Kenya is the latest country to become a member of Africa Finance Corporation (AFC), a leading pan-African multilateral development finance institution and project developer.
Kenya is AFC’s 15th member and third East African member after Rwanda and Uganda. AFC’s other members are: Cape Verde; Chad; Côte d’Ivoire; Djibouti; Gabon; the Gambia; Ghana; Guinea-Bissau; Guinea; Liberia; Nigeria and Sierra-Leone.
The announcement comes one month after AFC Live, Africa’s premier infrastructure summit, at which AFC celebrated ten years of activity in the field and welcomed more than 600 leading thinkers from government, academia, business and finance to debate the opportunities and the challenges of investing in infrastructure in Africa.
Kenya is one of the largest economies on the continent and has long been a regional hub for East Africa, its pivotal geographical location at the intersection between East and South making it a commercial centre bridging the two regions. As one of largest financers and developers of infrastructure in Africa, AFC is perfectly placed to help improve the quality of Kenya’s infrastructure, enabling the country to capitalize on its strategic position and strong growth prospects.
Andrew Alli, CEO of AFC, commented on the announcement:
“I am very pleased to welcome Kenya to AFC. Kenya’s membership is a critical step to achieving our goal of developing high quality infrastructure across the whole of Africa and driving positive economic growth on the continent.
“By improving the infrastructure of regional hubs such as Kenya it is our hope to facilitate closer intraregional trade links, a milestone that can only be achieved if the adequate transport, telecommunications networks and power supply are in place.
“Kenya is already making significant progress in this area. Just last month, the first railway to be built in the country in a century opened between Mombasa and Nairobi. The new line connects the capital to the port, an essential link for facilitating the movement of goods and people. This is where AFC steps in; we want to build on these pioneering developments and accelerate Kenya’s growth and we are excited by the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.”
AFC already has a large presence in Kenya and Dye & Blair Investment Bank is a founding shareholder of the Corporation. Through AFC’s flagship joint venture with Harith General Partners, which combines both companies’ energy assets into one portfolio, AFC has a vested interest in Lake Turkana Wind Farm, which provides Kenya with approximately 15% of its installed energy capacity.
In addition, AFC has invested US$50 million in ARM Cement, which is head quartered in Nairobi and which engineers, builds and operates cement plants. The investment, one of AFC’s most significant in heavy industry, supported the company’s expansion initiatives across Eastern and Southern Africa.
In 2015 AFC provided a US$25 million loan to Kenya Power and Lightening Company for the rehabilitation and expansion of Kenya’s power transmission and distribution network.
AFC is committed to proactively financing and managing the development of key infrastructure projects which will have a positive impact on the lives of Africans all over the continent. To date the Corporation has invested approximately US$ 4 billion in projects across 28 countries to date and in a wide range of sectors including power, telecommunications, transport and logistics, natural resources and heavy industries.