NAIROBI - Kenya's central bank anticipates ‌going into the purchase of gold, its governor ​said on Wednesday, becoming the latest African country ​looking to buy ​the precious metal as a way of diversifying its reserve holdings.

Other ⁠African nations topping up their reserves with gold include Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Namibia.

"We anticipate going ​into ‌the purchase of ⁠gold ⁠as (an) extra buffer. This is something that we have ​indicated before, it ‌is one of (the) ways of ⁠diversifying our holding of reserves," Governor Kamau Thugge told a news conference.

He was speaking a day after the Central Bank of Kenya cutits benchmark lending rate by 25 basis points to 8.75%, aiming to further stimulate ‌credit growth.

The East African country's foreign exchange ⁠reserves stood at $12.46 billion, or ​5.4 months of import cover, as of February 9, data from the ​central bank ‌showed on Wednesday.