Busia County Set To Benefit From Industrial Park Initiative Under County & National Government Partnership
Busia County is set to benefit from the proposed Busia Industrial Park initiative. This is an economic transformation enterprise between the County Government of Busia and the National Government of Kenya.
The vision of the Busia Industrial Park project is to create an enabling environment that will play a significant role of domiciling food, agribusiness, warehouses, and logistics businesses in Busia County hence contributing to the production of manufactured goods and add value to agricultural products.
Through a feasibility analysis, the County has identified edible oils as the most significant area of investment with a high projected Return on Investment (ROI). The specific crops to be planted in the initial stages of project implementation are Groundnuts, Sesame (simsim), Sunflower, Soyabeans and Cotton.
The current annual consumption of processed edible oils in the county is approximately 6,500 tons while the production of edible oils crops stands at 303.4 tons presenting 95.33% deficit. Furthermore, nationally, there is a deficit of 28,899 tons in consumption demand for the edible oils. (KNBS Food Balance Sheet, 2019). This is an indication that there is market within and outside the county.
The County Government has already budgeted for Kes 250M towards project realization with additional funding set to be provided by the National Government.