Not so long ago, His Excellency President Mwai Kibaki gave out a speech highlighting the developments the nation has witnessed over the past couple of years while commissioning the opening of an information technology research lab spearheaded by the Kenyan Government together with the IT Solutions provider, IBM.
In his speech, Kibaki said, “This indeed is a timely establishment that for sure reflects Kenya’s paths to emerging with a middle class status in the near future. Nairobi’s ability to flourish, attract and retain more multinational businesses for the continent as a whole is also promising.”
True to his word, it now appears that the President wasn’t mincing his words given the recent developments witnessed by the flooding of multinationals among other global companies into the city under the sun; Nairobi. Nairobi is undoubtedly emerging as Africa’s business hub with the entrance of huge names such as IBM, Visa International, Pepsi, Nestle, General Electric, Google, World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC), Foton Automobiles and South Africa’s Rand Bank among others.
SPOTCHECK
US-based General Electric Company; one of the world’s leading producer of small and large jet engines for commercial and military aircrafts; which formally had its two corporate offices in Africa based in Cairo, Egypt and the other in Johannesburg, South Africa, has laid out plans to relocate its regional branches to Nairobi. What this means is that both its offices shall be downgraded to act as operational hubs with Nairobi being its Africa’s corporate headquarters.
Confirming the report, General Electric Company President Yibrah Tesfaghi said that the company shall shift its operations to Nairobi where plans shall be formulated of how to attract new business opportunities in the greater African continent.
Also on the elevation scale is International Finance Corporation (IFC) office based in Nairobi which according to the Regional Director Jean Philipper Prosper, would be upgraded to act as the regional hub and serve a total of 26 nations in the Eastern and Southern Africa region.
Nairobi continues to attract more and more interested corporate bodies into the ever flourishing market with the world’s second largest food and Beverage Company Pepsi-Cola announcing plans of establishing a manufacturing plant in Nairobi’s Ruaraka area. Once established, the plant would serve as the regional headquarters and it’s estimated to cost the company an estimated KES. 2.4 billion.
Nestle, Dow Chemicals and Pfizer- a US-based pharmaceutical company- are just some of the other companies that have shown interest in setting foot in Nairobi and their headquarters to act as their regional hub in the entire African continent.
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