Dubai Chamber of Commerce opens fourth African office in Kenya
The Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry has opened its fourth African office in Nairobi Kenya as it seeks to bolster economic ties with the continent while promoting Dubai in the growing African market.
The Nairobi office adds to the others in Ethiopia, Mozambique, Ghana, Azerbaijan and Erbil in Iraq.
HE Majid Saif Al Ghurair, Chairman of the Dubai Chamber, opened the office while on a trade mission to Kenya and Ethiopia.
“Over the past few years Dubai Chamber has fostered many initiatives to strengthen bilateral relations and expand its footprint in the continent by leading trade missions across Africa while establishing satellite offices in the continent to support two-way trade between Dubai businesses and their African counterparts. Kenya is considered the economic, commercial and the logistics hub of East Africa. In 2015, Kenya was Africa’s 5th largest economy in terms of GDP in current prices valued at $61.4 billion while the country has the sixth largest market in Africa in terms of population, with total number of 44.1 million persons, during the same year,” Al Ghurair said.
HE Hamad Buamim, President and CEO of the Dubai Chamber, noted that Kenya is the emirate’s 49th largest trading partner with bilateral trade rising over the last few years to reach $1.1 billion in 2015.
He also said that at present, Dubai Chamber has 211 Kenyan businesses among its members and “we would like to see that number grow with the support of the Kenya National Chamber of Commerce.”
“Kenya’s fast-growing economy, along with its stable and investor-friendly environment, offers plenty of opportunities for UAE-based business. We see potential for increased collaboration in a number of key sectors, most notably agriculture and agri-business, manufacturing, logistics and tourism which continue to see momentum while offering room for growth as the Kenyan government pushes ahead with infrastructure investment plans,” Buamim said.
The opening of the new office is the outcome of the series of Global Business Forums on Africa launched by the Chamber in 2012 which brings together key players from various government and private sectors to explore investment opportunities in emerging markets of the world. The fourth session of the Africa Global Business Forums will be held next year in Dubai.
