Kenya has received a $750million loan from the World Bank to support its budget even as the cost of foreign debt doubles. In June last year the World Bank wired a similar amount under the Development Policy Operation (DPO) program which lends cash for budget support instead of financing specific projects.
These funds are meant to help quicken Kenya’s ongoing inclusive and resilient recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. The funds should also help achieve higher taxes, expenditure cuts whilst preserving space for social spending and reforms to drive revenue growth.
The bank said some of the funds would go towards setting up an electronic procurement system for government goods and services to improve transparency. The program aims to have five strategically selected departments, ministries and agencies, procuring all goods and services through the electronic procurement platform by the year 2023,” said Alex Sienaert, senior economist for the World Bank in Kenya.
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“The Government of Kenya has maintained the momentum to make critical reforms progress despite the disruption caused by the pandemic,” said Keith Hansen, World Bank Country Director for Kenya. The ongoing reforms will help modernize the land market by updating the Rating Act and the Rating for Valuation Act to align the legal framework with devolution and to provide counties with the legislative framework to review and update their valuation roll.
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