The Chinese Government has extended a concessional loan to Kenya of USD 72 million (KES 6.12billion) for the National Optic Fibre Backbone Infrastructure Project and E-Government. This project is aimed at linking most urban areas of Kenya to the global fibre optic network through the Capital Nairobi. The agreement for loan was signed in China during Prime Minister Raila Odinga's tour of the East Asia nation.

Chinese state-owned networking and telecommunications equipment and services provider Huawei was awarded a KES 6bn contract to build a national fibre optic infrastructure that will link Kenya's capital of Nairobi with other towns in the country through Wide Area Network (WAN) earlier this month.

The National Optic Fiber Backbone Infrastructure (NOFBI) and e-government expansion projects financed by the loan from China, required  that the contract be awarded to the Chinese firm, among other conditions. The loan agreement signed on Saturday 21st  will facilitate the project roll-out by August.

The NOFBI project is aimed at laying fibre optic links to connect the Local Area Networks of 36 administrative district centers across the country with the national fibre optic network in order to provide the local population with access to faster internet services. The project will also facilitate implementation of e-governance initiatives such as e-health, e-banking, e-farming and e-learning.