Kenya : India evinces interest in reviving Kenyan textile mill

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India evinces interest in reviving Kenyan textile mill

19
Aug '14

India has evinced interest in reviving and expanding operations of Rift Valley Textile Company Ltd (Rivatex) located in Eldoret town of Uasin Gishu County in Kenya.

If the Indian Government okays the proposal, the Export-Import Bank of India will provide funding totaling to Sh7.9 billion, for the planned expansion of the textile company, the Star reported.

India will sign a financing agreement with the Kenyan Government for expansion of Rivatex, once the former is convinced of the textile firm's revival.

The firm is currently owned and managed by Moi University, which acquired and revived it after it collapsed earlier.

Yogeshwar Varma, India's High Commissioner to Kenya, visited the factory recently to assess its operations before negotiations for the agreement are completed.

"We are looking at details of providing the soft loans for funding the Rivatex expansion project and plans for the project are in advanced stages," Verma said.

Varma said the Indian Government has already received a final report on the project and is now examining it for details.

However, Verma said, cotton shortage is a major hurdle and needs to be addressed under the plan to expand the factory's operations.

"We met the Rivatex team to look at how we can revive and expand the factory in a commercially viable manner," Varma said.

Under the expansion plan, new machinery will be installed to boost its production capacity and experts from India will assist in laying out a marketing strategy for Rivatex's products.

Earlier in April, fibre2fashion had reported that while on a visit to Rivatex, Kenyan Industrialization Cabinet Secretary Adan Mohammed had said the Government shall channel funds to the sector to build new textile factories and also expand existing ones.

Fibre2fashion News Desk - India

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