India has evinced interest in reviving and expanding operations of Rift Valley Textile Company Ltd (Rivatex) located in Eldoret Town of Uasin Gishu County in Kenya.
If the Indian government okays the proposal, the Export-Import Bank of India will provide funding totalling to Sh7.9 billion, for the planned expansion of the textile company.
India will sign a financing agreement with the Kenyan government for expansion of Rivatex, once the former is convinced of the textile firm’s revival, according to unofficial sources.
Mr. Yogeshwar Varma, India’s high commissioner to Kenya, visited the factory recently to assess its operations before negotiations for the agreement are completed.
“We are looking at details of providing the soft loans for funding the Rivatex expansion project and plans for the project are in advanced stages,” Mr. Verma said. Indian government has already received a final report on the project and is now examining it for details, he said.
However, cotton shortage is a major hurdle and needs to be addressed under the plan to expand the factory’s operations. “We met the Rivatex team to look at how we can revive and expand the factory in a commercially viable manner,” Mr. Varma added.
Under the expansion plan, new machinery will be installed to boost its production capacity and experts from India will assist in laying out a marketing strategy for Rivatex’s products.
