Millennium Cities Initiative and KPMG International — Kenya
Introduction
KPMG firms are committed to supporting sustainable communities around the world. The Millennium Cities Initiative (MCI) was launched to help implement the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and is focused on attracting foreign direct investment to sub-Saharan African cities with a view to stimulating sustainable economic growth. As part of our Global Corporate Citizenship program, Transaction Services in KPMG's U.K. member firm took up the challenge to produce a report on opportunities in Kisumu, Kenya.
Tim Flynn, Chairman, KPMG International
When I think about what do I want people to think about KPMG in our quest to achieve leadership and social responsibility, it’s about setting the pace for the profession; it’s about recognizing the responsibility we have and the opportunities in front of us to really make a difference; to make a difference in our home countries; make a difference around the world in emerging countries; to make a difference in our people’s personal and professional lives. And one of the greatest examples is the Transaction Services practice and the Millennium Cities project.
Lord Hastings of Scarisbrick, CBE, Global Head of Citizenship and Diversity, KPMG International
I felt this was a wonderful opportunity to take my enthusiasm for change and for, particularly, a focus on the poor, and orientate that focus on the poor alongside people who otherwise will work with successful, wealthy and significant business operators and governments. Every single week there are new people from our member firms, all the way round the world, who are fascinated, excited, see the potential and realize that instead of just being observers of these problems they’re now active participants in the solution.
Jeffrey Sachs, Director of the Earth Institute, Columbia University
Africa’s poverty is so extreme, particularly in the rural areas, that every day is a struggle for survival: something to eat, water that won’t kill you, the chance for a child to go to school, to be healthy enough that day, the chance — if there’s an illness — to reach a clinic, a doctor, a mother not dying in childbirth but, somehow getting to a hospital. In the Millennium villages we’re seeing — within a year, within two years, within three years — an unbelievable transformation. It takes one growing season to go from extreme hunger to a food surplus.
Ashley Hufft, Millennium City Representative for Kenya
One of the areas for the Millennium villages is thinking about moving them off of staple crops to cash crops ... but then they have to have a market. So Jeffrey Sachs picked various Millennium Cities here, they were mid-size cities, not the larger city like a Nairobi, but a mid-size city, that was near a Millennium village, so you could link the village with a market economy.
Chris Gottlieb, Principal, Transaction Services, KPMG in the United States
The role that we’ve been asked to play is to utilize all the skills that we have within all the member firms, and all the techniques and best practices that we have, to help the initiative demonstrate the investment potential that’s out there.
Jeffrey Sachs
Africa can do its part. It can get onto the ladder of development and climb that ladder. I’ve no doubt that it will if we give it that hand-up rather than a hand-out.
Josphat Mwaura, Partner, Public Sector and Development, Risk Advisory Services, KPMG in Kenya
We do recognize that the Millennium Cities Initiative is not an overnight thing. The initial work that we are doing now is the initial analysis, to identify what are the issues on the ground and, perhaps, provide a framework for preparing an action plan which, within the next 3–5 years, will demonstrate clear progress and be able to attract investment within their country as well as Kisumu in particular.
Ashley Hufft
Kisumu is a city of about 500,000 people. It’s situated on Lake Victoria in the East African region which has a market of about 30 million people, so there’s a huge market opportunity just in the immediate surroundings around the Lake.
Sheil Malde, Senior Manager, Strategy Group Transaction Services, KPMG in the UK
We were asked to look at Kisumu and that region in Kenya from an investment perspective. The area around Kisumu is immense, it’s got a lot of assets that are on its side; the land around there is great, it’s very fertile, the climate’s perfect for growing crops and horticulture, agriculture, there’s a lot of rainfall. The challenges, you know, they’re in place to realize those opportunities around the infrastructure, right from being able to set up a business through to operating it and then, when you are running it, how do you get your goods in and out of the area?
Susan Kikwai, Managing Director, Kenya Investment Authority
We believe that the Millennium Cities Initiative working in Kisumu has a lot of potential in assisting not just in the investment authority but the country at large in terms of moving investment forward, by linking us also to other potential foreign investors that can come as joint ventures or partner with our local investors.
Grahame Vetch, Country Director, Dominion Group of Companies, Kenya
One of the main reasons for coming here is for the investment to help the communities around it come out of poverty. To do that, of course, it as to be a profitable business: this is not a charity! As we go along in our progress, we uplift the roads, we are assisting the health centres, we are helping schools, and the knock-on effect of salaries and wages is seen to be going downstream five times. So it has manifested in school numbers going up, less disease, better quality housing ... and so these are all showing up as signs that an investment of this nature are actually uplifting the quality of life and reducing the poverty.
Jeffrey Sachs
To have KPMG in these Millennium Cities, it’s absolutely thrilling, and it’s opened up eyes all over the world already; KPMG’s participation.
Josphat Mwaura
I’ve spent a lot of time in our own work here in East Africa, and as part of that work that has involved a heavy investment on my part to understand the global firms’ strategy and how we fit in. I have come to appreciate what really our mission means, and what really our contribution is to society. I’m proud to be KPMG.