Kenyans Lend Govt Over KSh 95b in Oversubscribed August CBK Treasury Bond
- The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) invited bids for the reopened 15-year and 19-year infrastructure bonds in August 2025
- CBK sought to raise KSh 90 billion from the subscription of the bond, promising returns of up to 12.96% per year
- However, Kenyans oversubscribed the bond with bids exceeding the government's expectation of KSh 90 billion
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Wycliffe Musalia has over six years of experience in financial, business, technology, climate, and health reporting, providing deep insights into Kenyan and global economic trends. He currently works as a business editor at TUKO.co.ke.
President William Ruto's administration has secured over 95 billion loan from Kenyans in August 2025.
Source: Twitter
The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) invited bids from Kenyans after reopening the 15-year and 19-year infrastructure bonds in August 2025.
The banking regulator released the results of the reopened 15-year and 19-year Treasury bonds.
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How much did Kenyans lend to govt?
Kenyans oversubscribed the infrastructure bond issue No. IFB1/2018/015 and IFB1/2022/019 dated 18/08/2025.
According to the regulator, the bids received on Wednesday, August 13, totalled 323 billion, surpassing the offer of KSh 90 billion.
The bank accepted KSh 95,013,600,000, recording a performance rate of 359.37%.
CBK said successful bidders will earn 12.50% interest on the 15-year bond, which will mature on January 10, 2033 and 12.96% interest on the 19-year bond, which will mature on January 28, 2041.
Source: Twitter
Why CBK sought loan from Kenyans
CBK sought the money to support the National Treasury budgetary needs in the financial year 2025/26.
The budget for the financial year, which kicked off on July 1, 2025, stood at KSh 4.29 trillion.
Treasury Cabinet Secretary (CS) John Mbadi noted that this year's budget deficit requires funding from both external and local lenders.
What's the current domestic debt
Kenya’s gross domestic debt increased by KSh 777 billion in under a year, reaching KSh 6.187 trillion by May 16, 2025.
The debt is attributed to an increase in Treasury bills and bonds, including the oversubscribed August 2025 infrastructure bond.
Data from CBK indicated that Treasury bonds remained the dominant debt instrument, totalling KSh 5.03 trillion and accounting for over 84% of total securities as of mid-May 2025.
Treasury bills rose to KSh 949.09 billion, while the Central Bank overdraft nearly doubled from KSh 61.02 billion to KSh 93.21 billion during the same period.
Loans from Kenyan lenders, including banks, SACCOs, and micro-finance institutions, increased from KSh 5.4 trillion reported in June 2024.
The banking institutions are the biggest lenders to the government at 45.12%, followed by pension funds (28.82%), other investors (12.90%), insurance companies (7.24%) and parastatals (5.92%).
Meanwhile, Kenya's external debt rose from $5,327.88 billion (KSh 5.33 trillion) in April 2025 to $5,308.18 billion (KSh 5.32 trillion) in May 2025.
The external debt represents loans from external lenders, including the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.
Source: TUKO.co.ke
