GE imagines things others don’t, builds things others can’t and delivers outcomes that make the world work better.
Operating in 175 countries across the world, Africa has been very important for GE — with its first continental office opened in Johannesburg in 1898.
Kenya is home to GE’s sub-Saharan Africa headquarters, from where it oversees 25 countries and 3 000 employees as a partner in Africa’s sustainable future.
GE is a proud partner of the Kenyan government, and on many transformation projects and initiatives both at the national and community level, some key highlights of which include:
• Supporting Kenya Airways on its fleet expansion programme with 90% of its aircraft engines being powered by advanced GE/CFM engines. GE Capital is the lead leasing partner for the airline with a committed leasing exposure of $720-million. In 2012, Kenya Airways selected the GEnx-1B engines to power its entire Boeing Dreamliner fleet and the airline took delivery of 6 Boeing Dreamliner aircrafts in 2014.
• GE is working with Rift Valley Railways and Kenya Railways on a fleet renewal programme to overhaul and modernise their locomotives. GE will also maintain the fleet and supply spare parts.
• MOU with the Kenya Ministry of Health to support its countrywide radiology and infrastructure modernisation programme as part of an overall $420-million plan, and which will see GE’s first dedicated skills development facility in Africa open by the end of 2015. GE will also be involved in an audit of all of Kenya’s 18 referral hospitals and partner with them to formulate oncology strategies.
• Part of the Carestation 30 anesthesia delivery system developed with Kenyan doctors to meet the needs of African hospitals — modern compact design, relatively inexpensive with 6-hour battery to serve areas with low electricity supply.
• Partnership with USAID and KCB, Kenya’s largest bank by assets, in a $10-million Healthcare financing programme.
• Signed the first wind deal in Africa in 2013 for the Kinangop Wind Farm in the renewable energy space. The farm will be powered by 38 GE 1.6 megawatt wind turbines which are best suited for Kenya’s wind conditions. It is also sponsoring a university challenge in Kenya aimed at projects that provide power for local communities such as one that uses mobile phones to control wind turbines providing power to rural households in Kenya.
• Partnership with the US African Development Foundation in 2013 to launch the Power Africa Off-Grid Energy Challenge in Kenya and Nigeria. The first round awarded six grants of $100 000 to African companies providing off-grid solutions that deploy renewable resources and power economic activities.
• Partnered with Tropical Power for the Gorge Farm AD plant in Naivasha — the first in Africa — that uses farm waste to generate distributed power. It is also supporting BURN Manufacturing Co. (BMC) with its Cookstoves Project in Kenya, in partnership with Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC). BMC produces inexpensive, durable and high-efficiency cookstoves.