Kenya: Tokyo Africa summit expected to further boost investment and trade

The sixth Tokyo International Conference on African Development, kicked off on Friday in Kenya’s capital Nairobi, a first in its history, as it has always been held in Japan.

Close to 10,000 delegates including at least 35 African heads of state converged in the East African city for the event, which was officially opened on Saturday by Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Abe said TICAD aims to solve Africa’s development problems through quality technology. He also pledeged Africa an investment of USD 30 billion made up of infrastructure financing and human resource development over the next three years beginning 2016.

Japan, a global leader in manufacturing of automobiles and electronics has seen its export driven economy benefit from shipping products to emerging markets in Africa.

Japan’s direct investment in Africa was 460 million US dollars in 2011, compared with China’s 3.17 billion, according to the Japan and China’s government data.