The Public Debt and Privatization Committee led by Hon. Abdi Shurie (Balambala) met with the Controller of Budget (CoB) CPA Dr. Margaret Nyakang’o. 

Dr. Nyakang'o briefed the Committee on the disbursement rate of foreign loans and commitment fees incurred over the past five financial years. A commitment fee is the amount a lender charges to keep a specific loan amount available to a borrower, and this fee may also be charged for the unused portion of a line of credit.

The Controller of Budget noted that in the Financial Year 2022/2023, the National Treasury paid commitment fees totaling to Kshs. 1.358 billion This related to undisbursed loans amounting to Kshs. 1.195 trillion. These loans majorly comprised bilateral loans, multilateral loans and commercial loans.

 Hon. Shurie asked the CoB for further details on the loan disbursements. He wanted to know whether there are some loans that have been disbursed including the respective amounts, the implementing agencies and the exact amount that was borrowed, and how the National Treasury can effectively use the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model to fund projects.

 In her response Dr. Nyakang'o said that, “We are currently preparing another report in relation to the just ended Financial Year, where we are analyzing the loans and shall be presenting that to the committee once ready. The report will capture the total loans signed for and how much per loan, so that we are able to understand why we are paying the commitment fees as at that particular time. There are cases of loans where we are paying because we have not disbursed any money, but there are some where we have disbursed a portion and some of it is still outstanding."