OFID approves $160 Million loans for 10 projects in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean

Vienna, December 19, 2009, SPA -- New financing totaling US$ 158.85 million was
approved at the 129th Session of the Governing Board of the OPEC Fund for
International Development (OFID) held recently in Vienna, Austria.


The financial facility will support ten projects in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean,
in the agriculture, education, energy, water supply and sewerage and transportation
sectors, the UAE news agency "WAM" reported.


OFID Director-General, Suleiman J. Al-Herbish, remarked that the newly-approved
financing would target sectors that OFID considered highly relevant for combating
poverty in its partner countries. The bulk of the loans would support projects in
the energy and transportation sectors, which would not only help boost
socio-economic development among the beneficiary countries, but would also "assist
in easing isolation and enable resource-poor communities to access basic services
that many of us in the developed world take for granted."


The 10 public sector loans comprise:

-- Azerbaijan, Janub Power Plant, US$ 29.60 million.
-- Benin, Kandi-Segbana-Nigeria Border Road, $11.00 million
-- Burundi, Ntamba-Ndora Road $8.00 million.
-- Central African Republic, Commodity Import Program, $9.30 million.
-- Jamaica, Eastern Jamaica Rural Roads Rehabilitation, $10.00 million.
-- Kenya, Dundori Olkalou Njabini Road (Supplementary Loan), $10.00 million.
-- Morocco, Rural Roads Rehabilitation and Construction - Phase II, $30.00 million.
-- Sri Lanka, Kalu Ganga Development $16.00 million.
-- Tanzania, Same Water Supply $12.00 million.
-- Uganda, Vocational Education $22.95 million.

In addition, five grants totaling US$6.95 million were approved at the meeting. A
US$3.5 million grant will co-finance an OFID/WHO (World Health Organization)
Partnership on the Prevention of Transfusion-Transmitted HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis
Infections in Priority Countries. Activities will be carried out in Bangladesh,
Bhutan, Nepal and Pakistan. Another grant of US$2 million will support a project of
the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) that will increase the efficiency of
the use of water resources for irrigation purposes in the North Western districts
in the West Bank.


Also approved was a US$500,000 grant to co-finance a project created by the Center
of Arab Women for Training and Research, with the view to help improve
socio-economic conditions of women in Algeria, Egypt, Mauritania, Jordan, the Sudan
and Yemen. Another US$500,000 grant will back the final phase of a Guinea Worm
eradication program established by the Carter Center, which is undertaking
activities in Ethiopia, Ghana, Mali, Niger, Nigeria and the Sudan. Finally, a
US$450,000 grant will support poverty-reduction activities being carried out by the
Austrian Red Cross in nine villages in the Rukum District in north Nepal.


Since its inception in 1976, OFID has provided over US$11.35 billion in much-needed
concessional development financing to 121 developing countries around the world,
with priority given to the poorest amongst them.
--SPA 12:54 LOCAL TIME 09:54 GMT NNNN