By Ken Muthomi - Reporter
Kenya, 1 July 2026 - President William Ruto has pledged to increase the country’s shareholding in African Trade and Investment Development Insurance (ATIDI) by KSh5.2 billion in a bid to catalyse the continent’s economic transformation through local institutions.
Speaking during ATIDI’s 26th Annual General Meeting, the Head of State said that the country will gradually increase its shareholding in ATIDI from $25 million (KSh3.2 billion) to $65 million (KSh8.4 billion).
ATIDI, formerly known as the African Trade Insurance Agency or ATI, is a pan-African multilateral financial institution established in 2001.
With the backing of the World Bank, the institution provides political risk, credit risk, and surety insurance to investors, lenders, and traders doing business in Africa.
So far, 25 countries, including 1 non- African, alongside several institutional investors and multilateral organizations, have a shareholding in the institution.
Ruto noted that the institution has been central in supporting the country’s development journey, with over $7 billion (KSh 906 billion) in investments in key sectors such as energy, transport, manufacturing, agriculture, and trade.
“The New African Financial Architecture for Development is the solution to financing Africa's transformation. It is time to back our own institutions, strengthen them, and give them the financial muscle to mobilise capital, mitigate risk, and drive the continent's development on African terms,” Ruto stated.
“The goal is to move Africa from a recipient of global capital to a mobiliser of its own and from dependence on external risk assessment to African institutions capable of pricing African opportunities accurately,” he added.
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The President has assured that the government will remain at the vanguard in mobilising funds through local institutions such as the National Infrastructure Fund to finance development projects in the country.
By the end of this week, the fund will have mobilised KSh 300 billion ($2.3 billion) which, leveraged at a ratio 1:10, according to the President.
This comes just hours after South Africa's Vodacom Group completed the acquisition of the government’s 15 percent stake in Safaricom.
The transaction, which was executed on Tuesday, will see the government pocket KSh 204 billion from the sale of its shares in the country’s largest telecommunications company.
The proceeds from the transaction are intended to provide capital to the National Infrastructure Fund and Sovereign Wealth Fund, which were set up to finance investments in infrastructure projects in the country.