Kenya’s BIDCO’s Chief Executive Officer Vimal Shah has been elected chairman of the East African Business Council (EABC).
Kenya’s BIDCO’s Chief Executive Officer Vimal Shah
Mr Shah was endorsed as the new chairman at the Council’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) held in Arusha over the weekend. The chairmanship of EABC rotates annually among the member states of the East African Community (EAC) and this year was Kenya’s turn.
The caucus of Kenyan delegates had met in Nairobi days before the AGM and agreed on Mr Shah’s name to be proposed at the AGM and was unanimously endorsed. Mr Shah was in April elected chairman of the Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA), which is the umbrella organisation of the private sector in Kenya. His new position adds a feather to his cap as one of East Africa’s foremost entrepreneurs.
He was previously a board member of EABC. He takes over from Uganda’s Gerald Ssendaula, who is also a former minister in the Ugandan government. Also elected at the meeting were national vice chairpersons Olive Kigongo (Uganda), Esther Mkwizu (Tanzania), Agatha Juma (Kenya), Alphonsine Nyigena (Rwanda) and Econie Nijimbere (Burundi).
Each of the partner states also presented the names of three persons to serve as directors for the next one year. All of them were endorsed by delegates. While thanking the outgoing team, Mr Shah said his aim was to increase the paid membership of EABC to at least 250 members.
The challenge, he pointed out, was that some private-sector organisations preferred to articulate their issues through the national focal-point organisations and avoided paying for membership of EABC. The annual meeting of East Africa’s corporate magnates was also addressed by the Deputy EAC Secretary General in charge of Planning and Infrastructure, Dr Enos Bukuku, who was the chief guest.
Mr Bukuku noted that a lot of the drawbacks in attaining regional integration emanated from member states’ desire to retain sovereignty rather than cede some of it to a regional centre.
He said it was therefore upon the business community to agitate peacefully in their own countries for authorities to move faster toward integration. Regarding non-tariff barriers, Mr Shah said that these existed only because policy makers of the partner states were still thinking as separate countries rather than as East Africans.