President William Ruto was full of praise for his economic advisors, lauding them for their efforts to revive Kenya’s economy.
Speaking on Tuesday in Nairobi, the President commended his Council of Economic Advisors’ chairperson, David Ndii, Energy Cabinet Secretary Davis Chirchir, and Mohammed Hassan for saving the country about USD500 million monthly.
Ruto said his advisors put together a programme that allows the country to import fuel using Kenyan Shillings instead of US dollars.
“In a special way, let me commend some of our performers. My economic advisors David Ndii, Mohammed Hassan, Davis Chirchir- and the young man at EPRA. Those four gentlemen have done something phenomenal in our country; they have managed to put together a programme that has taken us away from looking for USD500 million every month to buy our fuel needs, which was slowly snowballing into a crisis. Today as a country we can buy fuel in Kenya Shillings, something that many people never thought would be possible,” President Ruto said.
Dr Ruto was speaking during the release of the report on the evaluation of the performance of ministries, state corporations and tertiary institutions for the 2021/2022 financial year in Nairobi.
He said as a result of the programme by the four gentlemen Kenyans should expect the shilling to trade below Sh120 against the US dollar, from its current rate of Sh134.
“From this month of April, all our fuel marketers will be able to buy our products in shillings and it will remove pressure on our dollars.
“In fact, in the next month or so you will see the dollar exchange rate coming down in a very phenomenal way. In fact, in my estimation, in the next couple of months, the exchange rate will come below Sh120, maybe Sh115.” President Ruto said.
Last month, CS Davis Chirchir said that the amount used by oil marketing companies (OMCs) accounts for 30 percent of the country’s total dollar requirements.
Currently, OMCs require at least USD 500 million (Sh64 billion) every month to import approximately 740,000 tonnes of fuel.
“The US dollar requirements by OMCs currently account for about 30 per cent of Kenya’s total US dollar requirements, putting foreign exchange reserves under pressure, causing serious deficiency in availability of US dollars and the rate at which the US dollar is made available. This has resulted in the depreciation of the Kenya shilling,” Chirchir said in March.
