NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 17- Kenya will receive loans and grants amounting to $1billion from the Arab Development Partners over the next three years.
Finance Permanent Secretary Joseph Kinyua told Capital Business on Tuesday that as part of the resolutions arrived at after a two day round table conference with the Arabian partners, the funds would go towards the implementation of various projects in different sectors of the economy.
“We have very cordial discussions which touched on areas of co-operations and particularly those that are consistent with our Vision 2030 such as agriculture, water, infrastructure and education and the health sectors,” he said of the meeting.
He added that most of the programs such as the construction of schools and roads would be based in the Arid and Semi arid parts of the country and slum areas.
The PS said the Arabs had urged the government to move with speed and put in place the logistical arrangements for the implementation of those projects but he expressed confidence that their execution would start in the next financial year.
“We have some of the designs in place so it will just be a question of renegotiating the loan agreement and the procurement of the contractors and then they just go straight into the implementation,” he emphasised.
The PS revealed that they would impress upon the ministries to start the projects in time.
In the energy sector, Mr Kinyua said the development partners were keen to assist the government in increasing the country’s power generation capacity.
He disclosed that they would complement government’s efforts in geothermal power generation in Ol Karia 2.
“This should be possible because it is an area where the Ministry of Energy has been working so it just a question of finalizing the financial agreements and moving on to the next step,” he enthused.
The conference opened on Monday where the government revealed that it requires close to half a trillion shillings from the donor community development partners to enable it achieve its growth objectives.
Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta said on the funds would go into infrastructure development and social programmes in a bid become a middle income and industrialized state by 2030.
