National Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich has now said that reports claiming that the government is broke are “fake news” and that governments do not go broke.
He added that the Sh200 billion Eurobond acquired recently will keep the country afloat.
He termed as flawed the reports that the government is broke.
“How can the CEO of a broke company keep giving money for projects?” he wondered.
The CS also urged young women to take advantage of the Access to Government Procurement Opportunities (Agpo) and do business with the State.
Speaking Thursday during the ‘Girls Matter’ event at the KICC in Nairobi, Mr Rotich encouraged young women to register their companies for Agpo and become suppliers for the government.
He also encouraged them to make use of the affirmative action funds to get loans to do business.
Mr Rotich said that through the Agpo programme, some challenges faced by the suppliers such as delayed payments will be curbed in the next financial year by direct payments through Treasury.
He said other systems are being worked on to reduce the amount of time it takes to pay suppliers.
Currently, the ministry is trying to ensure that all suppliers are paid within 90 days.
Mr Rotich also urged women to avoid being used by people with selfish interests who want to misuse government programmes.
Affirmative action funds such as the Youth Enterprise Development Fund, Women Enterprise Fund and the Uwezo Fund will be consolidated into the Biashara Fund, Mr Rotich said.
Youth Fund chairman Ronnie Osumba encouraged women to participate in economic activities in order to increase the country’s GDP.
He said the Biashara Fund will be recapitalised and may have higher loan amounts to be disbursed.
He also said that computerised systems are being worked on in order to remove face to face interactions between suppliers and government employees in an effort to remove incidences of people asking for kickbacks in order to provide services.
