Kenya to get 930 million dollar development package from AfDB

The African Development Bank (AfDB) plans to give Kenya’s growth and employment plans a boost with a 930 million dollar commitment and strategy paper.

 “The country strategy paper, which covers a period of five years, responds to Kenya’s emerging challenges. The strategy paper comes at a time when Kenya has just completed a peaceful political transition, while at the same time is undergoing a major devolution exercise,” Gabriel Negatu, regional director for AfDB’s Eastern African resource centre, told CNBC Africa.

“[It] has managed to maintain stable macroeconomic fundamentals and prudent policies, and most recently the discovery of various natural resources.”

The board of the African Development Bank (AfDB) recently approved the country strategy paper for Kenya, which articulates the bank’s priority areas for the country, and to support them from 2014 to 2018.

A 930 million dollar commitment from the bank will work alongside Kenya’s strategy paper.

Negatu added that the country strategy paper will respond to Kenya’s growth plans, and is very much aligned and driven by the country’s own vision 2030. Kenya’s medium term strategy has also been taken into consideration.

AfDB commits $930mln towards job creation in Kenya

The Board of the Africa Development Bank approved the Country Strategy Paper for Kenya, which articulates the Bank's priority areas of support to Kenya from 2014-2018.

The strategy paper also aims to respond to the outstanding challenges such as the Kenya's persistent infrastructure gap, as well as its ongoing skills challenge.

“The AfDB has multiple roles. We are known for being the premier financial institution in Africa, but some of the other roles that we play is of course lending to the private sector window, and the non-lending activities that we bring,” Negatu explained.

“One of our core activities in the next few years will be to become the institution that convenes, connects and catalyses the engagement of the private sector in Kenya’s development.”

The AfDB will also be responsible for syndicating the loans, getting financers together and creating the financial package. The role of the private sector will therefore be important in the development process of the financial package.

“In addition to the lending, we also help the private sector grow by policy dialogue with government, to ensure that the enabling environment is up to standard," said Negatu.

"In Kenya, the enabling environment still needs some refining, particularly in the extractive sector. We need to see some work on regulations, so we are also helping the private sector in that respect,” said Negatu.