The Kenya International Freight and Warehousing Association (KIFWA) today launched its inaugural Strategic Plan for 2025-2030, a comprehensive blueprint aimed at revolutionizing Kenya’s logistics and trade landscape. The launch, held in Nairobi, saw KIFWA Chairman Mr. Fredrick Aloo and Cabinet Secretary for Information, Communications & The Digital Economy, Hon. William Kabogo Gitau, underscore the plan’s critical role in boosting national and regional economic growth.
Mr. Fredrick Aloo, Chairman of KIFWA, emphasized the plan’s focus on enhancing service delivery to members and customers by proactively anticipating their needs. “The industry depends on us to get it right,” Aloo stated, highlighting the extensive consultation with internal and external stakeholders that shaped the plan. He also called upon partners and well-wishers to help bridge the financial resource gap necessary for the plan’s effective execution, recognizing the significant challenges facing the sector, including high transport costs, regulatory inefficiencies, and fragmented legislation.
A Digital Future for Logistics
A cornerstone of KIFWA’s new strategy is the embrace of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to enhance competitiveness. Both Mr. Aloo and CS Kabogo highlighted the transformative power of modern ICT tools in producing, storing, communicating, and disseminating information, enabling real-time system monitoring and management of logistics operations.
Hon. William Kabogo Gitau, Cabinet Secretary for Information, Communications & The Digital Economy, lauded KIFWA’s initiative, noting its alignment with the government’s Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda (BETA) and the Digital Superhighway programme. “Logistics is a key enabler of BETA—supporting job creation, lowering the cost of doing business, and expanding market access for MSMEs,” said CS Kabogo. He specifically praised KIFWA’s proposed Centralized Clearing and Forwarding Management System, which directly complements the government’s broader ICT objectives.
Positioning Kenya as a Regional Trade Hub
The new strategic plan articulates six key pillars: improving regulation, strengthening governance, enhancing sustainability, embracing digital systems, promoting green logistics, and supporting research-based advocacy. These pillars are designed to not only serve KIFWA’s members but also to position Kenya as a dominant regional trade and logistics hub, especially with the ongoing implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
CS Kabogo stressed the importance of trust and security in digital systems, urging KIFWA to embed principles of data protection and secure information handling within its centralized platform. He also reiterated the government’s commitment to providing a predictable, transparent, and conducive policy and regulatory environment for innovation and investment, while calling on the logistics industry to modernize operations and maintain high levels of professionalism.
ICT and Digital Economy CS William Kabogo together with Kenya international freight and warehousing association (KIFWA) Chairman Fredrick Aloo during the association’s 2025-2030 Strategic Plan launch
Collective Effort for a Competitive Kenya
Both leaders agreed that the successful realization of the strategic plan hinges on strong collaboration between the government and the private sector. Mr. Aloo expressed confidence that working together with government agencies, particularly the Ministry of Information, Communications & The Digital Economy, would lead to exponential GDP growth contribution from the logistics sector.
“This plan is not only the blueprint but acts as a compass direction around which the Association will enhance its efforts,” Mr. Aloo concluded, thanking the consultants, staff, and all stakeholders for their contributions. CS Kabogo formally declared the KIFWA 2025-2030 Strategic Plan officially launched, calling for collective effort to accelerate Kenya’s transformation into a globally competitive, digitally enabled, and economically inclusive nation.
