Leather is one of the priority residential value chain in Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda
Hides and skin dealers in Kenya got a shot in the arm after the government gave assurances of a ready market for their produce in Italy.
Livestock Development Principal Secretary Jonathan Mueke gave the assurances following complaints from the flayers in the sector that there is no market outside Kenya and the local buyers are few.
“President William Ruto sent me to Italy to look for a leather market and while there, I visited global fashion brands including Gucci and they said they do not in fact want hides and skins but finished leather to be able to make products and sell in the entire world,” said PS Mueke.
The PS spoke while attending the graduation of 75 slaughters and skin graders or players based at Kiamaiko slaughterhouse in Huruma, Nairobi, Kenya.
The slaughter house produces skins from goats, sheep while the Dagoretti slaughterhouse does produce hides from cows.
The flayers were trained through the Kiamaiko Flayers Quality Improvement Programme (KFQIP), which was initiated by the national government, Nairobi City County and Reddamac Leather Center Ltd.
Reddamac Leather Center limited CEO Robert Njoka said quality of skins in Kiamaiko slaughterhouse, which is the biggest producer of skins in the region, has really improved.
“All the tanneries in the country are preferring skins from Kiamaiko, showing that the training journey of flayers started a year has been a worthy cause, considering the training of flayers is an area we have overlooked over time,” said Njoka, who appreciated power of public private partnership (PPP) model that was used in the programme.
The PS revealed that the government is working with Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVETS) to develop a curriculum with 16 TVETS across the country plus its eight institutions within his State Department to train leather technicians.
So far the government has trained 2,139 flayers across the country in the last one year and bought the training equipment for the Dagoretti slaughterhouse.
The PS challenged hides and skins dealers to make good quality leather without knife cuts through proper flaying and also deliver enough quality leather to local tanneries to make leather.
This even as noted that the national government has plans to develop a leather sub-sector through Kenya Leather Investment Park, which is expected to be launched next year September.
Leather is one of the priority residential value chain in the Kenya Kwanza’s Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda (BETA) and has a big target of creating 120, 000 jobs from the current 21,000 and bring in the economy Sh100 billion by 2027 from the current Sh20 million.
According to Kenya Institute of Public Policy Research and Analysis (KIPPRA) Policy Brief No.20/2022-2023, called ‘Revitalizing the Leather Industry to Foster Economic Transformation’ Kenya’s leather exports consist of semi-processed tanned “wet blue” leather at 90 percent, raw hides and skins at (5), finished leather 2 and 3 percent leather footwear.
Leather footwear is the biggest leather goods sub-sector in Kenya, while handbags are the most competitive.
Prof Ratemo Michieka, chairman of National Research Fund (NRF) challenged the government to push for increased funding for research in the leather industry.
Prof Michieka noted that the leather industry could create 500,000 to 700,000 jobs in the entire value chain and asked the government to promote the sub-sector.
Garissa University Deputy Vice Chancellor Prof Irura Ng’ang’a revealed that the varsity, in partnership with NRF, Reddamac Leather Center Ltd and Kenya National Qualifications Authority (KNQA), has started developing a curriculum for flayers, slaughterhouse operators and traders and that it
“We did a survey in the Garissa Municipality and found out that the hides and skins there have zero value and this is what necessitated the plans to develop a curriculum to capacity build flayers and give certification that takes cognizance of RPL,” said Prof Ng’ang’a.