World's consumer goods company Unilever plans to invest 150 million euros in a new manufacturing plant in Kenya.

The firms' global CEO Paul Polman told President Uhuru Kenyatta in Nairobi that the company also planned to expand its existing factories in the lush hill-top farmlands of Kericho, to increase the amount of tea processed there to 50,000 tonnes per year from the current 30,000 tonnes.

"The planned investment will cater for the company's expanding interests in the greater eastern African region, including in Ethiopia and Tanzania," Polman said in a statement issued in Nairobi after the meeting.

The investment will result in skill and technology transfer and hundreds of jobs for Kenyans, he added.

Unilever's Kericho-based business has 8,400 hectares of tea bushes and seven factories producing sustainable tea for the global market.

Unilever was also working with researchers on how to raise tea yield on Kenyan farms by up to 40 percent. It buys as much as 30 percent of Kenyan teas.

Polman is on a visit to review his company's interests and consult government and business leaders on how to improve the investment climate in Kenya.