The Brief: Kenya receives an additional $941.2 million from the IMF

The Event

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved a $941.2 million lending boost to Kenya, with an immediate disbursement of $624.5 million under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) and Extended Credit Facility (ECF). A further  $60.2 million under the Resilience and Sustainability Fund (RSF) arrangement will be disbursed immediately. The RSF fund, a 20-month program approved in July 2023 (ending March 2025), is meant to support Kenya’s ambitious efforts to build resilience to climate change.

Initiated in April 2021, the 38-month EFF and ECF agreement (ending June 2023), amounting to $2.34 billion, was established to support the recovery of the Kenyan economy post-COVID-19 shocks and address debt vulnerabilities. During the annual review in July 2023, the IMF board granted a 10-month extension until April 2025, allowing time to implement the essential fiscal and monetary reforms, including expanding the tax base to elevate the tax-to-GDP ratio, which has dropped from 15.5% in 2014