Dubai’s AriseIIP to pool $3bn in Kenya investments

African infrastructure developer AriseIIP plans to help draw more than $3 billion for Kenyan investments over the next five years, an executive director told Reuters.

The money, which would go to a textiles firm and three industrial and export parks, could help Kenya’s efforts to attract foreign investment to create jobs.

“We are looking to attract global companies from more than 14 countries globally to set up their manufacturing base here,” Nikhil Gandhi, AriseIIP’s executive director in charge of special economic zones development, said on the sidelines of an investment conference.

Gandhi said AriseIIP, which is based in Dubai, would provide 30-40 percent of the money itself, in exchange for equity in the projects.

The rest will come through debt from development finance institutions and other lenders, Gandhi said, adding that the money would go towards two export zones along Kenya’s coast, a third in the Rift Valley area of Naivasha and to the Rivatex textiles firm.

AriseIIP is owned by Afreximbank’s private equity arm (FEDA), the Africa Finance Corporation, Saudi Arabia’s Vision Invest and UAE-based Equitane Group.

It has big projects in Benin and Gabon, but this would mark its first investments in Kenya.

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Along with Kenyan lender KCB Group and Afreximbank, it will also set up an $800 million facility to support investors who will take up space in the zones once developed, Gandhi said.

War in Iran and US tariff hikes could actually benefit some African countries as supply chains change, he added.

“People will shift value chains to this continent,” he said, citing textiles, minerals and electric vehicles. “In the context of where Kenya lies, I can already see a tectonic shift.”