The Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA) members held a successful Annual General Meeting where Mr. Vimal Shah, the current BIDCO CEO was appointed as the new chairman for KEPSA. He takes over from Eng. Patrick Obath who served the board of KEPSA as a chair for 4 years. Mr. Vimal Shah served as the deputy chair in the KEPSA board; the meeting also appointed a deputy vice chair Ms. Laila Macharia. Various chairs for the Governing Council were also appointed.
KEPSA also launched the National Business Agenda II, a blue print that forms the basis of advocacy for the private sector in the next five years. In the blue print, ten areas of advocacy have been identified for improvement of business environment for the private sector.
The KEPSA secretariat also used the meeting to unveil an online advocacy scorecard to be used by members to track the advocacy issues from identification to finalization. Three sector chairs also presented reports of sector outlooks, a new membership service from economic analysts to get a deeper and informative view of the various sectors.
The sector outlooks will be available online for members. KEPSA also launched a new website that is more interactive and informative with the members and other stakeholders. The meeting was also used to launch a new logo for KEPSA to reflect the new all-inclusive business associations and corporate membership as well as to show the dynamism in KEPSA today. Speaking during the meeting, the outgoing KEPSA Chairman read the company annual report and gave a highlight of the focus areas of the company in the coming year.
This included the continued participation in ensuring peace prevails and the public private dialogue. He highlighted some of the major achievements during his tenure in office. He cited the streamlining and appointment of the Micro and Small Enterprise (MSE) Sector board which advocates for the interests of Micro Entrepreneurs and the appointment of the Kenya National Chamber of Commerce officials and in the Mkenya Daima campaign where KEPSA was directly involved in the three. He also noted that KEPSA had made great strides in the Public Private Dialogue and had been greatly involved in policymaking through input in Bills and policies.
He thanked all for their support during his time in office. The new KEPSA Chairman Mr. Vimal Shah in his remarks thanked the board for their trust in appointing him as the new chair. He noted that KEPSA had the rare opportunity in the new government and in the devolved governments to participate in policy making and in alleviating poverty through job creation. He called on all Business Membership Organizations to participate fully in the advocacy processes.
The new chair also noted that there are major opportunities for investments in the country for the private sector where he asked them to grab the opportunities to develop the country and create the much needed jobs. He finally thanked the outgoing chairman for the achievements KEPSA has made during his time in office and also thanked all those that had contributed to building KEPSA. Dr Manu Chandaria, the founding Chairman, noted that KEPSA had grown from a small organization of a few people to be the Apex body of the private sector.
In his remarks he said that much has been achieved but not all has been realized. He asked the government to walk the talk to achieve the growth required to create jobs for the approximate six million jobless youths. He termed it as hard work that required much action and less talk. He urged the Private sector to take keen attention to development issues. In attendance were; members derived from KEPSA Business Membership Organizations and Corporate members, Permanent Secretary for Labour Ms. Beatrice Naliaka.
Daisy Kimkung is a journalism student at Egerton University.
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