Kenya plans to train young tanners
Kenya’s Ministry of Livestock has announced plans to train two young people from every tannery at the Animal Health Training Institute. Mr Kenneth Lusaka, Livestock Permanent Secretary, made the announcement while laying the foundation for a mini-leather tannery in Bungoma County, west Kenya.
The training would help the young people to learn skills for efficiently managing the tanneries, he said. The trained personnel would, in turn, train the workers in their tanneries. This would help in generating employment and wealth in rural areas.
The new mini-leather tannery is being set up with the aim of revitalising the leather industry in Kenya. The tannery would facilitate the animal breeders from North Rift region and Western province.
Mr Lusaka said that the leather industry has been continuously contributing around 4% to the country’s agricultural Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and around 1.5% to the national GDP.
He highlighted that by setting up new tanneries, the Kenyan government wants to uplift the living standards of the rural people by assisting them to be a part of the leather production ventures.
Mr Lusaka also mentioned that value-addition is the best way to exploit the vast potential of the multi-billion dollar leather industry. The contribution of the leather sector to Kenya’s GDP can be nearly doubled and new job opportunities can be generated by value-addition, he said.
