Kenya yesterday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Korea Electronic Association (KEA) to establish a $1.4 million electronics and information technology manufacturing support centre.

The centre will be built at Konza Technopolis, a technology hub, and the new project is projected to take two to three years to complete.

Konza Technopolis, often known as Africa's Silicon Savannah, is located around 64 kilometers south of Nairobi and is a crucial component of Kenya's Vision 2030 growth plan.

Kenya's goal with Konza is to develop a modern, sustainable smart city that will drive economic growth through a robust information, communications, and technology sector.

Moving on to the planned KEA centre, it will be built in four stages: business planning, training in electronics manufacture and product development, installation of production equipment and operational systems, and extension of operations using enterprise support systems.

Furthermore, the centre will support product launches with a target of 30 products each year and a decreased average production cycle of 6 months, train 100 people and support over 100 companies.

The Korean companies targeting to set up at the new centre include xVic, which produces portable golf aiming guides, Beaunex, which produces facial masks, Atech Net, makers of holographic imaging devices, Dooni Corp, makers of sound effectors, Illumino, makers of UV LED portable counterfeit detectors, Rollingseeds, makers of simpe UX game consoles, Share and Share, producers of smart doorlocks, Goonies, manufacturers of smart edutainment devices, and Sonic Dutch Korea..

Chungwon Park, CEO and president of KEA, said during the signing ceremony that the agreement will allow Korean globally known electronics and tech firms such as Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics to establish operations at the centre.

He said: “We intend to establish an electronic manufacturing support centre in Konza Technopolis, capable of producing electronic products, developing appropriate and skilled workforce and providing technical support.”

John Paul Okwiri, CEO of Konza, added: “This MOU heralds a new dawn for Konza Technopolis as we enter the next phase of development whereby Korean electronics companies, through their association, will establish a manufacturing support center enabling the various Korean companies to produce their products locally.”