The President of Kenya has confirmed that his government hac concluded plans to privatise no fewer than 35 state-owned companies which he said were currently functioning inefficiently due to bureaucracy.
In a bid to boost productivity, President William Ruto said 100 other firms were also being looked at for possible privatisation.
Africa Today News, New York reports that Mr Ruto’s announcement comes as the country is facing severe economic challenges including high inflation and rising levels of debt.
Last month, the Kenyan government changed a law to make it easier to sell state enterprises to private companies.
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The IMF recently agreed a loan of close to $1bn (£800m) and urged reforms in public sector firms including the power company and Kenya Airways, which suffered record losses last year.
Meanwhile, despite widespread anger over the removal of subsidies and a raft of new taxes, the President Ruto had a fortnight ago come out to defend his push to slash ‘unnecessary’ public debt.
His state of the nation address came less than 24 hours after Finance Minister Njuguna Ndung’u conceded that the country was in a ‘difficult financial position’.
Africa Today News, New York reports that the East Africa’s economic powerhouse is facing a host of challenges, including depleted government coffers, skyrocketing inflation, and a plunging currency that has sent debt repayment costs soaring.
The nation of some 53 million people had accumulated more than 10.1 trillion shillings ($66 billion) in debt by the end of June, according to Treasury figures, equivalent to around two-thirds of gross domestic product.
‘We must admit, that as a country we had been living large and way beyond our means,’ Ruto said in his first state of the nation address to parliament since coming to power last year.
‘Time has come therefore to retire the false comforts and illusionary benefits of wasteful expenditure,’ he added.
Following his election in August 2022, Ruto introduced a slate of new taxes and raised levies contrary to campaign promises.