William Ruto, the Kenyan President had on Thursday, November 23, announced that the government was all set to privatise 35 state companies after legislating a law last month to supervise the process.
Kenya had last privatised a state-owned company in 2008 with an initial public offering, –IPO, for 25% of the shares in the telecommunications company, Safaricom.
Mr Njuguna Ndung’u, the Finance Minister had told Reuters that the names of the firms to be privatised would be made public at a later date.
The East African nation’s public finances have been pressured by the the COVID-19 pandemic and the constant climate change-induced droughts and there is unpredictability over its ability to gain access funding from financial markets before a $2 billion Eurobond matures in June 2024.
Even though Ruto has said that Kenya would now be able to offload potentially “profitable” companies where growth has been restricted by bureaucracy, Ndung’u declined that the listing drive was intended to strengthen up government finances.
Ruto said Kenya revised its privatisation law in October to remove “unwanted bureaucracies” and that the government’s new scheme would increase Africa’s pipeline of company floatation.
Bourses on the continent have performed less than expected this year as global investors refused investing in assets thought as risky, with a shortage of listings, a hike in global interest rates and China’s economic labours.
