With the generous support of KKCF and UNHCR, the Turkana County Government inaugurated a new Biashara Centre in the Kakuma-Kalobeyei refugee-hosting area on May 3, 2023. This centre serves as a vital hub offering essential government and business services under one roof, catering to both Kenyan citizens and refugees residing in the region. The centre currently serves as a single point of access for county government services, with plans to open a Huduma Center in the future that will offer national government services to become the first Biashara Huduma Centre in Kenya. Biashara is Kiswahili for business and Huduma means service. UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, led the rehabilitation and equipping of the centre, with valuable technical assistance provided by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) through the KKCF program.
The launch of the Biashara Centre in Kakuma was attended by esteemed dignitaries, including H.E. Hon. Jeremiah Ekamais Lomorukai Napotikan, the Governor of Turkana County; H.E. Maarten Brouwer, Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to Kenya; Irene Giribaldi, Head of Cooperation for the European Union; David Kinyua, Humanitarian, Resilience, and Inclusion Lead for the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO); Amena Arif, IFC’s Country Manager for Kenya; and Terhas Berhe, UNHCR’s Senior Operations Coordinator, along with other key development and implementation partners.
Before the establishment of this centre, residents had to endure journeys of up to 120 kilometres to access services at the nearest centre in Lodwar, Turkana County’s capital. The Biashara Centre now offers a faster, more convenient, and cost-effective means to access government services, encompassing tasks such as business registration, permit applications, and requests for small business loans through the biashara, women, and youth funds. Additionally, it provides various business development services.
The Biashara Centre became fully operational in January 2024 offering county government services with technical officers from various departments, including the Biashara Centre Manager, deployed to the Centre. In addition, National Employment Authority and the Kenya Revenue Authority – Domestic Taxes are deployed at the Centre. Online government services are available to the residents through the Centre’s cybercafé. The ultra-fast fibre optic internet link serving the Biashara Centre is implemented with the support of the ICT Authority under the National Optic Fibre Network Backhaul Initiative (NOFBI) through the World Bank’s Kenya Digital Economy Acceleration Project (KEADRP). Under the PROSPECTS partnership funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, ILO upgraded the access road to the Kakuma Biashara Centre. Following the launch, UNHCR and IFC are closely monitoring the operations of the Centre and are providing operationalization and technical support.
The Biashara Centre was rehabilitated and equipped with generous funding from the European Union. The Centre is additionally supported by four development agencies through IFC’s KKCF program: the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), and the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development through KfW.
