CS Kagwe launches Ksh.1.4T agriculture mordernisation project

The Kenya AgriConnect Compact (2025–2030), an initiative in partnership with the World Bank, is set to advance technology in agriculture by expanding digitised services, agritech platforms for market traceability, and advanced processing technologies to eliminate crippling post-harvest losses.

Speaking during the launch in Nairobi, CS Kagwe intimated that the government is committing Ksh.492.5 billion (USD 3.8B) in catalytic public funds and secure Ksh.984.9 billion (USD 7.6 billion) through private-sector investment.

"The Agriconnect Compact positions agriculture not as a subsistence sector, but as a modern, technology-enabled, climate-smart, and investment-ready engine for inclusive economic transformation," CS Kagwe noted.

"It is a deliberate, strategic, and urgent framework to align public investment with private sector ambition where public investment finances foundational systems and public goods, reducing risks and creating an enabling environment that attracts large-scale private capital." 

He added that the funding framework changes the risk profile of agricultural lending, turning local value chains such as dairy, edible oils, and horticulture into lucrative targets for private capital.

The market reforms aim to cut costly food staple imports by 50 percent, while driving a 60 percent surge in high-value exports to global markets. 

CS Kagwe holds that the initiative is engineered to create 2.482 million jobs by 2030, absorbing the youth across agro-processing, logistics, digital supply chains, and agribusiness management sectors. 

"The jobs to be created will be real jobs with dignity. The food security we achieve will mean that no Kenyan goes to bed hungry," said Kagwe. 

"We have the strategy. We have the investment framework. We have the political will. What we need now is private sector action." 

Also present were Principal Secretaries (Livestock Development) Jonathan Mueke, (Agriculture) Dr.Kipronoh Ronoh, Governors Mutahi Kahiga (Nyeri), Nathif Jama Adam (Garissa) and Joseph Ole Lenku (Kajiado).

Other development partners in attendance included World Bank Group, IFAD, African Development Bank (AfDB), Gates Foundation, AGRA, the US Embassy, Embassy of the Netherlands, German Embassy, GiZ, American Chamber of Commerce, British Chamber of Commerce & Industry, KEPSA, KAM and ASNET.