{"id":25527,"date":"2021-04-07T18:40:59","date_gmt":"2021-04-07T18:40:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/?p=25527"},"modified":"2021-04-07T18:40:59","modified_gmt":"2021-04-07T18:40:59","slug":"imf-explains-why-it-granted-kenya-loan-despite-public-opposition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/economy\/imf-explains-why-it-granted-kenya-loan-despite-public-opposition","title":{"rendered":"IMF explains why it granted Kenya loan despite public opposition"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>AfricaPress-Kenya:<\/strong> The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has defended its decision to grant Kenya a Sh255 billion (US$2.34 billion) loan despite public backlash.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement, Antoinette Sayeh, IMF deputy managing director, said \u201cThe Kenyan authorities have demonstrated a strong commitment to fiscal reforms during this unprecedented global shock, and Kenya\u2019s medium-term prospects remain positive.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>IMF gave reasons why they had advanced the money to Kenya yet the country still had another multi-billion-shilling loan.<\/p>\n<p>According to IMF, the loan approved is under two programs, the Extended Credit Facility (ECF) and Extended Fund Facility (EFF) and it\u2019s for an amount of about Sh255 billion.<\/p>\n<p>Secondly, its approval triggered an immediate disbursement of Sh33 billion (US$307.5 million), for budget support, said the Bretton Woods institution.<\/p>\n<p>Thirdly, IMF said the loan is also a continuation of another loan given in May 2020, equivalent to Sh80 billion (US$739 million).<\/p>\n<p>The new loan is to serve the following purposes: reduce debt vulnerabilities through several channels such as raising tax revenues, controlling spending and protecting vulnerable groups, addressing weaknesses in state-owned enterprises and strengthening the anti-corruption framework.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe three-year financing package will support the next phase of the authorities\u2019 Covid-19 response and their plan to reduce debt vulnerabilities while safeguarding resources to protect vulnerable groups,\u201d IMF said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>Their statements came as more than 200,000 angry Kenyans have signed an online petition, asking IMF to cancel the recently approved loan as previous disbursements have been lost to corruption and remain unpaid.<\/p>\n<p>The government has, however, argued that the debt is necessary to fight the Covid-19 pandemic and reduce debt vulnerabilities.<\/p>\n<p>Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yatani said access to vaccines is critical, and help from the international community is urgently required.<\/p>\n<p>The 2021 Budget Policy Statement indicated that Kenya\u2019s public debt stood at Sh7.06 trillion as of June 2020, equivalent to 65 per cent of the GDP.<\/p>\n<p>On Twitter, the \u201cInternational Monetary Fund\u201d was trending all day with over 10,000 posts from Kenyans alongside a host of hashtags urging the fund to stop giving Kenyan money.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>AfricaPress-Kenya: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has defended its decision to grant Kenya a Sh255 billion (US$2.34 billion) loan despite public backlash. In a statement, Antoinette Sayeh, IMF deputy managing director, said \u201cThe Kenyan authorities have demonstrated a strong commitment to fiscal reforms during this unprecedented global shock, and Kenya\u2019s medium-term prospects remain positive.\u201d IMF [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":25480,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5,8],"tags":[543,4044,136],"class_list":["post-25527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-economy","category-homepage-english","tag-imf","tag-jubilee-government","tag-uhuru-kenyatta"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>IMF explains why it granted Kenya loan despite public opposition - kenya<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has defended its decision to grant Kenya a Sh255 billion (US$2.34 billion) loan despite public\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/economy\/imf-explains-why-it-granted-kenya-loan-despite-public-opposition\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"IMF explains why it granted Kenya loan despite public opposition\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has defended its decision to grant Kenya a Sh255 billion (US$2.34 billion) loan despite public\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/economy\/imf-explains-why-it-granted-kenya-loan-despite-public-opposition\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"kenya\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-04-07T18:40:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/kenya\/sites\/28\/2021\/04\/country_that_returne606c4b512d0af.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/economy\/imf-explains-why-it-granted-kenya-loan-despite-public-opposition#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/economy\/imf-explains-why-it-granted-kenya-loan-despite-public-opposition\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"IMF explains why it granted Kenya loan despite public opposition\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-04-07T18:40:59+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/economy\/imf-explains-why-it-granted-kenya-loan-despite-public-opposition\"},\"wordCount\":347,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/economy\/imf-explains-why-it-granted-kenya-loan-despite-public-opposition#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/kenya\/sites\/28\/2021\/04\/country_that_returne606c4b512d0af.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"IMF\",\"Jubilee government\",\"Uhuru Kenyatta\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"economy\",\"homepage-english\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/economy\/imf-explains-why-it-granted-kenya-loan-despite-public-opposition#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/economy\/imf-explains-why-it-granted-kenya-loan-despite-public-opposition\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/economy\/imf-explains-why-it-granted-kenya-loan-despite-public-opposition\",\"name\":\"IMF explains why it granted Kenya loan despite public opposition - 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