Kenya, ATIDI to Advance Renewable Energy Projects

  • The Government of Kenya and ATIDI have signed the Regional Liquidity Support Facility Memorandum of Understanding.
  • Signing of the RLSF MoU will provide an additional incentive for private sector participation in achieving this goal of transitioning.

The Government of Kenya and the African Trade Insurance Agency (ATIDI), have signed the Regional Liquidity Support Facility Memorandum of Understanding to collaborate in identifying, developing, and implementing renewable energy projects across Kenya.

RLSF is a credit enhancement instrument provided by ATIDI to renewable energy Independent Power Producers (IPPs) that sell the electricity generated by their projects to state-owned power utilities. 

The projects will not only focus on leveraging the country’s abundant natural resources to generate clean and sustainable energy but will also reinforce its power generation and transmission capacity.

Also, signing of the RLSF MoU will provide an additional incentive for private sector participation in achieving this goal of transitioning to 100 percent clean energy by 2030. Recipients of this liquidity instrument will benefit from ATIDI’s positive credit rating of A and A3 from S&P and Moody’s, respectively.

Parties to the MoU include the National Treasury; the Ministry of Energy & Petroleum; Geothermal Development Company (GDC); Kenya Electricity Transmission Company Limited (KETRACO); and Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC).

RLSF policies will also support six renewable energy projects in Burundi, Malawi and Uganda; enabling total financing of USD 207.5m and a total installed electricity generation capacity of 136.3 MW.

Manuel Moses, CEO, ATIDI, said, “We are pleased to be crossing this key milestone with the Government of Kenya. Not only does this send out a positive message to project developers, lenders, and other prospective stakeholders looking to invest in Kenya’s energy sector, but it also reinforces the various ways in which multilateral financial institutions, such as ATIDI, are constantly looking for innovative ways to increase financial flows into African countries.

Furthermore, Davis Chirchir, Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of Energy & Petroleum, said, “The planned collaboration between ATIDI and the Government of Kenya particularly through our power utilities, GDC, KETRACO, and KPLC should make a positive contribution towards the attainment of the country’s long term development agenda – the Vision 2030 – which aims to ensure Kenya becomes a ‘newly-industrializing, middle-income economy, providing a high quality of life to all its citizens in a clean and secure environment’ – increased energy access and greater reliability, courtesy of instruments such as RLSF and similar alternatives, is a key enabler of this vision.”

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