INTERNATIONAL - Kenya should spend 1 trillion shillings ($10.2 billion) over the next five years if it is to clear a backlog of required new roads and maintenance, according to a state agency.
The Kenya Roads Board and other state organizations are preparing a schedule of projects to present to potential investors in infrastructure bonds that are likely to be issued in the first quarter, according to Executive Director Jacob Ruwa said.
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Lawmakers passed legislation on Thursday giving KRB the authority to issue securities backed by its revenue so that any debt by the agency is off the government’s balance sheet. The president is yet to approve the new law that paves the way for KRB to raise as much as $3.5 billion in shilling-denominated bonds.
FILE - In this Tuesday, Sept. 5, 2017 file photo, Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta, seen reflected in the hood of the presidential vehicle in which he is standing, addresses his supporters on a street in Ongata Rongai, on the outskirts of Nairobi, KKenya should spend 1 trillion shillings ($10.2 billion) over the next five years if it is to clear a backlog of required new roads and maintenance. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, File)
“We want to move very quickly on this,” Ruwa said in an interview. “It will take about a month to develop the program.”
KRB has not yet determined the tenor for the bonds, he said. GCR Ratings gave a draft KRB information memorandum prepared in 2016 a AAA rating.
Kenya’s classified road network covers 161,000 kilometers (100,040 miles), 38% of which is in a poor and dilapidated condition, Ruwa told journalists in the capital, Nairobi.