Centum RE project gets Sh2.9b IFC backing

Garden City artist impression. [Courtesy]

Centum Real Estate (Centum RE) plans to build nearly 2,000 housing units received a huge financial boost after the World Bank's private investment arm proposed to lend it Sh2.9 billion.

The International Finance Corporation (IFC) said its board will sit on October 27 to decide on the loan application by Centum RE.

"The proposed IFC investment is up to $20 million, a loan to support Centum Real Estate Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Centum Investment Company, to finance its development of 1,940 affordable housing units in Two Rivers Development, a prime mixed-use urban node located within Kenya's Diplomatic Blue Zone in northern Nairobi," said IFC in an update.

"The project will address the obvious and increasing affordable housing market gap in Kenya."

Centum's Sh25.2 billion Two Rivers Mall complex, which sits on 11 acres, opened in February 2017.

The Two Rivers Development encompasses additional projects on the 102 acres of land that Centum owns on Limuru Road in Nairobi, near the affluent neighbourhoods of Runda, Nyari, Gigiri and Muthaiga.

In recent months, multilateral lender IFC has invested billions of shillings in Kenyan companies such as Co-op Bank, Equity and KCB, cementing its role as one of the most prominent foreign institutional investors in the local market.

IFC has invested in more than 130 local firms so far, acquiring significant stakes in some companies, but with most of the investments in the form of long-term loans.