BEIJING - Kenya has joined the China-led Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), in search for wider sources of long-term funding from an institution that was set up to challenge the US-backed IMF and World Bank.

President William Ruto made the announcement on Tuesday after meeting officials of the multilateral lender, led by Chairman Jin Liqun, in Beijing, as Kenya--facing a weaker financial position in the wake of the withdrawal of the Finance Bill-- hunts for long-term loans.

“The membership will enable Kenya to access concessional funding for infrastructure, climate change efforts, connectivity, regional cooperation and technology-enabled projects and programmes,” Dr Ruto said.

The lender says on its website that it does “not offer financing under concessional terms”, but has a Project Preparation Special Fund, which gives “grants for project preparation to finance the preparation of projects to be financed by AIIB in eligible member countries”.

The lender provides loans for infrastructure and other productive sectors such as energy, transport, information and communications technology, water and urban development.

The funds come with a maximum repayment period of 35 years.

The development financier, formed in January 2016, will give Kenya an option to raise cheaper funds at a time global credit firms have raised the country’s risk of default on sovereign borrowing.

China, the world's second largest economy, set up the AIIB to challenge the US-dominated IMF and World Bank after the US refused to give China more influence in these Washington-based global lenders.

The Beijing-headquartered lender has a membership of 109 countries and a capital base of $100 billion, making it the world’s second largest multilateral development bank after the World Bank Group.