The board of a Turkish manufacturing conglomerate has named a former journalist and businessman Mwaniki Munuhe as Vice President in charge of its Africa Operations.
This was announced during the ground breaking ceremony of a USD 760 million (Sh91 billion) investment project presided over by President Uhuru Kenyatta at the Naivasha Special Economic Zone on Tuesday.
Mr Munuhe, 36, now becomes the first African to ever be appointed to the role at Turkish Ceramic, Granite and Tiles SEZ throughout the corporation’s history.
Turkish Industry Holdings Vice President Abdulhakim Alici, who made the announcement before President Kenyatta, said Mr Munuhe “is a testament that Kenya has some of the finest entrepreneurial skills in the world.”
“We met him a while back and in a short time he was able to contribute great value to our corporate global planning,” stated Mr Alici.
“He has been an important part of our journey to Kenya and will henceforth lead the work that is ahead of us in Africa. We have full confidence that Mr Munuhe is more than equal to the task that we are bestowing on him today.”
He added that the project will consist of six manufacturing companies, namely; Ceramics and granite, Sanitary hardware, Tissue paper, MDF, Aluminum, and Steel.
Mr Alici further said the investment will directly employ 2,860 people with an additional 45,000 people benefiting indirectly; further that it will pump into Kenya’s economy USD 550 million (Sh65 billion) annually.
“It was not easy to marshal an investment of this magnitude, especially as we were unfamiliar with Kenya investment infrastructure,” he said.
“But after a long and rigorous appraisal we became convinced that Kenya is the most attractive investment destination — politically, economically, and geographically — for large scale investments. We became convinced that Kenya offers us the greatest potential.”
