The African Development Bank- which manages Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (SEFA) has approved a grant worth US $992, 000 for the Mutunguru hydro-power project (HPP) in Central Kenya.
The AfDB said the inventive community-owned hydropower project will add to Kenya’s goal of escalating on-grid generation capability, in particular via exploiting indigenous renewable capacity. The project consists of a shareholding structure where members of the Mutunguru community in central Kenya collect a fixed small share of the project’s proceeds.
Gabriel Negatu, Director-General, East Africa Regional Development and Business Delivery Office, AfDB said in a statement, “This fiscal advantage is estimated to transform into noteworthy economic and developmental impacts in the project region, especially in terms of socio-economic empowerment especially for women and job generation.”
“Through building capability of neighbouring communities to possess and run a commercially feasible grid-connected small hydropower project, the Mutunguru hydropower project supports realisation of the Feed in Tariff Policy in Kenya to boost access to clean, cost- efficient and sustainable energy,” Mutunguru Hydroelectric Company Limited’s Patrick Kimathi said.
