The Kenyan government says it will reduce its borrowings on the capital market over the next three years to loosen public debt burden. The information was revealed by Geoffrey Mwau (pictured), the economic advisor to the Finance Minister.

“We need to focus more on concessional borrowing... what we are doing is looking at scaling down our commercial borrowing up to a point where it is manageable,” he said. The measure will enable the country to make its credit repayments schedule more bearable. Credits to be repaid consist of several bonds issued since 2014.

Since President Uhuru Kenyatta took office in 2013, he has been criticized for multiplying loans, raising public debt from 42% to 55% of GDP currently. The money borrowed was mainly used to finance infrastructure projects included in the Big Four Agenda, the national development program initiated by the president himself.

While no figures have been provided as to the proportion of reduction of these loans, the authorities have indicated that they will focus on improving tax revenue collection in order to reduce the need for additional borrowing.

Last September, the country's acting Minister of Finance, Ukur Yatani, said the government planned strict budget cuts to reduce its budget deficit.

Moutiou Adjibi Nourou