Kenya Selected for Ksh25 Billion Project Backed by World Bank

by Washington Mito on Friday, 21 April 2023 – 8:13 pm

A photo of a section of Nairobi's Upperhill estate taken on May 4, 2020.

Kenya was on Friday, April 21, listed as one of the beneficiaries of a Ksh25 billion project planned to be undertaken by a Mauritius-based company – the Grit Real Estate Income Group Limited.

The International Finance Corporation (IFC) – a subsidiary of the World Bank – in project descriptions seen by Kenyans.co.ke, it was noted that the company was seeking to invest in the real estate industry in Kenya.

In particular, some of the projects targeted include warehousing, prime logistics, light industrial and manufacturing.

The Mauritius company also intends to invest in storage facilities, data centres and digital infrastructure real estate assets.

A photo of the Imperial Warehouse in Nairobi that was undertaken by the Grit Real Estate Income Group Limited in August 2017.

However, the exact location where the investments will be made was not made public.

"Bora Africa will then raise additional financing to execute a Ksh25 billion (USD192 million) pipeline of acquisition and new asset development opportunities in Sub-Saharan Africa.

"Grit is seeking IFC’s funding to support the acquisition and development of the industrial pipeline assets in Kenya, Mauritius and Nigeria," read the project brief in part.

However, the subsidiary of the World Bank clarified that it would only finance part of the projects amounting to Ksh4 billion (USD30 million)

On the other hand, the IFC explained that it disclosed details of the credit application for transparency purposes.

"This Summary of Investment Information (SII) is prepared by IFC to disclose a factual summary of the main elements of the potential investment. Its purpose is to enhance the transparency of IFC’s activities.

"For any project documentation or data included or attached herein, whether prepared by the project sponsor or otherwise, authorization has been given for public release by the project sponsor," read the documents in part.

According to IFC, the Grit Real Estate Income Group has assets of over Ksh111 billion across countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.

An aerial photo of the Acacia real estate project undertaken by the Grit Real Estate Income Group in Mozambique in August 2018.