The newly rebranded UK government’s development finance institution (DFI) British International Investment (BII) was launched on May 12 at the British High Commissioner’s residence in Nairobi, Kenya – one of the DFI’s most important markets.

The event was attended by BII CEO Nick O’Donohoe and British High Commissioner to Kenya Jane Marriott.

The reception celebrated the DFI’s long-term partnership with Kenya and reaffirmed its commitment to channel more funding to help drive innovation and tackle the most pertinent global development challenges.

“Our [74-year] history in Kenya shows our appetite to grow and shape markets. We helped establish the Kenya Tea Development Authority in 1964, and we’ve continued to support the company’s growth to become the world’s third-largest exporter of tea and Kenya’s second-largest source of foreign exchange,” O’Donohoe said.

He added that it was just one example of the productive and transformational relationships that BII has developed with Kenya in the past.

In the country, BII, which was formerly known as CDC Group, will continue to invest to support private-sector growth. It will leverage its partnerships and knowledge of markets across Africa to contribute to improving the economy.

With a new five-year strategy, BII will now pursue investment opportunities in Kenya that will raise productivity, help increase climate resilience and support a circular economy, and ensure inclusive opportunities for all.

“We will deploy 30% of our investments toward climate finance and support the growth of renewable energy generation . . . BII will also back new technologies like battery storage and green hydrogen, invest in the burgeoning digital economy, and support ambitious entrepreneurs who are creating solutions that can transform societies,” O’Donohoe said.

Marriott said the relaunch of the organisation as BII signified a desire to deepen the already close relationship with the rest of the UK government’s activity in Kenya, to make the UK offer in Kenya as coherent and integrated as possible, and to ensure that “we are more than the sum of our parts”.

BII has a portfolio of nearly £500-million in Kenya, supporting 30 regional funds and more than 80 businesses, which in turn support more than 36 000 jobs.

The DFI’s investments in Kenya, both direct and through various funds and intermediaries, cover a variety of sectors, from clean infrastructure and energy, to digital infrastructure, food and agriculture, financial services and logistics.

One of the DFI’s key investments involves backing climate-eligible projects and supporting small businesses’ resilience and recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic through a $87-million total commitment to Equity Bank Kenya.

Another investment involves accelerating clean and green energy generation in Southeast Kenya by supporting the newly operational 52 MW Malindi solar project through a $66-million commitment alongside BII-majority owned independent power producer Globeleq.

Further, the DFI helped to improve crop yield and farmers’ income by investing $100-million in supply chain management entity Export Trading Group, which is helping to connect more than 550 000 smallholder farmers in Africa to global markets.

The DFI also invested in supporting digital transformation through $220-million in financing granted to Africa’s largest telecoms company Liquid Telecom, which is improving access to high-quality Internet.

The BII invests between £1.5-billion to £2-billion every year to support the UK government’s Clean Green Initiative and to create productive, sustainable and inclusive economies in our markets. 

The BII plays a key role in the UK government’s wider plans to mobilise up to £8-billion a year of public and private sector investment in international projects by 2025.   

Over the next five years, at least 30% of BII’s total new commitments by value will be in climate finance. This will make it one of the world’s largest climate investors in Africa.