ICC Kenya, together with UNHCR (the UN Refugee Agency), convened a roundtable in Nairobi bringing leaders from banking, agriculture, technology, mobility, investment and consumer businesses together to explore a shared question: how can responsible private-sector engagement build on the economic activity already underway in Dadaab?
The discussion drew on the UNHCR–Mastercard Foundation partnership, which supports learning-to-earning pathways across Africa through private-sector mobilization, policy engagement, and access to work and enterprise. It examined opportunities across financial services, digital connectivity, agricultural value chains, and skills and enterprise development.
Dadaab is home to 414,748 forcibly displaced people and 15,000 businesses — figures that capture both the scale of displacement and the depth of economic activity in the area. Beyond its profile as one of the world’s largest refugee-hosting sites, Dadaab functions as a municipality and commercial hub, where refugee and host communities live, work, trade and build businesses within a shared local economy. The roundtable was grounded in this fuller picture, focusing on how private-sector engagement could build on existing enterprise through investment, service expansion, technical expertise and stronger market linkages.
ICC Kenya’s role
Julius Opio, Chairman of ICC Kenya, opened the discussion by highlighting how the partnership with UNHCR creates space for businesses to explore commercial opportunities, exchange perspectives, and identify practical pathways for engagement.
“ICC Kenya’s partnership with UNHCR is helping unlock opportunities for investment and business engagement in refugee-hosting areas such as Dadaab,” he said. “For the private sector, Dadaab presents real potential, and that potential must be approached responsibly, practically and in partnership.”
ICC Kenya member Julius Motaroki, COO of RentCo Africa, pointed to advocacy as a further area where ICC Kenya can support the process, noting that bringing private sector perspectives into policy conversations helps create the conditions that allow partnerships to grow and operate effectively.
What businesses brought to the table
The roundtable surfaced several connected entry points for engagement:
- Financial inclusion: KCB Sahl Bank’s Jamal Rashid Harry noted that Dadaab’s population represents customers, entrepreneurs and businesses in need of banking, savings, financing, payments and digital financial services — describing financial inclusion as one of the first building blocks for local economic growth.
- Digital access: Safaricom PLC’s Ida Gacheri highlighted how digital registration and transaction systems can connect refugees to services, businesses, suppliers and customers, bringing them into the wider economic ecosystem.
- Agricultural value chains: AGRA’s Harry Laga pointed to opportunities across livestock and smallholder production, aggregation, finance, technical support and market access, noting that organized, supported producers can grow into investable enterprises.
- Skills and enterprise: CFAO Mobility and Toyota Academy identified vehicle servicing, diagnostics, spare parts and garage operations as areas where practical training could meet local demand and support new business formation.
Inclusion as a business principle
BioFoods’ Waithera Ng’ang’a framed the opportunity in terms of inclusion, noting that an inclusive economy accords everyone — including refugees — the ability to participate with dignity as workers, entrepreneurs, suppliers and customers, and that businesses need clear pathways to engage with the people already contributing to Dadaab’s local economy.
UNHCR’s Fatima Mohammed-Cole, Representative in Kenya, placed the discussion within Kenya’s broader approach to refugee inclusion, pointing to the need to strengthen the systems — bringing together government, the private sector, development partners and communities — that allow inclusion to translate into infrastructure, livelihoods and market access. UNHCR’s Nancy Aburi, Chief of Partnerships Africa, added that dialogue of this kind connects business interest with opportunities that benefit both refugees and host communities, with UNHCR providing data and convening power while the private sector brings investment, innovation and market linkages.
Looking ahead
Mr.Opio closed by linking continued private sector engagement to broader gains across the local economy: when refugees can work and participate more fully, businesses grow, jobs are created, government revenues can increase, and local economies become stronger. Through its wider membership and policy engagement, ICC Kenya will continue helping member companies examine the opportunities raised and identify where their capabilities fit.
As a next step, a UNHCR-led visit will take interested business leaders from Nairobi to Dadaab, giving them the opportunity to meet refugee and host community entrepreneurs directly, hear their priorities, and assess possibilities for services, investment and partnership — ensuring future engagement is grounded in the priorities of the people and businesses already driving Dadaab’s economy.
