Square Pharmaceuticals Kenya EPZ Ltd, a subsidiary of Square Pharmaceuticals Ltd (SPL), Bangladesh, on Monday started construction of its manufacturing plant in Nairobi through a groundbreaking ceremony.

Adan Mohamed, Kenya's cabinet secretary for the ministry of industry, trade and cooperatives; Maj Gen Abul Kalam Mohammad Humayun Kabir, high commissioner of Bangladesh to Kenya, and Tapan Chowdhury, managing director of Square Pharmaceuticals, attended the ceremony.

The state-of-the-art plant is a benchmark for the Bangladeshi industry's achievements as SPL would be the first to build its own plant abroad.

SPL started exporting to Kenya in 2005 and registered 117 products with the Pharmacy and Poison Board, Kenya's drug regulatory agency, the company said in a statement yesterday.

Kenyan manufacturers can supply only 30 percent of the country's demand while the rest is met through imports.

With world class manufacturing technology, quality control and state-of-the-art machinery, Square Pharmaceuticals Kenya EPZ aims to fulfil the unmet demands of medicine in Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda and South Sudan.

Kenya was identified as the region's most preferred place for business. The company's investment in the first phase will be $25 million.

The plant will be capable of manufacturing two billion tablets and capsules and 60 million bottles of liquid formulations. Commercial production is expected to begin from the first quarter of 2020.

The products will be pre-qualified through World Health Organization and supplied throughout Africa in the long run.

SPL has been running for the last 60 years with manufacturing knowledge of all possible dosages, exporting products to 42 countries including Asia, Africa, Europe and America, the statement added.