Kenya’s first ever ‘Super Sale’ at KICC extended
By Claire Wanja/Release
The three day export quality clothes exhibition set to end Friday has been extended to this Saturday.
The sale has seen over 20,000 Kenyans throng KICC for quality clothes at affordable prices.
It is an initiative of the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment in partnership with Textile and Apparel firms under the Export Processing Zones programme.
Dubbed, ‘The Super Sale’, the Nairobi event heralds the first of the many export-quality Expos to be held in Mombasa, Nakuru, Kisumu and other major urban towns next.
The ‘Super Sale’ has for the first time let Kenyans access top quality items for as little as between Sh.100 and Sh.600 shillings for quality items that go for as much as Sh.6000 in global markets.
Speaking Friday at the event, Cabinet Secretary, Industry, Trade and Investment Adan Mohamed said that the demand by the public has demonstrated that the initiative is working.
“We are extending it for one more day to make sure our citizens have access to the high quality export products that are sold to overseas market,” said Mr. Mohamed.
He said the pilot initiative is a key lesson in allowing textile firms to take advantage of growing demand for apparel products by the growing middle class and hence boost the sector while helping Kenya reduce her clothing import bill that stands at over USD 815 million.
“There’s a growing class of Kenyan that desire for export quality clothes that are far too expensive. The expo is a first of many interventions to assure this access,” said Mr. Mohamed.
He said most of the EPZ firms that will be exhibiting in the ‘Super Sale’ export for the biggest brands in the world.
Hela Clothing, that opened the first intimate clothing production facility in Kenya exports for Calvin Klein, Victoria Secrets, Tommy Hilfiger and other licensed brands owned by US clothing conglomerate Phillips-Van Heusen Corporation (PVH Corp).
Mr. Mohamed announced that Noel & Noella, an exporter of sportswear to some of the most popular sports brands in the world has completed plans to set up an outlet store in Kenya this year.
He said the initiative will also help in establishing a new supply-chain of export quality clothes whilst creating 100,000 new jobs from the current 179,000 the sector employs.
The initiative comes after months of negotiation between the Government and EPZ firms following last year’s budget provision to Value Added Tax (VAT exemption for EPZ companies manufacturing export quality textile and leather footwear if they retailed locally.
The Cabinet Secretary is banking on labor-intensive low-tech industries such as textile as part of the realization of the ‘Buy Kenyan, Build Kenya’ policy as well expanding to new geographical markets in textiles and building an industrial park in Naivasha to take advantage of natural power sources and set up a textile cluster within the park.
