Kenya Signs Three Trade Agreements for Green Investments
Posted on : Tuesday, 12th September 2023
With the goal of transforming food security and air travel, Kenya has signed three agreements with Sweden, South Africa and Hong Kong that promote environmental protection.
This occurred at a pre-African Climate Summit side event in Nairobi in 2023.
As part of the agreement with the Swedish company Cool Go Green, food preservation will be powered by sunshine in an effort to cut down on food waste and post-harvest losses.
In the next five years, the company plans to invest $200 million (Sh28.9 billion) in the establishment of 40,000 cooling units around the nation.
According to Peter Korner, the creator of the company, the agreement aims to provide farmers and Kenyans more power to use solar-powered refrigeration containers to preserve food for a longer shelf life.
Due to the high cost of both purchasing and maintaining preservation equipment, up to 40% of food in Kenya is thought to be lost after harvest.
"A large portion of African farmers lack access to dependable energy and storage facilities. Additionally, without the use of external power sources, our technology maintains ideal cold storage conditions for up to seven days," as stated by Korner.
Africa's Agriculture At an estimated cost of $102 million (Sh14.7 billion), All Africa wants to install climate smart rice cultivation on 31,000 hectares of land in the Tana Delta.
This is anticipated to assist Kenya in producing roughly 560,000 metric tonnes of rice annually and help the country avoid spending $690 million (Sh99.95 billion) on the importation of the crop.
This, while creating more than 37,500 jobs and generating 175,000 carbon credits, according to the firm’s director Priscilla Motlhako.
The government also reached an agreement with the taxi-hailing service Volar Air Mobility to launch the world's first air taxi ride-hailing facility, providing a way to fly without polluting the atmosphere.
Volar Air provides a variety of services, including air taxi, flight schools, precise mapping, agricultural spraying, logistics, air ambulance, and humanitarian activities.
Through the agreement, Kenya becomes the first nation in Africa where Volar Air Mobility will launch operations aimed at tourists who care about the environment.
The improvements, according to Trade CS Moses Kuria, would also improve air travel conditions and generate more than 40,000 employment, reducing the nation's reliance on food imports.
Promotion of Investment PS According to Abubakar Hassan, the government's goal of reducing food imports is consistent with the agricultural improvements.
"Around $48 billion (Sh6.9 trillion) worth of food is lost each year in Africa. The enormous budgets the continent spends on food imports are a result of this," he claimed.
