President William Ruto when he commissioned Ngeria Technical Training Institute in Kapseret Constituency, Uasin Gishu County on January 10, 2025.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is set to firm its grip as one of Kenya’s export markets with a scheduled new economic partnership agreement(EPA) with Nairobi that would further ease trade between the two countries.
State House on Monday indicated that President William Ruto would sign an EPA with the UAE as part of a trip to the Middle East country, which became Kenya’s second-largest export market after Uganda on jet fuel re-exports.
“During the visit, Kenya and UAE are expected to sign a comprehensive EPA, which will foster increased trade, investment, and development cooperation between the two countries,” said State House spokesperson Hussein Mohamed in a statement yesterday.
President Ruto left to attend the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week (ADSW) summit in the UAE, one of Kenya’s largest export destinations due to its huge demand for Kenyan tea, meat products, fruits, vegetables, and flowers.
The UAE beat the US, Pakistan, Netherlands, and Tanzania to become Kenya’s second-largest export destination last year, with trading data for the nine months to September showing that Kenya exported Sh86.89 billion in goods to the market.
“The agreement is expected to further simplify export procedures, enhance market access for trade in services, and stimulate increased investments from the UAE across several sectors,” State House said.
Market access and simple procedures have the potential to enhance the UAE’s grip on the local export market, even as it continues to supply Kenya with fuel under the government-to-government oil importation framework.
This was a 118.78 percent increase in exports to the market up from Sh39.7 billion a year earlier and the growth UAE trail only neighbouring, landlocked Uganda where Kenya exported goods valued at Sh100.5 billion.
