Following Total Uganda’s decision to route the pipeline through Tanzania, the African Development Bank (AfDB) on Friday revealed that it is ready to be the lead arranger for the financing of Kenya's planned oil pipeline to transport crude from fields in the far north county of Turkana.

Kenya and Uganda have been negotiating which route to select for an oil export pipeline that Kenya wants to pass through its territory instead of neighboring Tanzania.

According to Gabriel Negatu, the Nairobi-based regional director of the AfDB, South Sudan is to most likely join Kenya in the construction of a pipeline, as they seek to transport oil out to the world via the planned port of Lamu, as it forms part of a bigger infrastructure development plan referred to as the Lamu Port Southern Sudan-Ethiopia Transport (LAPSSET) Corridor.

“We at the AFDB could consider financing a pipeline through our private sector window. We have said to the various parties who are interested in the pipeline that we would be happy to be the lead arranger to raise the financing for this pipeline, whichever way it goes." Negatu told Reuters.

He added that the bank will before long award millions of dollars to the secretariat of the LAPSSET Corridor project, for the acceleration of the development of the Lamu port, along with road and railway infrastructure.

Anita Fatunji