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Kenya Power Lighting Co. Ltd., the nation’s monopoly electricity distributor, rose for the first time in four trading sessions after signing a carbon agreement with Standard Bank Plc that may provide a new source of revenue.
The utility company’s stock climbed as much as 2.3 percent to 22.75 shillings before trading 1 percent higher at 22.50 shillings as of 10:51 a.m. in Nairobi.
Under a five-year agreement, Standard Bank Plc will develop power carbon projects in the East African nation, Kenya Power Managing Director Joseph Njoroge told reporters in Nairobi today.
“This partnership also forms part of KPLC’s business diversification strategy aimed at boosting revenues as well as improving shareholder value,” Njoroge said. “At least every year we will have a minimum of one or two projects that qualify”.
KPLC, as the company is known, has already begun one project under which it handed some of its customers a total of 1.25 million energy saving electric bulbs, said Greg Brackenridge, Managing Director of CFC Stanbic Bank Ltd., the local unit of Standard Bank.
The energy saving bulbs project will enable the company to avoid emission of about 90,000 tons of carbon dioxide. The project is expected to generate as much as 100 million shillings ($1.2 million) annually based on the current carbon exchange trading rates, Brackenridge said.