Everyone is proud to be a Kenyan, but this may turn to be the opposite! The national debts the country owes China are slowly landing the country in problem.
Standard Gauge Railway is in its second phase yet the country has not serviced the loan it took for its construction. The Auditor General Edward Ouko has unveiled a worrying report that has worried Kenyans.
EXIM Bank of China may take over Mombasa port if Kenya fails to service the loan it took to build SGR, as per the report released by the Auditor-General Edward Ouko.
EXIM BANK of China may take over Mombasa port if Kenya fails to service the loan it took to build SGR, says report by Auditor-General Edward Ouko. pic.twitter.com/TvMt9UV937
— NationBreakingNews (@NationBreaking) December 19, 2018
Business Daily in May this year reported that Loan repayments to China will more than triple from July next year as the five-year grace period that Beijing extended to Kenya in May 2014 for the standard gauge railway (SGR) funds comes to an end.
Nairobi will pay Chinese State-owned lenders nearly Sh82.85 billion in the year starting July next year from Sh26.61 billion in the current year ending June, and Sh36.24 billion the following year from July.
Kenya in May 2014 entered into a deal to borrow $3.233 billion loan (Sh324.01 billion) from China’s Exim Bank, comprised of $1.633 billion commercial loan and $1.6 billion concessional to build a 385km modern railway between Mombasa and Nairobi.
The loan, whose interest is 3.6 percentage points above the six months average of London Inter Bank Offered Rate (Libor) which serves as an international benchmark, is to be repaid in 15 years with a grace period of five years.