Kenyan President William Ruto has announced plans to set up a sovereign wealth fund and an infrastructure fund, aiming to boost investment in key sectors while avoiding a new debt spiral that has strained public finances in recent years.
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Over the past decade, Kenya has accumulated significant debt to finance large-scale infrastructure projects, pushing its debt service-to-revenue ratio among the highest in Africa. Ruto now wants to shift toward a more sustainable approach, focusing on mobilizing domestic resources and leveraging state assets.
A new privatization law was recently passed, paving the way for the partial sale of several state-owned enterprises. The first transaction will involve the Kenya Pipeline Company, which manages the transport of petroleum products across the country and into neighboring states. According to Ruto, the share sale could raise up to 130 billion Kenyan shillings (around $1 billion), which will be used to capitalize the two new funds.
The infrastructure fund will primarily support the agricultural sector — the backbone of Kenya’s economy — to boost productivity and expand exports. It will also finance efforts to increase the country’s electricity generation capacity, currently about 2,300 megawatts, with Ruto estimating that an additional 10,000 megawatts will be needed to drive Kenya’s industrialization.
The president did not specify when the two funds will become operational.
