Kenya's NSSF, China Road and Bridge Corporation and Shandong Hi-Speed Road and Bridge International in $1.5 billion highway expansion deal.

The $1.5 billion expansion highway deal will connect Mombasa port to western part of Kenya, and landlocked Uganda.

Kenya's national pension fund, NSSF and China Road and Bridge Corporation will work on the first phase of the project, expanding an already existing 139 Km single lane highway to four and six way lane. It will cost $863 million dollars.

The second phase, a remaining 94Km stretch of single lane will be expanded to a four to six way lane, dual carriage highway by Shandong Hi-Speed Road and Bridge International. It will cost $678.56 billion dollars.

Kenya's NSSF will fund 45% of it's part of the cost in the first phase.

The loans will be provided by Chinese state owned banks like China's Export Import bank.

However, the cost of the highway expansion will be a mixture of debt and equity. 75% debt and 25% equity.

The equity part will come inform of toll fees that will be charged on highway tolls for 28 years to recoup the costs and also make some profits.

What caught my attention was the mixture of debt and equity cost of the project. What do you think, should this kind of project funding be the new norm?