Garissa County government has appealed to investors interested in the agro-processing sector to take advantage of the Garissa County Aggregation Industrial Park (CAIP) which is now 90% complete, and set up processing plants once completed.
Launched in September 2023 as a joint County–National Government initiative, the park is designed to reduce post-harvest losses, support agro-processing and unlock better market access for local producers, marking strong progress towards industrial growth and value addition and as the time creating jobs, boosting farmer incomes and strengthening the local economy.
The facility includes eight warehouses, with aggregation centres, cold storage rooms and value-addition units to support cooperatives and investors.
Speaking during a multi-agency tour to the facility to assess the progress and identify the operational gaps of the park, Garissa county chief officer for Industrialization and Enterprise development Jael Ouma appealed to investors to come onboard, invest in the part and ensure that the government’s investment in the project does not go to waste.
Ouma reiterated that the project was an important part of the county government in creating more jobs, improving their revenue and lifting the livelihoods of the local farmers.
According to the chief officer, the investors are encouraged to focus on processing of camel milk, camel milk powder, rice and sunflower, which will be packaged locally instead of being sold raw at low prices thus increasing incomes, creating youth employment and keeping value within the county
“The industrial park is very important for Garissa county and actually, it is going to improve the economy of this county and we expect our revenue to also go up. We thank so much the collaboration between the county and the national government to come up with this project,” Ouma said.
“The project is already at 90 per cent and within three months, this project will be completed. We are calling on the investors and our locals to come onboard and take advantage of this industrial park. The Value chain that we are focusing on is mostly camel milk powder. Any investor who is interested in investing in camel milk, please show up so that this place can come to reality. The infrastructure is there, so let’s make use of it to help the community,” she added.
The multi-agency team included officials from the state department of Industrialization, Government delivery unit and officers from the Garissa county commissioner’s office.
