Captains of Industry 2022 projections

NAIROBI, Kenya Dec 25 – The year 2021 comes to an end with a mixed bag of fortune for the local economy, although the key players are unanimous that it has been a resilient ride in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic.

In the New Year, Captains of Industry are now expressing cheerful optimism for their 2022 prospects, notwithstanding the general election jitters.

We spoke to a few captains of Industry who reckon that:

Prof Freida Brown, Interim Vice Chancellor United States International University-Africa: At USIU-Africa, we are looking forward to the new year. We are confident that the New year portends excellent tidings for many economic sectors, including the academic delivery institutions. We successfully managed to integrate diversified educational delivery systems in the year 2021 that will enable USIU-Africa to act as an integrated academic centre.

An integrated academic centre that can deliver fulfilling, seamless physical and virtual academic programmes.

Prof. Freida Brown, Interim Vice Chancellor United States International University-Africa.

This was a heavy investment that involved the integration of ICT systems and also human capital training. The year 2021 also saw an international executive search commencement as we sought to retain a substantive Vice-Chancellor.

The process is spearheaded by a United Kingdom-based firm, Oxford HR, a specialist executive search and organisational effectiveness firm. We are optimistic that the new year will see us welcoming a new competitively recruited Vice-Chancellor.

Alongside the management aspects, we shall be focusing our energies on executing the latest five-year Strategic Plan 2021-2026. This is a very robust strategic plan founded on solid pillars to allow USIU-Africa to thrive.

It has considered the current disruptions in the global and national higher education system with its varied challenges and opportunities for growth. Undoubtedly, 2022 will be a good year, and we are looking forward to fulfilling experiences for the new intake and continuing students.

Dr Anastasia Nyalita, CEO Kenya Health Federation: The Kenyan economy has shown remarkable recovery capacity in the face of the pandemic.

At the Kenya Health Federation, we are upbeat that 2022 will be a better year for players in the healthcare delivery sector. The year 2021 saw several healthcare providers affiliated with KHF making critical investments to boost healthcare delivery.

Dr Anastasia Nyalita, CEO Kenya Health Federation.

A number of our members managed to expand and optimise their branch footprint. Many other existing providers were also able to enhance their delivery capacity by integrating new facilities such as extra beds, ICU equipment, Oxygen delivery systems, and even medical transport solutions. All these critical investments estimated at close to Kshs 5 billion will serve as healthcare enablers.

Even as we navigate the current COVID-19 wave, KHF is confident that the local healthcare system and public and private infrastructure are better placed to handle the challenges. KHF members now have better information reporting systems which will significantly complement the capacity of the public health information system.

To further support health data sharing, KHF has partnered with Smart Applications International, Africa’s leading high-tech technology solutions company, to enable the KHF to have an automated system.

This information technology system will allow all KHF to Member organisations to easily collect and access crucial healthcare data within the country at the touch of a button.

Some of the key fields and data to be mined through the system include but are not limited to;- number of hospital beds in the country, bed occupancy, number of available COVID-19 beds and ventilators, and inpatient admission and a private sector-led Covid Vaccination status.

Therefore, we look forward to better health outcomes in 2022. We continue to support critical reforms touching on public institutions such as the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) and the Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (KEMSA).

Mr Chris Flowers, CEO Kakuzi Plc: At Kakuzi Plc, we are closing the year on a high note following the recent release of our 2020 Environmental, Social And Governance (ESG) report, the four avocado excellence awards and the disbursing of our annual bonus pay-outs for our avocado smallholder partners. We appreciate our employees who made 2021 a successful year, and we look forward to walking together into 2022.

We are delighted that we have made critical headway on the business front. For example, we are committed to enhancing our Avocado and macadamia production capacity with several recent investments valued at more than Sh100 million.

Chris Flowers, MD-Kakuzi.

We currently have a thriving new immature avocado development area to boost our avocado production, with production expected to come online in the next few years. Still, land preparation for a new Avocado crop is also underway in a crop area previously under pineapple production.

We appreciate that no company can operate in isolation on the community front. Thus, at Kakuzi, we place utmost emphasis on the community that has given us the license to trade. We see the community as a critical pillar in our sustainability journey.

As a result, in 2022, we shall be further stepping up our community engagements, as would be expected of a progressive corporate.

John Musunga, Managing Director, Kenya Breweries Limited.

2021 has been a year of recovery for us at Kenya Breweries Limited and we continued to adjust and rise to the challenges that came with the second year of the pandemic. The development of the vaccines has given the world hope for return to normalcy even as new variants frustrate scientific efforts. We are glad to play our role, to the extent possible, in ensuring our employees, customers, consumers and communities were vaccinated against Covid-19 and stayed safe.

During the year, we maintained focus on growing our business, to take it back onto our pre-Covid trajectory investing in our business and across our trade channels to maximise our commercial opportunities.

KBL MD – John Musunga

We also engaged the gear on our sustainability efforts, published our first Sustainability Report and continued to invest towards delivery of our environmental and social governance.

Looking ahead in 2022, our hope is that the recovery continues and the environment remains conducive for the business even as we enter the electioneering period.

This is also a milestone year for KBL – we are celebrating 100 years of our business and there will be are a lot of activities to mark the centenary. Kenyans can expect to see and hear more from us in 2022 as we mark centenary of existence.

On the regulation front, the alcoholic beverage business continues to bear the brunt of unhealthy increase in Excise Duty which is impacting the industry with proliferation of illicit alcohol, as consumers’ purchasing power shrinks.

The entire manufacturing sector needs government support: a more predictable approach to taxation will allow the it to thrive and contribute more to the growth of the country’s economy.