NAIROBI, March 9 (Xinhua) -- Kenyan President William Ruto on Monday signed the National Infrastructure Fund into law to drive economic growth, describing the establishment of the fund as the most consequential initiative in the country's development history.
"Mobilizing domestic capital will help us solve major challenges that arise when development depends excessively on foreign financing," he said in Nairobi, the Kenyan capital. "The fund marks a new chapter in financing our transformation, making us the architects of our own future."
He said the expansion of Jomo Kenyatta International Airport will be the first project to be financed under the fund, structured with approximately 20 billion Kenyan shillings (about 155 million U.S. dollars) in equity participation from the fund and domestic institutional investors.
The Kenyan leader said the fund will close the infrastructure financing gap by raising over 5 trillion shillings to support key projects, including the production of 10,000 megawatts of clean energy, 50 mega dams, 200 micro-dams, more than 1,000 small dams, 2,500 km of dual carriageways, and 28,000 km of roads.
He said the government will have the necessary financing for extending the Standard Gauge Railway from the lakeside town of Naivasha to Malaba near the border with Uganda and Kisumu in western Kenya.
The fund will be managed by a board comprising eight persons, including four independent directors to be competitively recruited by the governing council, three public officers appointed based on their expertise, and a chief executive officer.
Funding is expected to come from government allocations, private investment, privatization proceeds, grants, and loans.
