Kenyans may lose out on Sudan deals
By Kaburu Mugambi
NAIROBI, July 27, 2005 (THE NATION) — Businesspeople in Kenya could lose opportunities to take part in the multi-billion dollar reconstruction project in Southern Sudan.
Time is running out for them and they could soon find the contracts going to other countries, Kenya’s ambassador to Sudan, Mr Daniel Mboya said yesterday.
“The colossal amount of money set aside for reconstruction will not wait for Kenyans,” he said.
Although Kenya brokered the Sudan comprehensive peace agreement, which ended decades of civil war between the North and South, Kenyans had not exploited the business openings.
The peace deal on power and wealth-sharing was reached in Kenya on January 9, and was signed by the Sudan Government and the Sudan People’s Liberalisation Movement.
“Other countries are also scrambling for the money,” Mr Mboya told a seminar on investment in Southern Sudan, at a Nairobi hotel on Monday.
Bread of Life Africa, an international non-governmental organisation with interest in investment and trade in Kenya, Uganda, Sudan, Ethiopia and Djibouti organised the seminar.
In April, some 60 rich nations attended an international donor conference in Oslo, Norway, to raise money which the UN has pledged to use on rebuilding Southern Sudan.
UN had asked for US$2.6 billion (Sh200.2 billion) to fund the refugee programme and to rebuild the ravaged infrastructure, but the donors pledged US$4.5 billion, (Sh346.5 billion), much more than the UN had asked for.
Mr Mboya’s views were echoed by the chief executive of Southern Sudan’s Nile Commercial Bank, Mr Aggrey Idri, who said Kenyans were reluctant to trade in Sudan and that the bank was the only one operating there.
Bread of Life Africa programme director Malei Nthiwa said Kenya had a history of missed business opportunities, adding: “We missed reconstruction businesses in Rwanda, South Africa and Namibia, and if we drag our feet, we will miss Sudan too.”
A Government of Southern Sudan budgetary expenditure estimates indicate that it will spend US$3.6 billion (Sh277.2 billion) in the first phase of rebuilding the infrastructure, basic social services and productive sectors.
Phase II will focus on realising Millennium Development Goals of halving poverty by 2015.