The European Investment Bank has announced the financing of several projects in East Africa with both private and public entities benefiting including Telkom Kenya. At a ceremony in Nairobi, the European Investment Bank has announced four new projects it will support in Kenya and the wider East-African region.
The four projects will receive loans worth of USD 78 million, a large part of which will be disbursed in Kenyan Shillings, to minimize the risk of currency volatility for the Bank’s counterparts.
The loan agreements signed include a EUR 35 million project with Telkom Kenya Ltd. to allow Kenya’s third telecommunications provider to increase its 3G and 4G coverage and invest in its Fibre-To-The-Building network, which will dramatically improve services to SMEs and corporate customers.
The EIB’s Vice President Ambroise Fayolle said, “This financing will benefit strategic initiatives by private sector players, who will be the key to propelling the Kenyan and African economy forward. Our backing will help to provide thousands of people with improved access to quality healthcare, and potentially millions of people with access to data networks, which nowadays is a basic condition for doing business in a connected world.”
BCS Group will benefit from a USD 18 million loan to fund the deployment of fibre optic networks throughout Eastern and Central Africa, including Zambia and Uganda, as well as bordering towns in DRC, where broadband access is limited, enabling reliable connectivity services.
The Medical Credit Fund is a region-wide operator that invests in small players in the healthcare sectors, such as clinics, pharmacies, diagnostics centres and hospitals, so they can provide quality healthcare in under-served region. The EIB will invest USD 5 million, denominated in Kenyan Shillings.
Finally, the EIB will invest USD 15 million in the “Novastar II” venture capital impact fund, which closed at USD 72,5 million last month. The fund will back early-stage businesses, that address proven demand for basic goods and services with innovative business models, that widen access, improve quality, and lower cost for the mass low-income markets in East and Anglophone West Africa.
