Tatu City, the first operational Special Economic Zone in Kenya, has been recognised by fDi Intelligence’s Free Zones Awards 2021.
The 5,000-acre, rapidly growing new city on Nairobi’s doorstep won in the category of Large Tenants and received an honourable mention for its workforce training for the local community.
fDi Intelligence, a Financial Times service, assembled six independent judges to assess “the best free zones in the world,” according to Alex Irwin-Hunt, Global Markets Editor, fDi Intelligence.
Currently at Tatu City Special Economic Zone (SEZ), more than 60 local, regional and multi-national businesses have opened or started development. These include industry leaders such as Dormans, Cooper K-Brands, KWAL (Distell), Cold Solutions, Friendship Group, Chandaria Industries, Kim-Fay, Davis & Shirtliff, Copia, FFS, Twiga Foods and Stecol, among others.
Residential developments at Tatu City include Unity Homes, Lifestyle Heights and Kijani Ridge. More than 5,000 homes are completed or under construction and Crawford International and Nova Pioneer schools educate more than 3,000 students daily.
Current development at Tatu City SEZ is valued at more than USD 1.2 billion. Tatu City is owned and developed by Rendeavour, the largest new city builder in Africa, whose shareholders are from the United States, New Zealand, Norway and United Kingdom. Rendeavour is building seven cities in Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana, Zambia and Democratic Republic of the Congo.
In Nigeria, more than 40 companies have established at Alaro City since Rendeavour and the Lagos State Government launched the project just over two years ago. In Lubumbashi, DRC, Rendeavour’s Kiswishi development is the country’s first private SEZ.
In Kenya, Tatu City SEZ was also recognised for its pioneering work with the local community at the new city development. Rendeavour and Tatu City have provided free skills training to over 1,000 members of the local community and serve 1,400 meals to local primary schools each day.
“This is really an example of how free zones are much more than just investment destinations,” said Irwin-Hunt of fDi. “Free zones are not only centres of production and economic activity. They also play an important role in local communities.”
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