Bank picks Nairobi as regional resource hub
What you need to know:
- AfDB plans to establish similar hubs on the continent to provide African governments with capacity for structuring win-win PPP projects as it bridges the continent’s infrastructure financing needs.
- The National Treasury Cabinet Secretary, Mr Henry Rotich, confirmed plans to gazette the regulations for the PPP Project Facilitation Fund (PFF), a revolving fund set up under the PPP Act, 2013.
A regional bank has settled for Nairobi as its first Public-Private Partnership resource hub in Africa.
The Africa Development Bank Regional Director for Eastern Africa, Mr Gabriel Negatu Monday said Kenya’s capital city would effectively be the region’s PPP resource hub as it seeks to ensure efficient financing for the continent’s infrastructure projects.
“We strongly believe that the private sector has a big role to play in bridging Africa’s annual infrastructure deficits of $93 billion. AfDB will, through the PPP resource hubs, support governments with technical support to ensure mitigation and management of legal, financial and technical risks,” said Mr Negatu.
AfDB plans to establish similar hubs on the continent to provide African governments with capacity for structuring win-win PPP projects as it bridges the continent’s infrastructure financing needs.
He said with infrastructure being a core economic focus in line with the AfDB 10-year strategy, all stakeholders need to come up with innovative systems that work efficiently in order to address the current financing gap.
TRAINING WORKSHOP
The choice of Nairobi came as it began hosting a three day training workshop on PPP organised by AfDB’s Africa Legal Support Facility (ALSF) in partnership with Expertise France (the French International Technical Expertise Agency) and the Cefeb – Corporate University of the Agence Française de Développement (AFD).
The National Treasury Cabinet Secretary, Mr Henry Rotich, confirmed plans to gazette the regulations for the PPP Project Facilitation Fund (PFF), a revolving fund set up under the PPP Act, 2013.
PPP Unit Director at the National Treasury Stanley Kamau welcomed the move to set up the regional hub in Nairobi.
“Apart from our fairly well-tested history of private investments in the public infrastructure. Kenya is also a regional leader of PPPs since we even have comprehensive laws institutionalising the programme,” he said yesterday.
