Who is KPWF?
Kenya Pooled Water Fund (KPWF) is a non-profit company established to provide water utilities known as Water Service Providers (WSPs) with access to capital market financing for their water and sanitation infrastructure needs. The financing will be in the form of long term Kenya Shilling loans.
Implementation
KPWF is implementing this as an annual program whereby a bond will be issued to domestic pension funds and other institutional investors; and the bond proceeds on-lent to WSPs. The loans will be paid back by the WSPs as the investors receive their return on investment.
Pooling of loans lowers risk exposure to the bondholders. A reserve account and guarantees will serve as credit enhancements thus making the bonds more secure.
A key benefit of KPWF bond financing is that longer-term financing lowers the annual cost of financing (by comparison with short-term commercial bank lending), allowing for lower tariff increases to service debt.
KPWF creates an opportunity for government of Kenya, Development Partners and International Finance Institutions to achieve multiple leverage of their sectors financial contributions (grants, concessional loans, guarantees, etc.)
KPWF’s motivation
The Constitution in Kenya and Vision 2030 aim to achieve universal access to safe water and sanitation for all by 2030 to meet Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG 6). As at 2017, water coverage stood at 55% in areas covered by Water Service Providers in Kenya. Sewerage stood at 16% (WASREB Impact Report 10, 2018).
The required investment to achieve 100% coverage in the water and sewerage sector by 2030 is KES 1,765 Billion, with a financing gap is KES 1,172 Billion which is equivalent to KES 100 Billion annually (WASREB Lender’s Manual for Commercial Financing of the Water and Sanitation Sector of Kenya Report, 2015).
KPWF seeks to assist Kenya’s water sector partially close that gap through financing WSPs’ infrastructure to increase water access, improve sewerage coverage and reduce water losses.
The Board of Directors
KPWF is the first program under the Water Finance Facility and is supported by a globally experienced team in the finance and water sectors.
Eddy Njoroge
Chairman
Eddy Njoroge is the former CEO of Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen), where he spearheaded the transformation of the company from a parastatal to a publicly listed company.
From 2008 to 2012, he was the President of the Union of Producers and Distributors of Electric Power in Africa and has also served as the chairman of the Nairobi Securities Exchange. He currently serves as Chairman of Telkom Kenya and is a board member of CfC Stanbic Bank, Real Insurance Ltd and Proctor & Allan among other companies.
Mohammed Nyaoga
Mohammed Nyaoga is the Senior Partner at Mohammed Muigai Advocates. He specializes in corporate finance, civil and commercial litigation.
Mohammed is currently the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Central Bank of Kenya. He has been Vice–Chairman of the Law Reform Commission and Chairman of its Business Laws Committee. He has been Chairman of Ecobank Kenya. He has also been a Director of Capital Markets Authority. He is a certified training consultant in corporate governance where he has training over 10,000 directors in Africa. He has also been a Trainer for State University of New York on procurement and a Lecturer at University of Nairobi.
Winnie Ouko
Winnie Ouko is a co-founder and CEO of Lattice Consulting, a boutique advisory and investment firm, founded in 2003. Lattice offers transaction advisory, strategy, research and training services to mid-market clients. Winnie has experience in capital markets, drawing from her days as an Associate Director at Standard & Poor’s in NY, where she managed the ratings of a portfolio of insurance companies in North America. Her portfolio included companies like AIG, Fairfax Financial, and Royal Insurance Group.
The Operational Team
Robert Bunyi
CEO
Robert Bunyi has over 20 years’ experience working across finance, energy and real estate sectors. His career started in 1996 as an equity analyst on the NSE and has worked in the capital market sector covering African equity markets since. More recently he expanded into consulting having founded Mavuno Capital, an investment advisory firm that deals mainly in real estate. He also serves as a Non-executive director of Invesco Assurance, a specialist passenger service vehicle insurance company owned by sector actors.
Robert served on the board of directors of Centum for five years and resigned in 2014. He joined the Nabo Board of Directors in 2013 and has steered the firm as the Chairman ever since.
Esther Ndeto
Finance Manager
Esther Ndeto is a Certified Public Accountant of Kenya and holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Accounting) from Africa Nazarene University. She has 10 years’ experience in financial reporting, treasury management, tax, recovery management and auditing. Previously worked with a small-medium sized audit firm and warehousing and a logistics company in Mombasa, Kenya. Most of her career has been in an asset financing company for the last 7 years in charge of setting up the accounting and financial reporting systems for the company.
The Members
Cardano Development
Cardano Development is committed to helping frontier economies develop and prosper, by introducing innovative financial risk management products and services to make people and businesses active in the local real economy more resilient and protected against risk.
Netherlands Water Partnership
The Netherlands Water Partnership is a network of more than 200 parties consisting of Government, Industry, Knowledge Institutions and NGOs of the Dutch Water Sector seeking to address international water issues.
Kenya Innovative Finance Facility for Water (KIFFWA)
The Kenya Innovative Finance Facility for Water(KIFFWA) is a co-developer of water initiatives in Kenya. It provides early-stage capital, finance, and engineering expertise to support the creation of viable water investment opportunities and attract (private) providers of finance.
THE PARTNERS
KENYA POOLED WATER FUND
Email: water@kpwf.co.ke
Phone: +254 712 299740
Address: P. O. Box 7665 – 00508 Nairobi, Kenya
Location: 4th Floor Delta Suites, Waiyaki Way (next to Deloitte)
