Kenya Debt Repayment: Kenya’s repayment of public debt is set to hit more than Sh. 1 trillion. In the year starting July this year, disclosures to parliament show that Kenya will repay up to Sh. 1.023 trillion.
According to a report on the repayment that appeared in the Business Daily on Monday, this will be more than double the Sh. 435.7 billion that taxpayers paid for debt four years ago.
“At Sh. 1.023 trillion, Kenya will require an average of Sh. 2.8 billion daily in the financial year when the repayment of principal sums of a majority of the commercial and semi-concessional loans fall due,” the report said. “Kenya will use Sh. 5.76 for every Sh10 collected as taxes and other levies in the year starting July for debt payments, leaving little cash for building and maintenance of roads, revamping the rickety health sector, boosting food security and affordable housing.”
This means that government under president Uhuru Kenyatta administration will have borrowed at least Sh. 7.6 trillion after inheriting about Sh. 1.89 trillion in June 2013 from the former president Mwai Kibaki.
“Treasury chiefs project in the Budget Policy Statement released this month that total debt will jump to Sh. 8.59 trillion in the year ending June 2022, less than two months before the end of President Uhuru Kenyatta final term,” the report said.
Incidentally, in the year starting July, the government is looking to issue the fourth Eurobond. The country intends to raise 123.8 billion shillings ($1.13 billion) from sovereign bonds sold to foreigners in the next four months and an additional 124.3 billion shillings during the fiscal year starting in July, according to the National Treasury. The funds will help finance the budget.
Kenya’s public debt stood at 7.28 trillion shillings by the end of December, equivalent to 65.6% of gross domestic product in nominal terms, according to government data. The Treasury wants the statutory debt ceiling lifted to above 9 trillion shillings to accommodate anticipated fiscal deficits from 2021-22, according to the document. Kenya Debt Repayment.
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