Kenya applies for new IMF long-term funding facility
Kenya seeks access to a new IMF long-term cheap financing facility from the multilateral lender amid the financial crisis in the country
Kenya seeks access to a new IMF long-term cheap financing facility from the multilateral lender amid the financial crisis in the country.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has announced that Kenya has requested access to a new long-term credit facility.
The Resilience and Sustainability Trust (RST) facility aims to help low-income and vulnerable middle-income nations strengthen their capacity to withstand external shocks.
The initiative provides longer-term, cheap financing to address issues including climate change and pandemic preparation, complementing the IMF’s current loan arrangement.
Rwanda became the first country in the region to benefit from the new facility while Seychelles recently obtained a staff-level agreement to access the long-term cheap financing facility.
“Kenya made a request (for access to RST) and we will have a mission in May (to consider the request),” IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said last week during a tour of the country, without disclosing the amount Kenya is hoping to get under the programme.
Kenya’s access to the long-term facility is expected to unlock billions in funding from the lender extending support beyond the existing 38-month programme.
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IMF’s staff visit expected later this month is also set to underpin the fifth review of IMF’s extended credit facility arrangement which runs to June 2024.
In December, the Executive Board of the IMF completed the fourth review and disbursed Sh61 billion ($447.39 million) including Sh29.4 billion ($215.81 million) from the augmentation of the extended credit facility arrangement.
The December disbursement brought cumulative funding from the programme to Sh225.9 billion ($1.656 billion).
The Sh327.4 billion ($2.4 billion), 38-month programme which is underpinned by structural reforms was approved on April 2, 2021, with the aim of addressing debt vulnerabilities, the Covid-19 pandemic, and global shocks.
The IMF says its support for sub-Sahara has grown more than 10-fold since Covid-19 to more than $50 billion (Sh6.8 trillion).
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