UK to Invest KSh 70 Billion in Kenya’s Energy Sector

Kenya declared an ambitious plan to have universal access to energy by the year 2020 according to the energy and petroleum cabinet secretary Charles Keter.

At the moment, around 57 percent of Kenyans are connected to the energy grid with the ambitious goal of getting every Kenyan on the grid by 2020. There will also be a biomass energy project at Lake Victoria using the hyacinth which will help clean up the lake and also provide manure as the Government also plans to have industrial parks in Dongo Kundu Mombasa, Taita Taveta, Naivasha and Nakuru.

The United Kingdom has already promised to put in 70 billion shillings into the energy sector, part of which will come from export finance and some from British Aid further boosting the energy sector in the country.

To help the energy sector, some stakeholders including the private sector are heavily investing in the energy sector especially in the area of renewable energy. Barclays Bank of Kenya has made several investments in the energy sector.

“Here in Kenya we have arranged deals worth 13.4 billion shillings to help increase the capacity of the Thika Power plant,” said the bank in a tweet on its official handle.

The bank is also supporting the Rabai Project and has arranged finance deals for Kenya Power and KenGen as well as investing in power projects in Kenya at Rabai and has also supported KPLC in their power projects.

Kenya has one of the most active renewable energy sectors in Africa. UK-Kenya partnership – renewable energy. The country is planning on having several industrial parks and the idea is to put them near renewable energy projects to take advantage of power.

Energy is an enabler for economic growth and it is a key part of the Vision 2030 strategy. It will be difficult to achieve this vision without developing the energy sector.

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