Invest in Africa’s new platform to bridge procurement needs between Kenyan SMEs and large enterprises

Invest in Africa (IIA) launched the African Partner Pool (APP), a platform designed to bridge the gap between larger organizations and local SMEs, allowing them to do business efficiently.

The “Barriers to Kenyan SMEs Growth and Investment” study undertaken by IIA and the Strathmore Business School in mid-2016 stated that SMEs find it difficult to access the business opportunities available from their larger counterparts: conversely, big businesses often complain about finding reliable and trusted local SMEs that meet their standards.

Speaking at the event, Patricia Ithau, IIA’s Country Director, said, “IIA’s 10-year vision is to create thriving African economies by having USD 1 billion worth of tenders won on the APP and creating 100,000 jobs across the continent. Less than one year after the launch of IIA, we are proud to unveil this innovative platform that addresses such a fundamental barrier to growth in our economy. By linking buyers (multinationals and large local corporations) with suppliers (SMEs) the APP supports direct linkages in a transparent and efficient manner.”

The African Partner Pool (APP) platform has six large corporates pledging to channel their procurement needs to the over 400 Kenyan SMEs already subscribed on the platform. The APP’s vetted supplier pool will facilitate transparent business in a more timely and cost efficient manner.

Tullow Oil, Equity Bank, Safaricom, Nation Media Group, EY, Shell, AMSCO, KenInvest and Strathmore Business School have signed a charter committing to support the growth of SMEs by providing commercial opportunities on the APP platform.

“The UK and Kenya are deeply connected to each other.  Four of the top ten Kenyan taxpayers are British companies, as are the two largest private sector employers in Kenya.  I’m delighted to support the APP which can play an important part in growing the private sector, particularly SMEs,” said H.E Nic Hailey, the High Commissioner of Great Britain to Kenya at the launch event.

IIA-Kenya has been developing the African Partner Pool (APP) with the assistance of a Kenyan technical advisory team of procurement and ICT specialists.

APP has innovative features like profile pages for suppliers to promote their businesses on, customised search tool for Buyers to find Suppliers by region, product and other specifications, a knowledge hub that contains information tool kits to improve their businesses, a review section where the community can post feedback and the tender notice board with live SMS alerts which gives additional value to those registered on the platform.