AfDB approves funding to support Kenya's hydropower project

The Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa, managed by the African Development Bank (AfDB), on Thursday approved a 992,000 U.S. dollar grant to support the preparation of a 7.8 megawatts (MW) hydropower project in Kenya.

The AfDB said the innovative community-owned hydropower project will contribute to Kenya's objectives of expanding on-grid generation capacity, in particular through harnessing indigenous renewable capacity.

AfDB Director-General for East Africa Regional Development and Business Delivery Office, Gabriel Negatu, said in a statement that the project will generate jobs and new income, especially for women.

The project features a shareholding structure where members of the Mutunguru community in central Kenya receive a fixed small share of the project's profits.

Patrick Kimathi of the Mutunguru Hydroelectric Company Limited said the government considered small hydro a priority, given the wide resource availability, baseload properties and ease of integration into the grid.

"Through building capacity of local communities to own and manage commercially viable grid-connected small hydropower projects, we support implementation of the feed-in-tariff policy in Kenya to increase access to clean, affordable and sustainable energy," Kimathi said.

The hydropower project is also expected to enhance job skills of rural women as they take on additional micro-economical activities besides the ones they are already dominating -- tea plantations and dairy farms. Endit