Kenya will receive Sh78.4 billion ($739 million) in emergency financing from The International Monetary Fund (IMF) to help the country deal with the sudden economic shock caused by the Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.
“Emergency financing under the Rapid Credit Facility (RCF) will deliver liquidity support to help Kenya cover its balance of payments gap this year,” IMF deputy managing director Tao Zhang stated. “It will provide much-needed resources for fiscal interventions to safeguard public health and support households and firms affected by the crisis,”
The IMF warned the impact of the coronavirus fallout on the Kenyan economy will be “severe”, stating that already Covid-19 pandemic has delivered a large economic shock to the country.
“The pandemic has impacted nearly all facets of the economy—particularly tourism, transport, and trade—and led to urgent balance of payments and fiscal financing needs.”
Kenya had announced that it was seeking Sh122.5 billion ($1.15 billion) emergency funding from the IMF and the World Bank to support the slowing economy in the face of the coronavirus crisis.
“We are working with IMF for an emergency assistance that does not have the conditionalities of other programmes. A lot of this will be directed to budgetary support,” Central Bank governor Patrick Njoroge had said.
The IMF also approved a disbursement under the Rapid Credit Facility (RCF) of $226 million, $491.5 million to Cameroon and Uganda respectively.
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