Kenya has secured a $200 million loan from the African Development Bank (AfDB) and is negotiating a new $750 million loan with the World Bank, according to Raphael Owino, the Director General of the Finance Ministry’s Public Debt Management Office.
The East African nation, grappling with a mounting debt burden, has been seeking fresh funding after abandoning planned tax hikes worth over 346 billion shillings ($2.68 billion). The tax measures were scrapped in June following widespread protests that turned deadly.
Owino revealed that the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) approval in October of its seventh and eighth reviews under a loan program, which unlocked a $606 million tranche, has boosted Kenya’s credibility in securing additional financing.
“The World Bank is coming on board, riding on the back of IMF receipts,” Owino said. “The AfDB is already on board.”
A spokesperson for the World Bank’s Kenya office confirmed ongoing talks for new funding under its Development Policy Operations (DPO) framework. The spokesperson noted that the loan amount would depend on the implementation of agreed policy reforms, with past DPO loans averaging $750 million.
The World Bank approved $1.2 billion in DPO loans for Kenya in May. Meanwhile, Finance Minister John Mbadi stated that Kenya has set a foreign borrowing target of 168 billion shillings for the financial year ending June 2025.
