On Wednesday, during his official visit to Kenya, President Andrej Kiska paid a visit to a nut processing plant which is a result of Slovak development aid as well as to iHub Nairobi, the most significant innovation centre in Kenya.

The nut processing plant is a common project of Integra (a Slovak foundation) and Ten Senses Africa. Initially, it employed a few dozen employees but today, they are almost one thousand.

President Kiska highlighted that the enterprise provides employment to almost 25 thousand small farmers in the region who supply it with nuts. The macadamia and cashew nut products are exported to Europe and North America.

The President believes in the company´s strong growth potential and in the additional activities they have planned – including the planting of several million more trees.   Kenya has the ambition of becoming the global number one in nut production and the President thinks that this is certainly achievable. 

When visiting the iHub innovation centre, President Kiska saw himself that the country is rich in crowds of young talented people who wish to enter business, develop start-ups, pay close attention to leading technologies and reflect about exploiting their own potential. He appreciated that the government of Kenya is willing to invest in widely beneficial projects in sectors such as transport. “Then, it really is up to the young people to seize the opportunity, to put it to use and create a successful company while helping the country.”

Competences in language make it possible for many young software developers to work in Nairobi for corporations like Google or Microsoft.  President Kiska claims that the government in Kenya may have the lead of a decade over the Slovak one “…. which means that there are things we may learn from them,” the President suggested.