Kenya to Start Selling Infrastructure Bonds Next Week, Central Bank Says

Kenya’s central bank will probably start selling 31.6 billion shillings ($398 million) of infrastructure bonds during the week of Aug. 9 in a sale that will close near the end of the month, a senior official said.

Reuters reported the sale of infrastructure bonds, the country’s biggest single bond issue, had begun, citing Kenya’s central bank.

“Approvals were delayed,” Jackson Kitili, director of monetary operations and debt management, said by phone from the capital Nairobi today. “We expect to start it from next week.”

Proceeds of the bonds will be used to finance construction of roads, energy projects and water systems in the current fiscal year ending June 30, 2011, Kitili said on Aug. 3.

Investors have the option of redeeming a portion of their investment, which has an interest rate of 6 percent, after six and seven years, he said.

It is the only sale of bonds for infrastructure planned for 2010-11, Kitili said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Sarah McGregor in Nairobi at smcgregor5@bloomberg.net

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