The African Development Bank has approved a 65.8 billion shilling ($509 million) loan to support Kenya’s development priorities.
In a statement on Monday, February 23, Kiptoo confirmed the approval of the fund and emphasized the strengthening of the relationship between the two institutions.
He said, “The African Development Bank has extended financing amounting to US$509 million to support Kenya’s development priorities and strengthened our partnership under the current National Strategic Framework.”
Mr. Kiptu revealed that the announcement was made during a high-level meeting at the National Treasury, which included AfDB senior leadership, at the start of an important review mission.
“Today, at the National Treasury, I held discussions with Mr. Alex Mubiru, Director of the Regional Development and Business Promotion Office for East Africa at the African Development Bank, on the launch of a joint technical mission for the mid-term review of national strategic documents covering the period 2024-2028,” he added.
Mr Kiptoo further outlined the sectors that will benefit from this loan, highlighting key projects in health, water, roads and energy transmission.
He added: “The discussions covered key key interventions, including investments in the health sector, water and road infrastructure, and electricity grids, and the need to fast-track projects through regular portfolio reviews to strengthen absorption and impact.”
This comes a week after the government announced a new push to strengthen its anti-money laundering system in a bid to restore international confidence in the country’s financial sector.
In a statement on Monday, February 16, Deputy Treasurer Chris Kiptoo outlined the progress made to date and the next steps needed for Kenya to meet international standards set by global financial regulators.
He said: “Kenya is accelerating reforms to strengthen its anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) framework to address identified gaps and restore full international confidence in the country’s financial system.”
Kiptoo said discussions were held to assess ongoing efforts and adjust strategies aimed at meeting international requirements for exclusion from the monitoring process.
“On behalf of the Secretary of State for the Treasury, John Mbadi, I met with the heads of AML/CFT implementing agencies to review progress under the International Cooperation Review Group (ICRG) process and agree on the next steps towards exiting the gray list,” he added.
According to the Ministry of Finance, several legal and institutional milestones have already been achieved as part of the reform agenda.
These include new legislation aimed at improving transparency and reporting across the financial sector, stronger coordination mechanisms and stricter supervisory standards.
He continued: “Key advances include the enactment of the Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorism Financing (Amendment) Act 2025 and the Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASP) Act 2025, increased collaboration between organizations, enhanced risk-based customer due diligence, improved reporting of suspicious transactions, and closer collaboration between government agencies across key sectors.”
Mr Kiptoo further stressed that the remaining reforms will be aggressively implemented to ensure Kenya is removed from the gray list maintained by the Financial Action Task Force.
“We are taking decisive action to complete the remaining reforms and ensure Kenya’s removal from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) gray list,” he concluded.
