The move is part of De La Rue’s manufacturing review, announced in November 2015. The facility will become one of De La Rue’s four centres of excellence for banknote and security printing.

It will involve revamping De La Rue’s existing facility in Nairobi. The Kenyan government will take a 40% in De La Rue Kenya EPZ, and will invest £5m upon completion.

De La Rue is in the process of restructuring its manufacturing footprint and will consolidate banknote production at four locations: Debden and Gateshead in the UK, Sri Lanka, and Kenya.

Part of the plan involves creating a common manufacturing footprint across all of the sites to provide greater flexibility, combined with outsourcing. While De La Rue’s overall production capability will be reduced from 8bn to 6bn banknotes per annum it has the potential to flex that up to 7bn if required.

It will invest circa £15m on capex, plus around £8m in one-off costs. De La Rue expects to make savings of circa £13m per annum as a result.

The Nairobi site will employ around 290 staff and will supply both the domestic and export markets.

De La Rue chief executive Martin Sutherland said he was “delighted” at the new deal: “The joint venture fits with our strategy of expanding into key growth markets through long-term partnerships. It will secure our position as a supply hub of currency and security solutions for the largest economy in East Africa and for the region."

Earlier in the summer De La Rue also said it was looking at the potential for a joint venture at its Overton paper mill.