Kenya

Since 1997, AFD has supported Kenya in financing low-carbon infrastructure, promoting access to essential services, particularly in urban areas, supporting public policies through the private sector, and protecting the country's biodiversity. In more recent years, AFD has diversified its portfolio with interventions in the education, health sector, sports and development and the creative and cultural industries.

Context

Located in East Africa and bordering the Indian Ocean, Kenya counts more than 50 million inhabitants. Thanks to major reforms carried out with the support of the International community, it has become the region’s third economy and records a strong growth (5.7% anticipated for 2017-2019).

However, this growth doesn’t benefit all: even though the country has seen a middle class emerge in the past years, more than a third of the population still lives below the poverty line. Despite the performance of some sectors (telecommunications, renewable energies), infrastructure is not keeping pace with the economic development.

But the potential is there: a young population, a dynamic private sector. The country is a pioneer in the geothermal sector and, on the regional integration side, benefits from the common market that was established by the East African Community (EAC) on all the territory.

AFD's Kenya office is directly attached to the East Africa regional office. Our Nairobi agency has a regional competence in the four other EAC countries (Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and Rwanda), as well as in Somalia since 2016.

Our approach

"AFD and Kenya: supporting balanced and resilient growth"

In Kenya, AFD is one of the main donors of the energy sector, with more than 1billion EUR committed since the beginning of our activities in the country.

We finance public enterprises (such as KenGen, Kenya Power, Ketraco, or GDC) as well as private actors (through the SUNREF program) aiming at:

Developing renewable energies: wind, solar, geothermal, biomass, hydroelectricity;
Improving energy efficiency and reducing consumption;
Strengthening the infrastructure of the electricity transmission and distribution network to meet rising energy demand;
Connecting new users to support the Kenyan government's goal of achieving universal access to electricity in the short term.

AFD also supports the government and the regulator in conducting strategic studies and supporting sector reforms.

In the face of growing urbanization, AFD is supporting government measures to ensure that urban populations have access to more reliable water supply. We also address the funding gap in the particular area of sanitation, paying particular attention to respect for the environment and the protection of water resources.

We intervene:

In the strengthening of drinking water production and distribution facilities, sewage treatment and the optimization of network management by the operating companies (we intervened in the three largest cities of the country: Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu);
In water quality management (by monitoring water discharges from the main cities around Lake Victoria);
With a specific focus on informal settlements to provide adapted water supply and sanitation solution for the most vulnerable;
In supporting the utilities and fostering their efficiency (by reducing their Non-Revenue Water ratio) so that they reinforce their profitability and ensure good operation and maintenance level. They benefit from technical assistance and various kinds of training for that.

AFD's actions focus on:

Airport improvement, renovation and expansion works;
The rehabilitation of rural roads;
In the future, funding for urban mobility, promoting low-carbon systems that are resilient to the impacts of climate change.

We work in the fields of health, education and SMEs, through:

Funding of social health organizations and civil society organizations;
Strengthening the skills of medical staff;
Support to higher education to improve and open up available gender inclusive academic training in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics in Kenya;
Support to the Culture and Creative Industry;
Credit lines to banks to support investment in universities;
The African Guarantee Fund guarantee fund as a shareholder;
The ARIZ guarantee solution offered to banks;
In the future, funding TVET sub-sector in Kenya that better meets the demands of a digital-enabled economy;
In the future, supporting the digital transition of the health sector for the deployment of UHC.

To enable participatory management of biodiversity, existing protected areas and ecosystem valuation for the benefit of all, we finance:

Rural roads programme (ongoing project with more than 1000 km in the north and center parts of Kenya);
Financing institutions to foster their interest in the sector and develop adapted tools and proposal for small farmers;
All the value chain in order to reinforce food security and make it more resilient to external shocks.

To enable participatory management of biodiversity, existing protected areas and ecosystem valuation for the benefit of all, we finance:

Reforestation programs;
Wildlife protected area rehabilitation and management
Technical assistance missions (elaboration of the national "Climate Plan")
Measures to combat global warming;
Adaptation of ecosystem services in rural areas;
The valorization of natural products by local actors to generate income and develop sustainable tourism.