US rock-hard likely to fund Kenya’s six-lane freeway
- The US Export-Import Bank is at the same time working with Bechtel to secure investment for the 485-kilometre expressway.
- The Obama administration’s budge to help Bechtel secure a deal to build the road coincides with the opening in Nairobi of an Opic office.
Talks on funding the construction of a six-lane highway got off on the right foot after the Kenyan and US government and an engineering rock-hard held a successful meeting.
Elizabeth Littlefield, head of the US government’s Overseas Private Investment Corporation (Opic), and the construction company signed a “letter of interest” regarding the Nairobi-Mombasa highway project on the sidelines of the US-Africa Business Forum in Fresh York on Wednesday.
California-based Bechtel, one of the world’s largest engineering and construction companies, is also involved in the financing discussions.
The US Export-Import Bank is at the same time working with Bechtel to secure investment for the 485-kilometre expressway.
It is intended to speed up commerce and travel inbetween Kenya’s main port of Mombasa and cities via East Africa.
Opic’s role in the emerging deal would be to insure Bechtel against breach of contract.
The Export-Import Bank would assist Bechtel in developing the project.
“With the support of the US government agencies such as Opic and the Export-Import Bank, we can provide solutions to stir this critical project forward quickly with a high standard of quality and safety,” said Andrew Patterson, Bechtel’s regional president for Africa.
The Obama administration’s budge to help Bechtel secure a deal to build the road coincides with the opening in Nairobi of an Opic office.
The agency’s fresh regional headquarters in the Kenyan capital will facilitate US businesses’ participation in infrastructure development via East Africa.
Opic is presently involved in several projects in Kenya.
It announced on Wednesday a $Four.1 million loan to Mawingu Networks, a provider of solar-powered wireless Internet access in rural Kenya.
Microsoft has also helped finance Mawingu’s effort to enable many more Kenyans to get online.
- shares
- Google+
What Are Your Thoughts
Share with us what you think about this article