Laikipia Praised For Successful Leasing Programme
From laikipia.go.ke
Laikipia has been praised for successful implementation of the leasing programme enabled it to accelerate improvement of roads across the county.
Each of the 15 wards had an average of 40 kiliometres of improved roads in the first nine months of this financial year. Participants at the annual meeting of Leasing Association of Kenya noted that good lessons can be learnt from Laikipia on how Lessors and lessees can work with the counties on leasing of equipment to counties. This is an opportune moment to showcase what Laikipia has done with leased equipment and how other counties can leverage on it, said Mr Antony Kibe, Chairman Leasing Association of Kenya.
The leasing program has enabled Laikipia to mobilize equipment for road improvement enabling residents to enjoy services while the government pays for the equipment in smaller amounts. A total of 1,229 kilometres have been graded and gravelled in 2020/2021 financial year. This has enhanced mobility of goods and services by interconnecting of feeder roads at ward level. In 2021/2022, the county government is targeting to improve at least 60 kilometres in each ward through five road construction brigades. This means each brigade will be responsible for roads in three wards.
Leasing has been the game changer especially in opening up of rural roads. It has also lessen the time taken to complete the work to 3-5 weeks from an average 3-4 months for contractual projects. The core business of counties should be achieving the number of kilometres we see in Laikipia and aligning equipment usage to deliver beyond expectations by embracing leasing initiative, NCBA Leasing LLP General Manager, Robert Marete said. He added that Laikipia has already done the ground work on implementation of leasing program for county governments and should be emulated by others.
Mr Marete said that it would be easier now to convince the lenders to finance such initiatives as Laikipia has proven that counties are not as risky as previously perceived. Laikipia has provided a key study that will go down in history as during the first days of engaging with them was hard to visualize how leasing was going to work in counties, they have proven to have able team to successfully implement it, Marete said. He noted it is a good initiative for counties as they dont have to reinvent the wheel, they should look at what has been done in Laikipia, see what is working, learn and copy it.
Leasing has enabled Laikipia to unlock its capacity to perform during the time of less cash flow from the National Treasury Governor Muriithi told the meeting in a short address. The work done in the county has transformed and improved the performance of the businesses as there is easy movement of produce from the farms to market.
