The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is angling to keep Kenya in its fold with just over four months to the lapse of its multi-year programme which began in April 2021.The fund is expected to conduct its final review of its programme in April while making its final disbursement estimated at Sh109.9 billion ($850 million) soon afterwards. The Washington-based multilateral lender desires to preserve its relationship with Kenya as signalled by recent events. IMF’s second Deputy Managing Director Nigel Clarke for instance chose Kenya as his first port of call after his appointment on October 31. Clarke, during his visit underlined the importance of Kenya to the fund even as he remained non-committal of the lender’s plans beyond the current programme’s sunset date. “The Kenya programme is extremely important for the IMF and one of the largest anywhere in the world. As a new deputy managing director, you are going to go to areas that are significant to the fund and hence my trip here,” he said on December 10, 2024.Earlier on, the IMF which has been a key source of external financing for Kenya in recent years unlocked disbursements from the seventh and eighth reviews of the extended credit facility and the extended fund facility (ECF/EFF) wiring Sh78.3 billion ($606.1 million) to Nairobi.This included funding from a review of resilience and sustainability fund (RSF)- a sustainability linked programme reached in July 2023. The combined reviews helped allay fears of the IMF pulling the plug on its programme with Kenya following the defeat of the Finance Bill, 2024 in June which sunk a significant hole in the fiscal budget. The IMF waived the non-observance of revenue raising conditions accompanying its loans to Kenya during the combined reviews. The waiver saw Kenya’s continued access to IMF resources despite the country's failure to meet set targets under the programme. Cumulative disbursements The IMF will have approved funding to Kenya to the tune of Sh536.5 billion ($4.15 billion) by the lapse of the ECF/EFF/RSF programmes in mid2025 with cumulative disbursements standing at Sh426.6 billion ($3.3 billion) as of November 2024.Kenya and the IMF have expressed their desire to continue engaging even as the former looks elsewhere to plug its external funding requirements including a proposed Sh193.9 billion ($1.5 billion) commercial loan from the United Arab Emirates (UAE).The IMF has blown hot and cold on its view of the proposed facility, first expressing its reservations before stating it does not comment on specific discussions between member countries and bilateral creditors. Treasury Cabinet secretary John Mbadi has on its part stated his desire for Kenya to remain engaged with the IMF if the window remains. “I don’t think we can sever our links with the IMF if they are still giving us concessional loans to support our budget, we will still work with them,” he said previously. Kenya and the IMF will have to work on a programme outside the current ECF/EFF framework as Kenya will have already exhausted its respective share of the fund resources by the lapse of the current programme. The potential successor will likely be a standby arrangement- an insurance-like facility ensuring the country can readily tap resources on a need basis without a full programme in place. (ICE NAIROBI)

Fonte notizia: Business Daily