In a bold move to reshape its economic future, Kenya is racing to implement the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), not just to boost trade but to become Africa’s leading innovation and industrial hub.

At the Kenya IATF2025 Business Roadshow, Cabinet Secretary for Investments, Trade and Industry, Hon. Lee Kinyanjui, declared Kenya’s ambitious new direction. “The solutions to Africa’s problems lie with Africans,” he said, underlining the AfCFTA as a powerful catalyst for self-driven economic transformation across the continent.

Rather than focusing solely on export figures and trade volumes, Kenya is now anchoring its strategy on innovation, value chains, and regional industrialisation. The event, themed “Harnessing Regional and Continental Value Chains: Accelerating Africa’s Industrialisation and Global Competitiveness under the AfCFTA,” brought together over 200 key players from across sectors, including automotive, creative, manufacturing, investment, and policy.

High-profile representatives from Afreximbank and the African Union Commission joined Kenyan stakeholders in charting a path toward deeper intra-African collaboration. Their shared message: Africa can no longer afford to remain a source of raw materials; it must become a centre of value addition, intellectual capital, and industrial strength.

Kenya, with its educated youth, robust financial ecosystem, and strategic location, is uniquely poised to seize this moment. By scaling up its production capacity and integrating into regional value chains, the country hopes to attract significant investment and emerge as a continental gateway for innovation, entrepreneurship, and sustainable development.