Kenya’s green finance: A corporate playground, not a climate solution
NAIROBI, Kenya, Feb 12 - Kenya’s green finance boom is often framed as a breakthrough moment: banks scaling up climate lending, corporates issuing Kenya breaking news | Kenya news today |..
✨ Key Highlights
Kenya's much-touted green finance boom is primarily benefiting commercially viable infrastructure projects and large corporations, rather than directly addressing the climate vulnerabilities of its most exposed communities. While billions of shillings are being channeled into "green" initiatives, critics argue capital is concentrating where it's easiest to invest, leaving socially urgent climate challenges underfunded.
- KCB Group disbursed KES 53.2 billion in green loans, growing its green portfolio to 21.32 percent last year, reinforced by a $150 million (Sh19.3 billion) financing package from the African Development Bank Group.
- Safaricom's green bond issuance was oversubscribed, attracting Sh41.4 billion in applications, with proceeds earmarked for solar-powered network sites and energy-efficient infrastructure.
- Equity Group focuses on embedding environmental and social risk assessment in its lending, particularly for climate-sensitive agriculture and SME sectors.
- Britam provided Sh15 million in claims to 300 vulnerable households in Tana River County and covered over 2,800 pastoralists and 7,500 smallholder farmers through index-based insurance products.
- The article highlights a significant "accountability gap," noting that green lending frameworks often track allocation but not consistently measure environmental outcomes in standardized, comparable terms.
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Scrutiny on Kenya's Green Finance as Unga Farm Care Turns to Biomass - February 2026
While Kenya's banking sector is increasing investment in climate finance, with institutions like KCB Group, Standard Chartered Kenya, and Equity Bank reporting growth in green loans, these funds are largely inaccessible to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs). Critics argue that the green finance boom is primarily benefiting large corporations and commercially viable infrastructure projects, rather than addressing the climate vulnerabilities of exposed communities. It is argued that capital is concentrating where it is easiest to invest, leaving socially urgent challenges underfunded. Meanwhile, in a corporate move to reduce energy costs, Unga Farm Care EA has installed a new biomass boiler at its manufacturing plant in Nairobi, in collaboration with Lean Energy Solutions, to lessen its dependence on diesel.
