Kenya Kwanza’s affordable housing plan is steadily getting off the blocks after a number of investment firms including, pension funds, insurance companies and cooperatives agreed to furnish it with Kes500 billion seed capital.

In a first, President William Ruto granted an audience to captains of industry from the respective financial sector organisations on Monday, where the investors agreed to inject half a trillion shillings into various projects in the first year, and grow their wager two-fold by the fifth year.

The financing model, dubbed Sanduku Investment Initiative, encompasses the government’s priority projects including the Railway City Development, Nairobi International financial centre, Kenani Leather Park, Makongeni Modern suburb, among others.

President Ruto’s administration will ride the wave of these private-public partnership projects to enhance Kenyans’ access to affordable housing while also livening up the economy by spawning employment opportunities.

The investors and the government agreed to deploy a framework assembled by the Nairobi Securities Exchange in collaboration with the Capital Markets Authority to facilitate investment-grade instruments to be listed at the bourse.

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By leveraging the bourse to raise capital for government spending, Dr Ruto is making good on a pledge he made when presiding over the launch of the NSE Market Place at the Exchange Building in Westlands on October 11.

"I look forward to GOK raising resources for our development from Nairobi Securities Exchange," he said.

The president also pointed out that utilising monies from the pensions industry, insurance firms, Saccos, Cooperatives and Islamic finance institutions will allow small business holders to realise the benefits of investing in commercial real estate.

 “This means small entrepreneurs like mama mboga will have a chance to invest under a real estate investment trust,” he said.

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