Kenya’s bid to transition to e-mobility as well as ease traffic congestion within the Nairobi metropolitan has been greatly boosted following the signing of a Sh8.7 billion with a US firm.
The funds are meant for the acquisition of electric buses to operate within the area bus rapid transit (BRT) line 2.
President William Ruto who is in the US on an official tour witnessed the signing of the agreement with the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC).
The funds are being offered under the Second Threshold Programme designed to improve urban connectivity and promote economic growth in the country.
“Today’s signing ceremony marks an exciting milestone in the growing partnership between Kenya and the United States,” said Ruto in a statement from the US embassy website.
MCC CEO Alice Bright termed the grant to Kenya as the largest and one of the most ambitious threshold programs that MCC has ever implemented with a partner country.
“It reflects MCC’s confidence in Kenya to address its own challenges to economic growth and is yet one more symbol of the longstanding relationship between our two countries,” she said.
MCC is an independent US government agency working to reduce global poverty through economic growth.
Created in 2004, MCC provides time-limited grants and assistance to countries that meet rigorous standards for good governance, fighting corruption, and respecting democratic rights.
MCC threshold programs are grants that allow partner countries to demonstrate their commitment to democratic governance, economic freedom, and investments in their people through targeted policy reforms and capacity-building programs.
In doing so, partner countries focus resources and support to tackle constraints to economic growth.