Italy's integrated Eni said the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the Italian Climate Fund (ICF) have given its Kenyan subsidiary a total of $210m to boost production and processing of biofuel feedstock in the east African country.
Eni said the investment would help scale up the production of advanced biofuel feedstock grown in Kenya and processing capacity by building new plants. This will push production of oilseeds, which is the primary feedstock, from 44,000 t/yr to 500,000 t/yr, Eni said.
The Italian group operates an oilseed collection and pressing plant in Kenya's Makueni County, which produces vegetable oil for the company's domestic bio-refineries in Gela and Venice.
Under the funding deal, which Eni said would offer support to as many as 200,000 small-scale Kenyan oilseed farmers, the Word Bank's IFC will stump up $135m. The remainder will be disbursed by ICF as part of the Italian government's Mattei Plan to boost co-operation with Africa.
Global biofuel demand has increased by nearly 6pc annually for the last five years, Eni said, as the transport industry looks for solutions to decarbonise. It expects costs to fall as more capacity comes on line.
