Kenya's ICT and renewable energy sectors could benefit from new funding from the United Kingdom (UK) government's British International Investment (BII) and Dutch enterprise development bank FMO.
This is after the two financiers recently announced a Sh13.9 billion joint commitments to the African Infrastructure Investment Fund 4 (AIIF4) managed by African Infrastructure Investment Managers (AIIM).
"AIIF4-backed projects will meaningfully boost productivity by creating jobs and stimulating economic activities, while the new and upgraded infrastructure will support inclusive development, improve standards of living for consumers and accelerate sustainable economic growth within many countries across the continent," BII said in a statement.
BII (formerly CDC Group) added that its investment aims to support AIIF4 in reaching its Sh60.2 billion target fund size. The fund is expected to play a key role in bridging the estimated infrastructure financing gap of $108 billion (Sh12.9 trillion) per year.
"The fund will see AIIM build on the successful performance of its predecessor funds by investing across three priority infrastructure sub-sectors: renewable energy such as rooftop solar; digital infrastructure including mobile telecoms towers, datacentres, and fibre optic networks; and mobility and logistics such as ports, roads and other supporting infrastructure," noted the fund.
Individually, anchor investor BII has committed Sh9.1 billion while FMO has committed Sh4.8 billion. At least 20 per cent of the capital committed to AIIF4 will be invested in climate finance qualifying projects.
"AIIF4 qualifies under the 2X Challenge based on AIIM workforce consisting of 50 per cent women, and its commitment to working towards increasing entrepreneurship, employment, leadership, and consumption opportunities for women in 30 per cent of AIIF4's portfolio companies," it stated.
