Kenya’s Kitui County Textile Centre (KICOTEC) recently rolled out a skills transfer programme aimed at training tailors in industrial garment production, according to governor Charity Ngilu, who said the project will enable community tailors to acquire professional skills and produce quality and affordable personal protective equipment (PPE), hospital linen and school uniforms.
The county administration wants to expand the supply chain, progressively increase skills development and initiate offshoot development programmes around the KICOTEC enterprise, she said.Kenya's Kitui County Textile Centre has rolled out a skills transfer programme aimed at training tailors in industrial garment production, according to governor Charity Ngilu, who said the project will enable community tailors to acquire professional skills and produce quality and affordable personal protective equipment, hospital linen and school uniforms.#
This will create more employment and raise the county’s revenue streams, the governor was quoted as saying by the country’s newspapers.
Such programmes will cushion small scale traders and businesses from paying exorbitant taxes that practically kill their businesses, she said.
With the rise in critical demand for face masks, the center has considerably increased its capacity, creating additional jobs for youth and women in the country amid dwindling jobs cuts nationally as companies shut down.
The requisite raw materials for face masks like cotton, polypropylene and polyester are locally available, she said.
Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)