Agence Française de Développement (AFD) and the Ministry of Education Science and Technology of the Republic of Kenya have signed today a memorandum of understanding to support the Higher Education expansion Program with the involvement of commercial banks, by the financing of investments in strategic faculties.

The signing was held at Jogoo House by the Regional Director of AFD Nairobi Office, Mr. Yves BOUDOT and Dr Fred MATIANG’I, Cabinet Secretary at Ministry of Education Science and Technology, in the presence of the French Ambassador to Kenya, H.E. Rémi Maréchaux. In line with the government policy to support the development of higher education according to national development goals and needs of the economy, AFD will play an important role in supporting universities expansion projects by setting-up of a first and pilot concessional credit line to several Kenyan commercial banks to support universities infrastructure investments in strategic faculties, matching with national strategic plan Vision 2030 and the current and future needs of the private sectors and industries in Kenya.

The eligible projects to this credit line will be infrastructure investments - such as campus, laboratories, equipment, lecture hall, hospitals- in priority academic domains where workforce development is the most needed according to Vision 2030 and private sector representatives:

Science, Technology and Innovation, Agriculture, Energy, Mining, Medicine and Health Sciences,

Construction.

A technical assistance will be provided to support the implementation of the projects and partnerships with French higher education institutions to assist universities in finalizing their technical and scientific proposals of the most ambitious and complex projects.