An additional sum of FCFA 40 billion is expected to be injected into the Lom Pangar Hydroelectric Dam Project today following a meeting of the Board of Directors of the French Development Agency (AFD). The money which represents AFD’s contribution to the project, will beef up the already pledged FCFA 117.79 billion from other donor agencies.
They include the African Development Fund with FCFA 32.89 billion, the Development Bank of Central African States with FCFA 20 billion and the World Bank with FCFA 64.9 billion. The ball was set rolling on January 18, 2012 when government signed a FCFA 32.89 billion agreement with the African Development Fund and another of FCFA 20 billion with the Development Bank of Central African States (BDEAC).
Then came the World Bank whose Board of Directors on March 27, 2012 approved US $132 million (about FCFA 64.9 billion) in interest-free financing for the project. For the African Development Fund and the Development Bank of Central African States, the disbursement is being awaited, given that they had already signed financing agreements with government.
All eyes are now on the European Investment Bank to approve the FCFA 21.4 billion expected from it and an eventual signing of financing accord with government probably alongside the World Bank and the French Development Agency to complete the overall financing of the project. According to the project fact file, the overall budget is evaluated at FCFA 193.6 billion. Internal resources to the tune of FCFA 46.8 billion have already been mobilised by the State and are already being used to prepare the ground for work to begin when the financing must have been rounded off and the foundation stone laid.
While waiting, other components of the project, the least of which is not the re-adaptation of the Chad-Cameroon Pipeline to the project, are already taking shape. Cameroon Oil Transportation Company, COTCO, tasked with re-adapting the pipeline route has already contracted an Italian firm, SICIM S.P.A, to carry out the project.
Source: Cameroon Tribune.
09 Mai 2012 Godlove BAINKONG National - Economie
