Savannah Cement, Managing Director, Ronald Ndegwa, described the move as a much needed lifeline for local manufacturers/FILE
The directive, issued as part of President Uhuru Kenyatta’s 52nd Madaraka Day national address is geared at fostering a buy Kenya build Kenya culture by all public sector institutions.
The Government, President Kenyatta, said, is, pursuing policies that ensure growth in consumption of locally produced goods and services to secure opportunity and productivity.
The Jubilee administration, he said, has set a target to ensure that 40 per cent of all services and goods procured by Government are locally produced.
Speaking when he welcomed the directive, Savannah Cement, Managing Director, Ronald Ndegwa, described the move as a much needed lifeline for local manufacturers.
The directive, he noted, will ultimately ignite a positive ripple effect on the economic front as increased purchases will also mean more jobs for Kenyans.
“The directive by President Uhuru Kenyatta is sweet music to our ears as it has a capacity to accelerate the growth of local industries,” Ndegwa said.
“It is no secret that local industries have been suffering from skewed competition from imported products purchased by public institutions at the expense of local manufacturers,” he added.
The directive, Ndegwa said, will also inspire many local companies to step up their product innovation efforts while benchmarking against global manufacturers.
At Savannah cement, the firm is investing more than US$200million in the installation of its second high efficiency milling plant to meet growing demand for its products.
The new milling plant to be installed at the firm’s manufacturing complex near Kitengela town features the latest cement manufacturing technology which allows for Eco-friendly, dust and related emissions free cement production.
The firm, will also be angling for public sector supplies for its latest innovation; the Savannah Hydraulic Road Binder (HRB) product as it awaits a commercial production approval from the government.
The recent development of the Savannah HRB Product is a major milestone for Savannah Cement which becomes the first Sub-Sahara Africa Cement manufacturer to produce such a specialized product.
The HRB cement blend product, is used in road construction works to stabilize road surfaces and has been developed in response to a request by the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure.
Globally, HRB products are used in place of mainstream cement and lime products for soil stabilisation on loose road surfaces. [Soilstabilization, is a process that combines soil, cement and water to produce a hard, durable paving material that can be used for the foundation or base of road and airport pavements, parking and storage areas.
