By George Mwangi
Special to DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
London-listed Standard Chartered PLC (STAN.LN) has extended a
$190 million long-term loan to Kenya's national electricity
distributor to implement infrastructure projects, Kenya Power
said.
The move comes after the monopoly utility had sought expressions
of interest from local and international financial institutions
toward the end of last year for a loan of between seven and 10
years, Kenya Power Managing Director and Chief Executive Ben Chumo
said in a statement Wednesday.
The company will use the funds to expand and upgrade Kenya's
electricity network in readiness for expected additional generating
capacity of 5,000 megawatts over the next 40 months, Mr. Chumo
said.
Only 32% of Kenya's population is connected to the national
grid, and high electricity bills and unreliable supply have been
scaring away investors, said Davis Chirchir, cabinet secretary for
energy and petroleum.
The distribution network needs to be able to accommodate the
million new customers expected to be connected this financial year
and those to come later, including industrial, commercial and
domestic users, Mr. Chumo said.
Kenya produces 1,341 megawatts of electricity, largely from
hydropower, and it plans to increase geothermal and wind power
generation while reducing costly thermal generation.
Write to George Mwangi at realtimedesklondon@dowjones.com
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