IMF Approves $410 million for Kenya to Finance Covid-19 Response

Kenya will receive emergency aid totalling USD 410 million to support its program to address debt vulnerabilities, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Wednesday.

It will also help respond to the COVID-19 crisis and enhance governance.

The disbursement is part of the 38-month Extended Arrangement under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) and the 38-month arrangement under Extended Credit Facility (ECF) for Kenya.

Kenya has now received US$ 714.5 million under the facility approved in April 2020.

“The Kenyan authorities continue to demonstrate a strong commitment to their fiscal reform agenda during this unprecedented global shock.

Performance under the EFF/ECF arrangements has been broadly satisfactory despite a challenging environment,” Ms Antoinette Sayeh, Deputy Managing Director and Acting Chair said in the statement.

“Maintaining momentum on the structural reform agenda is important. The very substantial progress made in assessing the financial situations of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) that pose the largest fiscal risks provides a solid basis for identifying least-cost approaches to address their financial challenges, and should be complemented with efforts to improve oversight and management of SOEs more broadly,” added Ms Sayeh.

In April, the IMF Board approved a $2.34 billion three-year financing package for Kenya to support the government’s next phase of the Covid-19 response, enhance governance and reduce debt vulnerabilities while safeguarding resources to protect vulnerable groups.