The African Development Bank (BAD) will manage a USD 50 million credit facility provided by China for a project in Angola, with a total cost of USD 125 million.
The new project in Angola, in the urban areas of Benguela province was approved this month “is prepared and is now starting to be executed”, Pietro Toigo, the bank’s representative for Angola, told Lusa.
“Our financing is USD 125 million, of which USD 50 million is a credit facility provided by China, which the AfDB will manage”, he added.
The project will cover the province’s urban areas – cities of Benguela, Lobito (pictured above), Baía Farta, Catumbela – concentrating in particular on the sanitation network, and with intervention also in the areas of nutrition and domestic hygiene.
In total, the active portfolio of ADB investments in Angola “currently amounts to around USD 1 billion, Toigo told Lusa at the annual meetings of the African Development Bank Group.
The ADB is currently defining the new strategy for Angola, which will cover the period 2024 to 2028, and the approach is to look at the National Development Plan, which is being prepared by the Government, “in which the bank is very involved, in interaction with the authorities”.
Toigo believes that there will be a continuity of the current strategy, with a focus on agricultural transformation, “a pillar area of economic diversification and national development”, as well as infrastructure, “here with a special focus on energy and water supply ”.
Alongside these, the financial institution wants to increase work, little so far, he admitted, in transport, job creation for young people and greater training for women, especially access to technical, higher and scientific education.
The ADB representative for Angola praised the work that has been done in recent years, with “significant reforms for the diversification of the economy, the establishment of the tax base and, above all, the restructuring and reduction of the debt”.
Angola among African countries helped by China with pandemic debt relief
The debt “has fallen since 2020, when Angola was one of the countries where the markets were very afraid of a possible ‘default’, from 134% of the Gross Domestic Product to just over 60% per cent, a very successful restructuring”, he highlighted.
Now, “we want to work with the government to support the finance minister’s strategy to access cheaper forms of financing, namely through guarantees”, the ADB official told Lusa.
“We may come to guarantee a part of the issuances [of public debt] to lower costs. But of course these are instruments that have to be evaluated on the basis of market conditions and, at the moment, the markets are quite complicated, with rising interest rates and turmoil caused by the bankruptcy of American banks”, he highlighted.
