US Ambassador Kyle McCarter has urged US pension schemes to invest in Kenya.
Mr McCarter told a visiting US private and public pension managers that the Trump-Kenyatta administrations had also pledged to work together to eliminate graft, improve security as well as establish a platform for business.
“Kenya-US partnership is a strategic one that seeks to boost security in both countries. Our role is to boost direct US investments in Kenya while ensuring locals benefit from the investments,” he said early this week.
Addressing visiting members of the US National Association of Securities Professionals (Nasp), the envoy said the Sh350 billion Nairobi-Mombasa road contract to be implemented by US company, Bechtel, will be signed on April 17.
“The Trump-Kenyatta partnership is about investments, security, support and development. Kenya is already a hub for numerous US companies where we have spent over Sh1 billion in improving healthcare, agriculture, education and security,” he said.
The anti-graft war has attracted severe scrutiny with the latest being three dams where Sh21 billion was reportedly spent without work.
Kenya Pension Fund Investment Consortium (Kepfic) chairman Sundeep Raichura said 14 investment schemes in Kenya controlling Sh254 billion had expressed interest in partnering with their US counterparts to fund local infrastructure projects.
Nasp chairlady Donna Sims Wilson, who is heading the lobby Mobilising Institutional Investors to Development Africa’s infrastructure said American funds were looking at various Kenyan sectors including infrastructure for investment.
-nation.co.ke
