• Kenya’s debt repayment in 2023 was majorly from the Consolidated Fund. 
• The country has faced liquidity challenges due to uncertainty in accessing funding from global financial markets.
• Analysts, however, maintain that the practice of taking on debt to pay debt is unsustainable.

The National Treasury has revealed that Kenya’s debt repayment surged to $3.69 billion (KSh600.73 billion) by December 2023. Despite an increase in revenue collection, Kenyans found little reason to rejoice as debt consumed 57 per cent of the government’s tax revenues, amounting to $6.14 billion (about KSh1.05 trillion).

Only 43 per cent of the generated revenue remained for development, salaries, and the state’s recurrent expenditure such as paying salaries.

The disclosure, titled “Kenya’s statement of actual revenues & net exchequer issues as of 31st Dec 2023,” signals a need for Kenyans to tighten their belts this year. President William Ruto’s administration anticipates higher repayments due to the devaluation …

• Experts project that Côte d’Ivoire seeks to sell its Eurobond and around 8.50 per cent to 8.75 per cent for a ticket size of between US$1 billion to US$1.25 billion.
• Ghana, Senegal, Nigeria, and Côte d’Ivoire have been key players, with the values of their Eurobond issuances typically ranging from $200 million to $1 billion.
• The annual value of Eurobonds issued by West African governments witnessed a remarkable surge, increasing from $200 million in 2007 to $2.25 billion in 2014.

As the markets open in the new year, all eyes turn to Côte d’Ivoire, which has announced a plan to lead the continent in issuing a Eurobond—the first in Africa after a nearly two-year break.

Positioned on the verge of economic resurgence in 2024, Côte d’Ivoire is poised to become the first sub-Saharan African nation to issue a Eurobond as the global financial markets ease following a period of high …

• Rising volatility in Kenya’s Fixed Income Market derives from a combination of global and domestic factors.
• The yield curve soared fastest at the head and upper belly of the curve, rising by a cumulative 661bps on the three-month treasury bill.
• There is hope as it is anticipated, that a rebound in trading activity will happen in 2024.

The Kenyan Fixed Income Market displayed remarkable flexibility last year to experience one of the most rapid annual increases in yields resulting in a notable inversion of the effective yield curve.

According to financial experts, the rising volatility in the fixed income space derives from a combination of global and domestic factors.

On the external front, the rapid monetary policy tightening in 2022 and 2023 led investors to price-in bearish capital gain expectations for bonds.

On the domestic front, the rising concerns around fiscal sustainability indicators, coupled with an elevated inflationary regime in …

• International Finance Corporation targets specific projects in Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Kenya, Morocco, Senegal, and South Africa.
• IFC’s $30 million (Sh4.8 billion), own-account investment will help Africa Infrastructure Investment Fund 4 Partnership (AIIF4) exceed its final close target of $500 million (Sh80.4 billion).
• A pan-African infrastructure private equity firm called the Africa50 Infrastructure Acceleration firm I is raising up to $500 million for investments

Kenya is among six African countries that International Finance Corporation (IFC) will pump $30 million (about KSh4.8 billion) equity investment to fund works on essential infrastructure.

The fund, managed by Africa Infrastructure Investment Managers (AIIM), part of the Old Mutual Group, will support projects in the telecoms, renewable energy, and transport sectors across Africa but with a specific focus on Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Kenya, Morocco, Senegal, and South Africa.

In the telecoms sector, the fund will focus on financing data centers, fiber networks, and communications towers. In …

• The IMF’s support fund refers to the designated Special Drawing Right (SDR), which serves as an international reserve asset to supplement the official reserves of its member nations.
• It represents a potential claim on the members’ freely usable currencies, primarily intended to provide liquidity to a nation in the event of an economic crisis.
• As of September, Kenya’s SDR quota at the IMF stood at US$542.8 million, equivalent to KSh91.8 billion.

Leaders from developing countries continue to pursue the implementation of the proposed re-channeling of the IMF’s support fund through development banks, aiming for affordability and increased impact scale.

This was evident on the sidelines of the recent COP28 summit, where African leaders emphasized the acceleration of the process towards realizing the proposal. The summit took place between November 30 and December 12 last year in Dubai.

Proposal: IMF’s support fund to come through AfDB

African Development Bank (AfDB) Group …

• In East Africa, Kenya’s venture capital share grew from 86 percent in 2022 to 91 percent in 2023.
• Eastern Africa’s largest economy attracted $880 million (Sh139.9 billion) in 2023, representing 31 percent of all startup investments on the continent.
• Africa: The Big Deal report shows that startups in Kenya that raised $100,000 (Sh16 million) and above stood at 93.
  

Kenyan startups secured an impressive $800 million in venture capital funding in 2023, surpassing Egypt, Nigeria, and South Africa to emerge as the leading recipient of investments on the continent.

The latest findings from Africa: The Big Deal, a platform specializing in startup deals, reveal that Kenya’s share accounted for 28 percent of the total funds raised across Africa.

The report highlights that Egypt, which took the lead in 2022, secured the second position with $640 million in capital funding. South Africa followed closely with $600 million, while Nigeria …