Kenya gets $52 mln from ADB for projects

NAIROBI, Feb. 19 (Xinhua) -- The Kenyan government has received 4.2 billion shillings (about 52.7 million U.S. dollars) from the African Development Bank (ADB) to be used for community empowerment and institutional support.

Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta who signed the two agreements late Wednesday said the loan would be used for two projects, including community empowerment and institutional support for technical, industrial, vocational and entrepreneurship training.

Kenyatta said that the first project would be funded to the tune of 1.7 billion shillings while the second would receive 2.5 billion shillings.

"The Kenya government remains committed to good governance and as such we will ensure that these resources are applied as per the agreement that we just signed and indeed for the intended purposes," Kenyatta told journalists.

The minister said that the community empowerment fund would be used to assist communities to enhance their skills to ensure better management of resources available to them, while the technical and entrepreneurship fund would be used to improve the quality of technical training in the country.

The move comes shortly after the bank's board of directors also approved ADB's new country assistance strategy to Kenya, committing to provide a massive 34.8 billion shillings for the next four years to 2012.

Kenyatta said community empowerment and institutional project would help poor communities access critical information at the district level by establishing district information centers.

"This will enhance the skills of communities to ensure better management of resources available at the local level and especially the CDF," Kenyatta said.

ADB Office Representative Domina Muzingo said the bank had recently approved the Kenya Country Strategy under the African Development Fund country cycle for 34 billion shillings towards infrastructure development.

"With the signature of these loans, ADB will be supporting 20 ongoing projects in the Kenyan public sector including for multinational products, for a total investment of 50 billion shillings," Muzingo said. (1 U.S. dollar=79.7 Kenyan shillings)