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World Bank Gives Kenya $135 mln for Internet
By: Reuters   |   May 24, 2007
The World Bank gave Kenya credit worth $135 million on Wednesday to improve Internet usage and the gathering of statistics.

The new credit brings to $289.4 million the amount the bank has committed to lend to the east African nation in 2007. The country was formerly shunned by international donors due to rampant corruption.

"From time to time, we are asked why we continue to support Kenya (but) we see an economic expansion and one of the strongest recoveries," World Bank Country Director Colin Bruce said after signing the financing agreements.

Kenya's economy has been on a strengthening path since President Mwai Kibaki's government took over in 2002. Growth stood at 6 percent in 2006 compared to 0.6 percent when he was elected president.

Bruce said the bank would soon raise Kenya's Country Policy and Institutional Assessment (CPIA) rating.

The bank performs an annual rating for governments that borrow from it, that is based on public sector governance, structural reforms and social policies.

"The country rating has increased from 3.3 percent to 3.7 percent, closing the gap between Kenya and best performers at 4 and above," Bruce said.

Part of the money, $114.4 million, will be used to roll out telecommunication infrastructure, including $10 million for "digital villages" - a project to take the Internet to villages.

The rest will be used to make data collection more reliable and efficient at the national statistics office.

Kenya is leading a regional initiative to lay a submarine cable linking the east African coast to Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates.

Part of the money will be used to construct a landing station for that cable. Construction is scheduled to start in June.

Kenya pays $7,500 per megabyte of satellite connection because it is not connected to the global broadband infrastructure.

Kenyan Finance Minister Amos Kimunya said the government planned to issue an international bond worth $250 million.

"There's very strong interest," he said.

Kimunya added that the local currency's relative strengthen against the dollar was an indication of a robust economy.

Exporters, whose income has been reduced to foreign exchange losses, would make gains while importing farm inputs or shipping farm produce cargo, he said.

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