State opens conference on bonds

President Kibaki will open the conference at the Kenya School of Monetary Studies on Monday. Photo/FILE

The government will on Monday open a two-day conference on alternative ways of raising development funds for local authorities and State departments.

The first Infrastructure Bond Conference seeks to open avenues for the government and State bodies to raise additional money for construction and rehabilitation of roads, railway network, ports and enhancement of local authorities’ services delivery.

The meeting will place focus on enlightening State organisations on how to structure and market such bonds as a way of borrowing funds from the public.

“In order to initiate the use of domestic and international capital markets to fund infrastructure projects in Kenya and the wider East African Community, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Nairobi Metropolitan Development, the National Economic and Social Council, the Central Bank of Kenya, the Capital Markets Authority together with the Nairobi Stock Exchange will jointly host Kenya’s first Infrastructure Bond Conference,” a statement from the organising committee said.

President Kibaki will open the conference at the Kenya School of Monetary Studies while Prime Minister Raila Odinga will close it on Tuesday.

Kenya has budgeted over Sh51 billion in infrastructure bonds comprising Sh33 billion and Sh18 billion through a debut international sovereign bond and long term domestic bonds respectively to finance rehabilitation and expansion of the road network.

“The objective of the conference is to inform chief executives of infrastructure services providers, utilities companies, and municipalities on how to tap capital markets to fund their projects,” the statement further read.

“The conference will, at the same time, inform regulators and policy makers of the required regulatory framework and highlight any impediments within the regulatory environment and operational issues that will need to be addressed before the bonds are issued,” is said.