President William Ruto has laid bare the conditions African nations endure when securing loans from foreign lenders.
Speaking at a State House dinner in Nairobi for members of the Africa Trade and Investment Development Insurance (ATIDI), Ruto revealed that lenders often force their own agendas onto borrowing nations, even demanding the passage of specific sexuality laws. He argued that African countries endure this treatment simply because they fail to pool their own financial resources to fund local projects.
“It is difficult to borrow money from people because they subject you to all manner of things. ‘Do this, go and pass this law, go and pass sexuality laws,’ things that have nothing to do with the money you are looking for,” Ruto stated.
The Head of State urged African nations to aggressively build up their local savings and develop independent financial systems, allowing them to stop relying on lenders who impose unreasonable conditions.
He noted that Kenya previously suffered from a weak savings culture, leaving citizens with very little personal wealth, a situation he claims to have turned around since taking office.
“In our National Social Security Fund (NSSF), we had Ksh312 billion. We have moved it to Ksh680 billion, and by next year, we will triple what we have saved for 60 years in three and a half years,” the president stated.
Ruto maintained that African nations do not actually face a shortage of capital. Instead, they simply lack the mechanisms to organize their wealth and deploy it for their own development. Because of this, he renewed his call for international organizations to offer fair loan conditions to African countries.
His remarks follow the recent launch of the National Infrastructure Fund (NIF), a strategic scheme designed to build a self-sustaining financial pool for major development projects. Under the NIF framework, the state will source capital from the NSSF and the proceeds of selling government stakes in major corporations. Ruto disclosed that Kenya will use this fund to finance the expansion of Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.
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