Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Kenyan President William Ruto have directed the relevant agencies in their countries to work towards implementing development project financing between the two nations using the Indian rupee (INR).
A joint statement released after the summit-level talks between the two leaders in New Delhi on Tuesday stated that the decision was taken to boost the development partnership among the nations.
It underlined that New Delhi has agreed to increase its lines of credit (LOC) to Kenya to $250 million from previously $100 million.
The Indian credit lines will be deployed for the mechanization of agriculture projects in Kenya, in line with the national development priorities of the African state.
Addressing a special press briefing in New Delhi, India’s Secretary (Economic Relations) at the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), Dammu Ravi, highlighted that Kenya was one of India’s strongest developmental partners in Africa.
Ravi said that both the leaders discussed extending cooperation in digital public infrastructure (DPI), including the use of India’s domestic digital payments system Unified Payments Interface (UPI).
He also highlighted that that Modi and Rutto discussed ways to expand cooperation in trade and investment.
Ravi noted that bilateral trade averaged around $3.3 billion. Around 200 Indian companies have investments worth nearly $3.3 billion in Kenya.
India’s Push to Switch from US Dollar to INR
In recent months, New Delhi and Nairobi have taken measures to promote the use of national currencies in trade settlements, according to Indian government.
In fact, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has approved special rupee vostro accounts (SRVA) of 22 nations, including Kenya, to facilitate trade settlements in Indian rupees.
In March this year, India’s new Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) for 2023-28 time period called for encouraging trade in INR to shield Indian businesses from disruptions such as unilateral sanctions or economic crisis.