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The Board has secured a four-storey premise in London, dubbed ‘Kenya House’ where it will showcase Kenya as a top investment, trade and tourism destination in Africa/CFM

Kenya

Brand Kenya taps on London Olympics

The Board has secured a four-storey premise in London, dubbed ‘Kenya House’ where it will showcase Kenya as a top investment, trade and tourism destination in Africa/CFM

NAIROBI, Kenya, Jul 9 – The Brand Kenya Board has launched a campaign to market Kenya during the forthcoming London Olympics.

The Board has secured a four-storey premise in London, dubbed ‘Kenya House’ where it will showcase Kenya as a top investment, trade and tourism destination in Africa.

Information Permanent Secretary Bitange Ndemo said with close to four million expected visitors at the Olympics, the Kenya House will be an ideal platform to push investments in initiatives such as the ICT Konza City.

“What we’re trying to build is the branding of this country differently from what we’ve ever known before,” he stated.

“We’re leveraging on our athletes to attract foreign journalists and investors to the House to meet with them and we’re closely working with the athletes to send a positive message about this country,” he added.

The PS revealed that the government spent £30,000 (Sh3, 897, 093) to rent out the four-storey building where Kenya House will operate from, and Brand Kenya Director of Marketing Nzilu Musyoki announced that it will play host to an array of events and exhibitions that will attract up to 500 guests daily.

“The objectives of this investment showcase is to communicate with the rest of the world about the investment ready projects that Kenya is unveiling,” he said.

“We’re talking about projects spanning from energy to infrastructure and across the tourism and hospitality sectors. On the Kenya House platform we will be showcasing to the world, what exactly they can do if they choose Kenya as an investment destination,” he explained.

Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) has invested Sh35 million in partnership with Brand Kenya and CEO Martin Oduor-Otieno said that the Kenya House initiative will help raise the profile of the country at an international level while attracting Kenyans living in the Diaspora who would like to invest in the country but are not aware of the opportunities.

The House will host a Kenyan Diaspora Conference that seeks to expound on the Diaspora policy, Diaspora voting and the role of Diaspora in nation branding.

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Otieno noted that this will further provide an opportunity for the Diaspora to intricately understand the opportunities available to them based on the implementation of the new Constitution.

Brand Kenya CEO Mary Kimonye said that “global institutional investors are planning to boost their asset allocation in African markets over the next five years, and are shifting to long-term investment strategies.”

“The Kenya House is an ideal platform to showcase our strengths and achievements to prospective investors,” she emphasised.

The House will host an investment summit that seeks to showcase the reforms put in place by the Government of Kenya to ease investment, which has helped push the country’s World Bank rating as one of the top African nations in dealing with construction permits and the sixth easiest nation in the world in which to get credit.

To close the programme, Kimonye revealed that they will feature four thematic days that touch on tourism, export, sports and Kenya as they promote Kenya as “the cradle of mankind to Vision 2030”.

Earlier this year, Brand Finance cited Kenya as the most improved country in Africa, placing it 8th in the top 10 countries with a brand value of $19 billion (Sh1.5 trillion).

The PS noted that this shows that Kenya has the potential to attract foreign direct investment as it grows to become a major commercial hub in East and Central Africa.

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