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Kenya near agreeing $1.5 bln budget support loan from UAE - source

Kenya's federal government is close to agreeing a $1.5 billion loan from the United Arab Emirates with an interest rate of 8.2% which will help bridge the East African country's financing gap, a source knowledgeable about the situation told Reuters.

Kenya is diversifying its sources of spending plan support, said the source, including the offer is as great as done.

The UAE ministry of financing and the UAE central bank did not instantly react to a request for comment.

Kenya's Financing Minister John Mbadi and other senior officials at the ministry were not immediately readily available for remark.

The nation's dollar bonds rallied after the news, with the 2048 maturity increasing by as much as 1.89 cents to trade at 84.3 cents on the dollar, Tradeweb data revealed.

The federal government has been having a hard time to discover new sources of financing after lethal protests required President William Ruto to dispose of planned tax hikes worth more than 346 billion shillings ($ 2.7 billion) in June.

A delay in financing from the International Monetary Fund has worsened the circumstance.

Kenya is now anticipating its total budget deficit to broaden to 4.3% of GDP this fiscal year, compared to 3.3% under the initial, pre-protest budget.

Nairobi has actually had to pay a high cost for the financial assistance it has gotten. In February Kenya issued a $1.5 billion Eurobond to help it handle maturities, but it paid a high 10.375% yield for the seven-year bond.

Bloomberg reported earlier on Wednesday that Kenya remained in talks on a loan deal with Abu Dhabi.

Under President Ruto, who took over in September 2022, Kenya has created closer ties with the UAE.

The UAE's Abu Dhabi National Oil Business (ADNOC) and Emirates National Oil Company were amongst three Gulf firms Ruto's. government chose in 2015 to supply Kenya with oil on longer. credit terms, in a shift from an open tender system.

The UAE supplied Ethiopia with $1 billion in 2018 to assist. with a serious hard currency cash crunch, and the central banks. of both sides revealed an $817 million swap line in July.

The UAE also signed a handle Egypt previously this year to. establish a prime stretch of its Mediterranean coast that was. anticipated to bring $35 billion of financial investments into the Egyptian. economy.

(source: Reuters)