Bungoma County has emerged top among 3 Counties in a new World Bank/CRA Creditworthiness Rating report. In the short term creditworthiness rating, Bungoma scored A3 together with Makueni while Kisumu County scored B with a stable outlook.
In the long term creditworthiness rating report, Bungoma and Makueni received an Initial Issuer Rating of BBB, while Kisumu received a rating of BB, all with a stable outlook.
The ratings are an initiative of the World Bank and CRA in an exercise that saw the three Counties open up their books to scrutiny. The credit rating reports now opens the 3 Counties to tap into into capital market funding for their huge infrastructure projects.
Speaking shortly before the unveiling of the creditworthiness report, Bungoma Governor Wycliffe Wangamati said subnational borrowing is a worldwide phenomenon and countries like Morocco, South Africa, and Egypt are already doing it.
Governor Wangamati, also chair of Finance, Economic Planning and ICT at the Council of Governors, said a process that involves the opening up of books of accounts to scrutiny by third parties does have a direct impact on the financial prudence of participating County governments.
The three are among the initial nine Counties that completed and submitted self-assessment forms for creditworthiness, an initiative championed by CRA and which is designed to help Counties re-evaluate themselves on key areas to improve their credit worthiness in a move that
The drive towards rankings is aimed at helping Counties access market-based and alternative funding for infrastructure and capital projects in the face of limited fiscal headroom.
In a meeting at CRA a fortnight ago and which was attended by Governors Wycliffe Wangamati (Bungoma), Prof Kivutha Kibwana (Makueni) and Prof Anyang Nyong’o (Kisumu), as well as representatives from the Capital Markets Authority and the World Bank Group, the CRA Chair Dr Jane Kiringai said the 3 Counties were picked on the basis of their responsiveness on areas of governance, operations and sources of revenue.
