Kenya: KTDA secures financing for small hydro

Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA), the country’s largest tea management agency, has secured $55m in financing to construct seven small hydropower plants totalling 17.4MW. The loan was arranged by the International Finance Corporation, in partnership with the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program, the Netherlands’ FMO and France’s Proparco.The funding will allow work on the 1.8MW Lower Nyamindi, 1.5MW Iraru and 2MW South Mara projects, whose construction started in 2015, to be completed, and pave the way for work on the 2MW Nyambunde, 1.5MW Kiringa, 3.6MW Kipsonoi and 5MW Nyamasege projects to start in 2016.