VenturesNow

AfDB suspends water project in Rwanda

Published

5 months ago

June 25, 2024

Due to delays in procurement, a $145.8 million water project in Rwanda has been placed under careful observation by the African Development Bank (AfDB).

With the AfDB classifying the Rwanda Sustainable Water Supply and Sanitation project as a “potentially problematic project,” the Pan-African lender now faces the possibility of withdrawing from the project, which received a $122.9 million loan from the organization.

Just 15.5% of the loan amount has been disbursed by the bank to the implementing agency, the Water and Sanitation Corporation of Rwanda, so far, and its withdrawal from the project could put the organization in danger of financial difficulties and jeopardize its success.

“The main challenge under this programme is the long delays in the preparation of feasibility and design studies by the consultants and contract management,” the bank noted in an implementation progress report for the project published on June 17.

“The programme is red flagged because of slow procurement and low disbursement,” it added.

With precisely two years remaining before the loan facility’s deadline, the progress report indicates that none of the project’s five major components have been completed to date, raising concerns about the project’s ability to produce the intended results.

According to the bank, the project’s main problems are “substantial delays in the procurement process, especially in the lead time for the preparation and submission of bid evaluation reports,” and “slow implementation, especially at feasibility and design phase.”

“Fast-track implementation of the activities and follow up the implementation of the agreed actions to have a detailed schedule for the completion of all ongoing studies and works,” the lender said.

At least 5.4 million Rwandans are anticipated to have access to clean water after the water project is finished, more than twice as many as did so in 2018, the year the project began.

It has only succeeded in adding 451,000 connections thus far, achieving only 15.8% of the intended result. The initiative was also intended to reduce the corporation’s non-revenue water supply from 35% to 25%, but it has instead managed to raise it to 42%, further deviating from the goal.

Six years after the project’s inception, hardly any work has been made on the sewerage portion. Against a target population of 294,480, the number of persons in Kigali covered by the central sewage system remains zero. The lack of acquisition of solid waste landfills and faecal treatment plant has also benefited no one.

The bank requests that the enforcement agency “follow up the implementation of agreed actions to overcome encountered challenges and be reported in every quarterly progress report” in order to facilitate the timely achievement of the targeted goals.

The AfDB issued the warning at the same time that it announced its decision to leave a $65 million waste power plant in Nairobi because of comparable delays in obtaining essential services.

VenturesNow

Kenya seeks $750m from World Bank, obtains $200m from AfDB— Official

Published

2 days ago

November 20, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

The head of debt management for the finance ministry told Reuters that Kenya had obtained a $200 million loan from the African Development Bank (AfDB) and was negotiating a fresh $750 million loan with the World Bank.

After being forced to abandon proposed tax rises costing more than 346 billion shillings ($2.68 billion) in June due to fatal demonstrations, the East African nation’s administration, which has been grappling with significant debt, has been frantically seeking fresh funding.

The Finance Ministry’s public debt management office director general, Raphael Owino, told Reuters that the IMF’s October clearance of the seventh and eighth reviews, which opened the door for a $606 million loan tranche, had aided the ministry’s talks for more loans.

“The World Bank is coming on board, riding on the back of IMF receipts,” Owino said. “The AfDB is already on board.”

The discussions for more assistance, which came under the World Bank’s “Development Policy Operations” (DPO) with the government, were confirmed by a representative at the organization’s Kenya office.

“The amount of the current (loan) is yet to be determined. The amount will also depend on the implementation of the policy reforms agreed upon,” the spokesperson told Reuters, adding that past DPO loans averaged about $750 million.

In May, the World Bank approved the latest round of DPO loans, totalling $1.2 billion.

According to a statement made last month by Finance Minister John Mbadi, Kenya has set a foreign borrowing goal of 168 billion shillings for the fiscal year ending in June 2025.

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Dangote refinery begins petroleum sales to West Africa

Published

2 days ago

November 20, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

In an indication to traders that the activities of its mega-refinery might soon disrupt regional fuel markets, Nigeria’s private Dangote Petroleum Refinery has started exporting refined petroleum products to neighbouring West African nations.

According to a Bloomberg story on Tuesday, a tanker had transported a consignment of petrol from the Dangote Petroleum Refinery to seas off the coast of Togo, a nearby West African nation. The article cited data from Vortexa, Kpler, Precise Intelligence, a port report, and a ship-tracking tool.

According to the source, a CL Jane Austen recently departed west after loading over 300,000 barrels from Dangote.

Recall that Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, the chairman of the Ghana National Petroleum Authority, stated last month that the nation is thinking of purchasing petroleum products from the Dangote refinery in order to reduce the approximately $400 million it spends each month on more costly exports from Europe.

Speaking at the OTL Africa Downstream Oil Conference in Lagos, the chairman of NPA, Ghana, said that by eliminating freight expenses, buying from Nigeria instead of Europe will lower the cost of other products and services.

“If the refinery reaches 650,000bpd a day capacity, all that volume cannot be consumed by Nigeria alone, so instead of us importing as we do right now from Rotterdam, it will be much easier for us to import from Nigeria and I believe that will bring down our prices,” Hamid said.

Two weeks ago, it was announced that the refinery would start exporting fuel to Namibia, Angola, and South Africa. Four more African nations—Niger Republic, Chad, Burkina Faso, and Central Africa Republic—had also begun talks with the refinery, it was said.

According to a very reliable source who spoke directly to one of our reporters, the management of the refinery with a capacity of 650,000 barrels per day was in the advanced stages of negotiations with the nations to begin lifting petroleum.

“I can confirm to you that talks are actually at the advanced stage with Ghana, Angola, Namibia, and South Africa, while the initial discussion is coming up with Niger, Chad, Burkina Faso, and the Central African Republic,” the source said.

The petroleum product shipment is currently floating off the coast of Lome, which is a well-liked location for ship-to-ship transfers, according to the source.

Furthermore, the final destination of the cargo of the CL Jane Austen is uncertain.

Despite being off Togo, the region is frequently utilised for ship-to-ship transfers, thus the gasoline may eventually be transported elsewhere.

“While the shipment is tiny in the context of the global gasoline market, it signals the ramp-up of Dangote’s production and the potential to export significant volumes of gasoline beyond Nigeria, which could upend regional markets.”

Last month, the refinery sent its first shipment of petrol by sea to Lagos, a neighbouring commercial centre.

Under the regulatory statute, the Federal Government last month terminated the state-owned oil company’s monopoly on purchasing gasoline from the plant for domestic use, but it has permitted the ongoing importation of fuel from the US and Europe.