Kenya’s foreign debt now stands at staggering Sh2.54 trillion after new Sh47 billion loan
Visiting Director General of the French Development Agency Remy Rioux signed the loan with the government.
This is after the government yesterday signed a new Sh47 billion loan with the country's second bilateral lender, France through its French Development Agency.
Visiting Director General of the French Development Agency Remy Rioux signed the loan with the government in support of energy, water and transport projects and Kenya's public finance management.
"Kenya is one of our main partners in the world. We are proud to celebrate 20 years of activities in Kenya in support of key development issues, mainly in the areas of infrastructure, climate change and private sector support,” Rioux said.
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One of the loan agreements signed was a Sh7 billion soft loan with KenGen managing director Rebecca Miano for an 80 MW wind farm project in Meru County.
The Kenya Electricity Transmission Company was not forgotten either and got a Sh10.9 billion loan.
Ketraco loan will be used to establish a control centre for a 400/132 kV substation in Makindu, which will improve network stability and additional funding for the Nairobi Ring transmission project.
The CEO also signed a Sh14 billion loan agreement with the government for the Mwache project, which is under the Coast Water Services Board.
Co-financed by the World Bank, the project intends to end chronic water shortages facing Mombasa, increasing water production capacity from 50 million litres per day to 190 million litres per day, compared to current demand of about 150 million litres.
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AFD, which is celebrating 20 years of presence in Kenya this year, also gave Kenya Port Authority a Sh11.6 billion non-sovereign direct loan to go towards the development of the port of Mombasa.
Rioux also confirmed with the Kenya Airport Authority the allocation of a Sh70 million grant to improve KAA's strategic project management, infrastructure maintenance and financial modelling.
The agreements were signed at the National Treasury in the presence of the Treasury CS Henry Rotich, his Water counterpart Simon Chelugui and Charles Keter of Energy.
AFD will also help Kenya improve public finance management with the World Bank under GESDEK — World Bank project Programme to Strengthen Governance for Enabling Service Delivery and Public Investment in Kenya.
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The project will also aim to promote the control of budgetary risks in devolution.
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