Ruto seeking Ksh92 Billion loan from World Bank

Ruto seeking Ksh92 Billion loan from the World Bank to cover the government’s funding needs for the financial year to the end of June 2023.

Kenya is asking the World Bank for a Ksh92 billion ($750 million) budget support loan.

Njuguna Ndung’u, National Treasury Cabinet Secretary, claims that the credit facility will aid in meeting the government’s funding requirements for the fiscal year to June 2023.

Speaking at the launch of the World Bank’s Country Partnership Framework for 2023-28 in Nairobi on Tuesday, December 6, Prof Ndung’u indicated that the government was seeking for more cash from the World Bank.

“We have been trying to negotiate this to Ksh122.75 billion ($1 billion) but World Bank has been adamant,” Ndung’u revealed.

Ndung’u had in November indicated that Kenya was in talks with the World Bank for new financing, without disclosing the amount involved.

“The proposed package under discussion with the World Bank aims at promoting sustainable, resilient, and inclusive growth,” Ndung’u reiterated in a speech at the World Bank event.

Kenya’s appeal for the new facility is coming nine months after the lender extended a similar amount to help accelerate ongoing inclusive and resilient recovery from the economic crisis occasioned by the pandemic.

The Development Policy Operation, which was funded with Ksh92 billion that the World Bank approved in March 2022, aimed to promote more transparency and the battle against corruption.

Following the departure of his predecessor Uhuru Kenyatta, who had left the country with high-interest commercial debt, President William Ruto is said to have looked for alternative and less expensive loans.

This is considering the fact that interest rates in the domestic debt market are ranging at a high of 14 percent.

According to the Treasury CS, the lending instrument under discussion with the World Bank is a Development Policy Operations loan which is usually tied to a pre-agreed policy area.

Kenya qualified for that type of financing in 2019 and it has since received four such loans, the last one in March.

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