Kenya and Italy have signed an agreement that will see East Africa's most stable economy benefit from the Ksh756 billion allocation under the Mattei Plan.
The Mattei Plan is a strategic framework established to enhance Italy’s engagement with Africa. The plan provides multi-billion funding to advance climate and environmental objectives.
Announced towards the end of last year, the Mattei Plan is a new partnership framework between Italy and select African countries for the disbursement of funds to several state projects in the form of grants, credits, or guarantees.
Locally, the Mattei Plan is geared towards supporting the country's ambitious climate goals including the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and building community resilience to climate change.
The agreement was signed on Thursday, November 14, between Environment Principal Secretary Festus Ng'eno and the Italian Government's Director for International Development Cooperation Paolo Lombardo on the sidelines of the ongoing COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan.
Following the agreement, Kenya joins the likes of Algeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Egypt, Ethiopia, Ivory Coast, Morocco, Mozambique, and Tunisia among the countries set to benefit from the allocation.
The fund will be disbursed in phases, in the first phase, the Italian government will disburse Ksh408 billion from its National Climate Fund while the remaining amount will be released directly to the listed countries from Italy's development cooperation budget.
The multi-billion signing ceremony followed last month's official launch of the monetary assistance between Kenya's National Treasury and the Italian Government.
Meanwhile, during the ongoing CO29 Summit, Kenya also expressed its support for the discussions on doubling adaptation finance. Adaptation finance is a fund established to mitigate the effects of climate change on communities particularly those in Africa.
Officials from the Ministry of Environment who attended the summit urged the stakeholders to triple the financing to meet the growing priorities of developing countries.
