Last week, Giselle Hadley, one of CABRI's coaches for this year's Building Public Finance Capabilities (BPFC) programme travelled to Nairobi for a country check-in with country-team Kenya. Over five days, they reviewed and consolidated the impressive learning the country-team made since the Framing Workshop in Pretoria in June 2024. By meeting with technical departments involved in cash management processes, the Fishbone Diagramme was refined and strengthened. 

This process helped to identify and structure the root causes of the inflated use of T-bills and rising domestic debt servicing costs. In addition, the country-team began a process of engaging with key stakeholders within the National Treasury to build a coalition of support for their work. This included a meeting with senior stakeholders, namely, Dr Chris Kiptoo, Principal Secretary and Mr Francis Anyona, Director of Budget at the National Treasury, and technical implementers, such as the departments responsible for cash management and the Government Investment and Public Enterprises (GIPE), the department through which the Cabinet Secretary/ National Treasury exercises the oversight and ownership functions in state corporations and other Government investments.

Kenya is at its first participation in the BPFC programme. Amidst mounting fiscal pressures, country-team Kenya is looking at tackling inefficiencies in cash management systems and processes, to optimise the value of cash and borrowing.