Kenya has appointed investment executive James Mworia as founding chief executive of its National Infrastructure Fund (NIF), a statutory investment vehicle established under the National Infrastructure Fund Act, 2026. The government expects the fund to help mobilise nearly KES5 trillion ($38.6bn) of infrastructure investment over the next decade.

Mworia, who has stepped down as chief executive of Nairobi-listed Centum Investment Company (NSE: CTUM) after leading the firm since 2008, took up the NIF role on September 7 following a competitive recruitment process, the fund's board said. His immediate responsibilities include establishing the organisation and its investment and risk-management systems, assembling an investable project pipeline and mobilising co-investment capital.

Mworia had joined the NIF board as an independent director in July. His appointment as CEO ends that independent directorship under the Act and moves him into executive management.

President William Ruto signed the National Infrastructure Fund Act into law on March 9, establishing the NIF as a body corporate with perpetual succession and its own governance structure. The fund has a statutory mandate to mobilise, invest and recycle capital into infrastructure projects and is intended to draw private and institutional capital into commercially viable infrastructure while reducing reliance on government borrowing.

The government has targeted nearly KES5 trillion of infrastructure investment mobilisation over 10 years for projects spanning transport and logistics, energy, water and irrigation, digital infrastructure and agriculture. Parliament described the model as a shift away from predominantly debt-financed infrastructure towards blended and investment-led financing.

The NIF is intended to use public seed capital and privatisation proceeds to crowd in co-investment from domestic pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, banks, private equity investors, development finance institutions and other investors.

The government has seeded the NIF with about KES350bn ($2.7bn), drawing principally on the IPO of the Kenya Pipeline Company (NSE:KPC), the sale of a 15% Safaricom (NSE: SCOM) stake and an upfront payment linked to dividends on the government's remaining Safaricom holding. The capital is intended to be leveraged to attract private investment rather than deployed as conventional government infrastructure spending.

The government has said every shilling committed through the vehicle could be used to attract as much as KES10 of additional long-term investment, though the leverage ratio is a government projection rather than an independently verified figure.

The NIF is intended to take projects through preparation, appraisal and structuring before bringing in outside investors, with capital from completed or sold investments eventually recycled into new infrastructure projects.

Mworia brings more than 25 years of investment-management experience. Centum appointed Thomas Omondi-Achola as acting group chief executive following Mworia's departure. Centum is one of Kenya's largest listed investment companies, with interests spanning real estate, private equity and other sectors.

The fund's ability to approach the KES5 trillion mobilisation target will depend on developing bankable projects and using its seed capital to attract substantially larger pools of private and institutional investment.