{"id":29914,"date":"2026-03-25T17:21:03","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T15:21:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=29914"},"modified":"2026-03-25T17:21:03","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T15:21:03","slug":"uae-based-ariseiip-to-invest-3-billion-in-kenya-in-next-five-years","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/uae-based-ariseiip-to-invest-3-billion-in-kenya-in-next-five-years\/","title":{"rendered":"UAE-based AriseIIP to invest $3 billion in Kenya in next five years"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>United Arab Emirates (UAE)-based \u200cAriseIIP plans to invest more than $3 billion in Kenya over the next five years, an Executive Director at the African infrastructure developer told <em>Reuters<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The money, which would go to three industrial and export parks and a textiles firm, could help the East African country&#8217;s efforts to attract foreign investment to create jobs.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Our total investment in these \u2060projects is going to be upwards of about $3 billion,&#8221; Nikhil Gandhi, AriseIIP&#8217;s Executive Director in charge of special economic zones development said on the sidelines of an investment conference.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We are looking to attract global companies from more than 14 countries globally to set up their manufacturing base here,&#8221; he said, adding that AriseIIP would provide 30%-40% of the money itself, in exchange for equity in the projects.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The rest will come through debt from development finance institutions and other lenders, Gandhi said, adding that the money would go towards two export zones \u200calong \u2060Kenya&#8217;s coast, a third in the Rift Valley area of Naivasha and to the Rivatex textiles firm.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>AriseIIP is owned by Afreximbank&#8217;s private equity arm (FEDA), the Africa Finance Corporation, Saudi Arabia&#8217;s Vision Invest and UAE-based Equitane Group.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>It has big projects in Benin and Gabon, but this would mark its first investments \u2060in Kenya.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Along with Kenyan lender KCB Group and Afreximbank, it will also set up an $800 million facility to support investors who will take up space in the zones once developed, Gandhi said.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Dozens of firms \u2060from China, Lebanon and India have expressed interest, he said, but he declined to name them.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>War in Iran and United States tariff hikes could actually benefit some African countries as \u2060supply chains change, he added.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;People will shift value chains to this continent,&#8221; he said, citing textiles, minerals and electric vehicles. &#8220;In the context of where Kenya lies, I can already see a tectonic shift.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":29915,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-29914","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"UAE-based \u200cAriseIIP plans to invest more than $3 billion in Kenya","published_date":"2026-03-25 17:17:05","news_description":"UAE-based \u200cAriseIIP plans to invest more than $3 billion in Kenya","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/29914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/29914\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29916,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/29914\/revisions\/29916"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=29914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}