development Centres through recruitment of 900 ECD teachers, enrolment has improved by over 100 per cent,” he said.

He observed that the county government has a robust Public, Private Partnership framework, a key enabler to investment that has facilitated the implementation of development projects across various sectors of our economy.

Figures with the Agriculture department, Kisii County produces over 27 million kilos of clean coffee the bulk of which is used for blending with other inferior coffees. The County also produces Blue Mountain Coffee that has a unique aroma that has led locals to nickname it ‘Omosike’.

This has the potential to be branded and sold both locally and internationally as Kisii Coffee but it is currently mixed with other coffees losing its unique quality.

With the Entrepreneurship Summit the county is looking for an investor to package and brand this unique coffee for both local and international markets.

Areas of potential investment include real estate development, hospitality, energy, value addition in the livestock sector and fruit processing.

Former Prime Minister Raila Odinga recalled the journey of devolution thanking the forefathers of Kenyan politics.

“It is unfortunate that some parts of the country are still marginalized. We still have several enemies of devolution, some of them have been killed in cold blood,” said Raila.

The former premier said that communities have realized that there are a lot of resources in the country to be shared.

“The summit here shows that Kenyans have a say in the development plans in their areas. Kisii must focus on exporting processed; fruits, branded vegetables and supply milk products and open up factories that can be a major source of employment,” he said.

He added: “ The county must tap to great potential in the diaspora. It is important for Kisii County to focus on strengthening coffee and tea value chain. The ultimate aim is to increase small scale farmers.”

He observed that close ties with other counties would ensure sharing resources and values.

“As a region, our diversity must be a source of gain. We must remove unnecessary levies to locals and allow them to play in the same and fair playground,” said Raila.

He observed that successful business people started by owning small business enterprises. On resource allocation, Raila said that he will continue to support more allocation to county governments.

PS Noor who was the Chief Guest said small business individuals should be given serious attention. Noor said that SMEs play a critical role in the Kenyan economy noting that the sector employs over 80 percent of the Kenyan population while contributing of 45 percent of GDP.

“As an immediate measure we have a fund to give loans to youths. A majority of these businesses if not all fall under the SMEs,” Noor said.

He called on business people to embrace technology and innovation in order to diversify overall operations in business. “County Governments should set aside land to put business centers,” he said.

Governor Awiti said that in the past three years most county governments have ensured that devolution remains on course.

“We have been given a privilege to look at and lead devolution. We thank all those who fought for devolution in our country,” said Awiti.

“We firmly believe that only through value addition, trade and investment we shall achieve our objective of transforming Kisii into a middle-income economy,” said Senator Obure.

Obure noted that Kisii County residents are faced with a real threat of increasing land diminishing sizes. “We have been compelled to seek other alternatives for survival,” he said.

Obure said that the Senate would do everything to safeguards the interests of devolution and ensure constant flow of funds.