NAIROBI (Reuters) – Kenya has asked the World Bank for a $750 million budget support loan, the finance minister said on Tuesday, to help cover its funding needs for the financial year to the end of next June.
The minister, Njuguna Ndung’u, had said last month 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 said in a speech at a World Bank event on Tuesday.
President William Ruto, who was sworn into office in mid-September, is seeking less costly loans after a debt-fuelled infrastructure construction drive by his predecessor saddled the country with high-interest commercial debt.
The lending instrument under discussion with the World Bank is a Development Policy Operations loan, Ndung’u said, 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.
(Reporting by Duncan Miriri Editing by George Obulutsa and Mark Potter)
