The African Development Bank (AfDB) has cancelled Sh335 million funding for a major upgrade project for Kenya’s technical and vocational education and training (TVET) institutions after delays pushed the programme four years behind schedule.

The continental lender committed Sh7.2 billion in 2015 to upgrade several TVETs in Kenya over five years, but implementation delays, blamed on red tape within government offices, slowed completion.

As a result, hundreds of needy youth will miss out on sponsorships to attend technical colleges, while existing learners face limited access to critical learning resources and kits.

“The red tape in the Ministry of Education, together with the National Treasury, was instrumental in the slowed processing of disbursements, leading to delayed contract execution,” the African Development Bank said in the project’s completion report.

“The project, due to slow delivery of contracts and hence slow disbursements, has not utilised the entire ADF funding of UA 41 million (Sh7.2 billion).”

Signed in July 2015, the project aimed to improve access, quality, and relevance of technical and vocational education, to boost youth employability.

Funds were earmarked for the construction of workshops and hostels, as well as the purchase of equipment for selected TVET institutions to increase annual student enrolment.

The programme also sought to train tutors and provide tuition and boarding scholarships for needy youth, offering a pathway into employment.

By completion, the project had trained 544 tutors against a target of 600 and awarded scholarships to 3,000 students, fully meeting the intended target.

However, only 10 of the targeted 33 technical training institutions received engineering and applied sciences workshops, with two others at advanced stages of completion by the project’s end.

The bank said that despite the Sh7.2 billion support, its second intervention in the TVET sector, the institutions still lacked sufficient capacity and resources to meet growing demand for vocational education.

“The workshops, equipment and scholarships could not fulfil the increasing demand, and in some regions the facilities have already filled up, and popular trades did not have adequate space in workshops nor equipment to meet the increasing demand, as observed during the PCR mission visits,” the report said.

The government was expected to contribute Sh1.3 billion to the project, but ultimately failed to commit any funds, further constraining implementation.

A loan cancellation by AfDB, however small, typically reflects systemic weaknesses in project execution, often linked to delays within implementing agencies, in this case, the Education ministry and the National Treasury.

The cancelled amount represents undisbursed funds, which AfDB routinely withdraws when projects fail to meet agreed implementation timelines.

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