President William Ruto will hold talks with World Bank Group’s private sector lending arm’s managing director Makhtar Diop on Friday, to explore ways Kenya can tap into a $6 billion (Sh726 billion) global fund to tackle food insecurity.
The International Finance Corporation (IFC) said the high-powered talks in Nairobi, which will also be attended by corporate chiefs, will focus on funding options for building a “more sustainable and productive agriculture sector”.
“Kenya’s recovery from the Covid-19 crisis is confronting rising inflation, disrupted supply chains, severe drought, and heightened food insecurity,” the IFC said in a statement.
“The private sector can support Kenya to help tackle these new challenges and create more opportunities for the country’s young population.”
The World Bank’s commercial lending unit in October unveiled the $6 billion Global Food Security Platform aimed at stabilising volatile food markets and bolstering supply chains that have been further disrupted by the war in Ukraine that followed Covid-related lockdowns.
The new funding initiative is largely focused on Africa.
Kenyans are battling the biggest growth in the cost of living in five-and-a-half years largely brought about by below-average rainfall.
