NAIROBI, Nov. 10 (Xinhua) -- Kenya's economy grew by 10.1 percent in the three months to June 30, compared to 0.7 percent in the first quarter of 2021, a government official said on Wednesday.

Ukur Yatani, cabinet secretary of the national treasury, said that the performance was buoyed by rebounds in most economic activities as compared to slow growth in the previous quarter.

According to Yatani, some of the sectors that supported overall growth in the second quarter included manufacturing, education, transportation and storage, information and communication and other services activities.

He said that the manufacturing sector's growth was driven by expansion of both the food sub-sector and non-food sectors.

The Kenyan official said that there was a slowdown in performance of agriculture, forestry and fishing activities.

He said that the agricultural sector's performance was cushioned from a steeper slump by a notable increase in milk production, horticultural exports and production of sugarcane.

According to Yatani, the transportation and storage sector reported a growth in the second quarter as a result of lifting of restrictions on domestic and international movement which was in place in the second quarter of 2020.

Freight movement through Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) increased to stand at 1,326,000 tons in the second quarter of 2021. And passenger transport through SGR increased to 304,445 passengers in the period under review. - Xinhua

MTI CEO Hilmy Cader with some MTI Rwanda project team members

MTI Consulting, led by its CEO Hilmy Cader, is in Kigali this week to launch its East African operations, whilst working on nationally strategic consulting projects for Rwanda.

MTI had recently completed the Strategic Plan for Rwanda Cooperation - the Rwanda state-owned enterprise charged with the responsibility of sharing the country’s home-grown initiatives and good practices that have enabled Rwanda’s remarkable socio-economic transformation. 

“Rwanda, considered to be the ‘tech hub’ of Africa and tipped to be the ‘Singapore’ of Africa,  is the 49th country in which MTI has carried out an assignment, since our inception in 1997. Africa is undoubtedly the growth continent of the 21st century.  Over the last three years, we have been focusing on regional opportunities across East Africa – given the access to these markets from Asia and the Gulf. Given Kigali’s strategic location, we plan to access the key markets of Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya and Ethiopia from Kigali,” said Cader. 

Coming out of a devastating genocide in 1994, Rwanda’s socio-economic transformation is considered a ‘case study’ for the developing world. In 2019, Rwanda was  the world’s third fastest growing economy, ranked 38th (and second in Africa) for Ease of Doing Business and first for Government Transparency in Africa.  Interestingly, Rwanda has the highest female participation (61 percent) in Parliament in the world and it ranked ninth in Global Gender Gap Index 2020 (first in Africa).

MTI is an internationally-networked boutique management consultancy – having carried out 670 projects across 49 countries – in the last 24 years. MTI’s practices cover strategy, operations, corporate finance and digital and analytics. - dailymirror.lk