Global financial institution International Finance Corporation (IFC) MD and executive VP Makhtar Diop will visit Kenya from January 31 to February 4 in a show of support for Kenya’s development agenda.

The IFC said in a statement on January 27 that the visit would highlight the private sector’s role in championing a more inclusive recovery from the economic impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic.

During his visit, Diop will engage with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, as well as other key private sector representatives and prominent business leaders, to discuss the IFC’s commitment to promote social inclusion – with support from the private sector. 

The health, agriculture and housing sectors will be discussed with a view to forging public-private partnerships in Kenya and the broader region.

“While the Covid-19 pandemic hit Kenya’s smaller businesses particularly hard, disrupted supply chains and reduced economic activity, the country is staging a positive economic recovery and is expected to post one of the stronger growth rebounds in sub-Saharan Africa in 2022,” the IFC said.

The IFC noted that the private sector had an instrumental role to play in supporting Kenya’s continued recovery from the pandemic and in creating more productive jobs in the longer term. 

The IFC’s investment and advisory portfolio in Kenya currently stands at $964-million, operating in key sectors such as manufacturing, agribusiness, financial services, infrastructure and technology.

During the pandemic, the IFC deployed $115-million of its Covid-19 fast-track global financing facility to several financial institutions in Kenya to help the country increase lending to small businesses, which are vital to its economy.

In 2021, the IFC committed $31.5-billion to private companies and financial institutions in developing countries, leveraging the power of the private sector towards ending extreme poverty and boosting shared prosperity as economies grappled with the impacts of the pandemic.