The Nairobi County Government in Kenya has announced that it will raise $137 million in green bonds from the Capital Markets Authority (CMA). The funding will improve water management and reduce pollution in the county, which has a population of 4.9 million.
In Kenya, the city of Nairobi will raise 17 billion shillings ($137 million) to implement sustainable projects in 2023, particularly in the water and urbanisation sectors. “We need funding to solve the sewerage problem and extend water pipes to meet the growing population with the help of the Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company (NCWSC),” said Johnson Sakaja, the Nairobi County Governor.
The fundraising will be done directly from the Capital Market Authority (CMA) and not from traditional financial institutions such as the bank, because “the 10-year capital market master plan envisages that 30% of the counties’ funding will come from our authority,” says Wyckliffe Shamiah, the CMA’s director general. The capital raised will also be used to develop a sustainable transport system in Nairobi to reduce air pollution caused by thermal vehicles. The aim is to support local start-ups specialising in the field of electric mobility.
Four months ago, the Nairobi County Government announced that it would issue a $1.2 billion green bond to finance environmentally friendly infrastructure. The proceeds of the deal, worth a total of 150 billion shillings ($1.2 billion) on the Nairobi Stock Exchange (NSE), will be used to develop infrastructure for renewable energy generation, energy efficiency, sustainable transport and water.
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Like Nairobi, other Kenyan cities are seeking climate finance to accelerate the ecological transition in this East African country. In this context, the Dutch branch of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) recently launched a call for applications for Kenyan companies with water and sanitation, sustainable agriculture and forestry projects. The initiative, funded by the Dutch Climate and Development Fund (DFCD), will mobilise €160 million to increase the resilience of the most vulnerable communities and ecosystems to climate change in Kenya.
Benoit-Ivan Wansi
