Kenya Electricity Generating Company PLC (KenGen) will pay a total of Sh1.32 billion in dividends to its shareholders for the year ending June 30, 2022.

This was after the company posted a Sh4.7 billion profit after tax.

The pay out follows Thursday's shareholders approval of the board's recommendation for a first and final dividend payment of Sh0.20 for the year for every ordinary share of Sh2.50 at the company’s Annual General Meeting (AGM).

The government, which has 70 per cent stake in the Nairobi Securities Exchange listed company, is expected to earn approximately Sh924 million while the rest will go to private individual and institutional shareholders.

In a statement, the firm said the dividend pay-out goes to demonstrate KenGen’s strong growth and stability over the years anchored on its geothermal-led strategy and revenue diversification.

Kengen chairman General (Rtd) Samson Mwathethe said the company’s strong business fundamentals; innovation culture and robust expansion strategy have continued to propel the company to profitability, thereby growing value for its shareholders year-on-year. 

“Our business growth is firmly anchored on our energy generation expansion strategy. In the last financial year, this strategy saw the addition of 86MW Olkaria I Additional Unit 6 into the national grid,” he said.

He added that the diversification approach on different areas such as geothermal development played a major role in creating value to shareholders.

Mwathethe said the company experienced challenges such as the prolonged drought that affected hydropower production.

"Thanks to our business model, we managed to have sufficient generation from other sources, mainly geothermal, which enabled us to report growth in profit after tax and stabilise Kenya’s energy supply.”

KenGen acting managing director, Abraham Serem said the company’s 2023 priority focus areas would be on new technologies to generate more electricity using the existing power plants. 

“This year, we plan to leverage new technologies to rehabilitate our oldest geothermal power plant whose first unit was commissioned in 1981, the 45MW Olkaria I," Serem said.

He said the rehabilitation seeks to give the project a new lease of life and increase its generation capacity to about 63MW.

KenGen is equally looking forward to adding 305MW geothermal power projects consisting of 280MW from geothermal sources in Olkaria and 25MW from the Eburru geothermal field in the coming years.

Serem said the construction of these projects would commence after the requisite approvals. 

The company is also rolling out plans to up-rate the turbines for the Olkaria I Additional Units 4 and 5 and Olkaria IV power plants to increase their output by an additional 40MW in a wider plan to further increase Kenya’s energy supply and catalyse the country’s economic growth.

KenGen is also betting on diversification in geothermal consultancy and e-mobility development to drive its financial sustainability in both the current and coming financial years.