Highlights:
French fund AFD is set to loan the Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC) KSH6 billion to finance the expansion of the East Africa’s country electricity transmission network.
KPLC projects to have an additional 814,000 customers from the current 4.1 million to the national grid by 2017 in line with the company’s and country’s distribution masterplan for 2012-2030.
Summary:
Kenya Power and Lighting Company has received a KSH 6 billion loan from French fund AFD to advance its masterplan for power distribution for 2012-2030. KPLC seeks to expand the number of customers from the current 4 million by 814,000 to the national grid by 2017.
The power company has won the confidence of international financiers with the loan not being guaranteed by the government making it among the few parastatals that are able to secure huge loans without government help.
The loan will expand the distribution network in three major economic kingpins; Mombasa, Kisumu and Nairobi and will serve to reduce the number of power outages in the cities that house most vital industries of the East Africa State.
KPLC and AFD are expected to launch another KSH 3.6 billion project to improve the mini-grids by boosting the wind and solar generation capacity.
