Chinese firm Jiangsu Lianfa inks deal to build textile plant in Kenya

Kenyan Cabinet Secretary for Industrialisation and Enterprise Development Adan Mohammed and Jiangsu Lianfa Textile Company president Xiangjun Kong signed the deal on Thursday. According to Mohammed, the textile factory to be build by Jiangsu Lianfa Textile Company Limited, Chinese firm which will be one of the largest in the continent and likely to create more than 30,000 jobs.

In the deal signed Jiangsu Lianfa Textile Company Limited, Chinese firm has committed to build a textile plant which will be located in the outskirts of Kenya’s capital, will sit in a 50,000 acre cotton farm in Naivasha. The investment involve in this project will be to the tune of about 44 billion Kenyan shillings (500 million US dollars).

The plant is expected to produce goods worth 1.5 billion dollars per annum and is also anticipated to triple, the East African nation’s annual production of textile goods.

Textile production recorded a 6.5 per cent growth in 2013 predominantly supported by manufacture of twine, cordage and rope as well as knitting wool.

Earlier the Chinese company disclosed that it has completed pre-investment evaluations to build a textile factory in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital. The factory will create over 20,000 jobs once it starts operation.

The firm has also made similar pre-investment assessments in Uganda, and Tanzania.

The Indian government is also working on the proposal for the expansion of Rift Valley Textile Company Ltd, once the government arrives at an agreement the Export-Import Bank of India stated that it will provide funding worth 7.9 billion Kenyan shillings for the expansion project.