Kenya will be seeking more funding from the African Development Bank to finance the expansion of electricity access by households and businesses under the last mile connectivity project.
Speaking in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, AfDB President Akinwumi Adesima said the bank is keen on providing electricity access to at least 105 million people in Africa.
The 7th General Capital Increase meeting by the African Development Bank’s Board of Governors representing 80 countries, 53 of which are in Africa saw the shareholders endorse injection of 115 billion dollars in capital, pushing up the lender’s general capital from 93 billion dollars to 208 billion dollars.
In 2018, the Bank’s total portfolio stood at 347.15 billion shillings supporting 26 operations in public sector and 11 in the private sector.
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27% of the portfolio is in energy, 26% in transport, 24.4% in water supply & sanitation, 12.3% in Finance and 6% in Agriculture.
The Bank has committed to supporting construction and rehabilitation of at least 10,000 km of roads to enhance domestic and regional connectivity, fund generation of 145MW of renewable power and construct 851km transmission lines, 32,814 km distribution lines and installation of 2060 transformers to boost electricity access.
Kenya is among beneficiaries in a new round of funding targeting to increase agro-processing and reduce the risk for the private sector to increase lending to youth-led enterprises.
He, however, cautioned African countries against careless borrowing.
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