Christopher Kirigua, Director General, Public Private Partnerships Directorate, National Treasury and Economic Planning, Republic of Kenya
Christopher Kirigua serves as Director General of the Public Private Partnerships (PPP) at the National Treasury and Economic Planning. A seasoned investment banker, Christopher worked in the private sector for over 20 years, prior to joining public service in December 2020. Until the financial year ended 30th June, 2022 Chris was the Alternate to the Cabinet Secretary National Treasury, on the Safaricom Plc Board and currently serves on the Board of the Communications Authority of Kenya.
In his banking career, Christopher held a number of senior leadership roles, including Africa Regional Head of Strategy, Africa Regional Head of Public Sector and Developmental Organizations where he focused on arranging financing solutions for sovereigns across the continent. His last posting before joining public service was Executive Director and Regional Head of Sustainable Finance for Africa and Middle East at Standard Chartered Bank where his mandate was to arrange green, blue and sustainable finance solutions for clients in all segments.
Christopher was co-chair of a strategic committee in the United Nations Global Investors for Sustainable Development. As co-chair he placed focus on widening longer-term investments mainly in emerging markets, where it is needed most. He also chaired a government and private sector initiative that was focused on post-covid economic recovery strategies for the Country.
In his current role at The National Treasury, Christopher leads a team that is mobilizing private capital to develop sustainable infrastructure in all sectors. His mandate supports the Government to effectively manage its limited fiscal space to enable the various State Departments to focus more on social investments and allow private sector to run with commercially viable projects.
Christopher has successfully delivered policy reforms through the new 2021 PPP Act which repealed and replaced the 2013 PPP law. The new transformative law has enhanced private sector participation in public projects in Kenya and distinguishes Kenya as a leader globally on PPP frameworks as it contains timelines on public sector delivery, eliminates bureaucracies on the approval processes without compromising governance, and provides clear process maps for the delivery of PPP Projects.
As part of the PPP infrastructure transformation, Christopher has build a great team that is solution-oriented to deliver projects in line with best practices in climate and environmental global standards. He has identified digitization as one of the key pillars that catalyse the generation of successful projects across key sectors such as: transport, energy, logistics, health, water & sanitation, agriculture and green manufacturing. Digitization and concessioning of government processes shall ensure efficient delivery of public sector functions including but not limited to revenue collection and payments.