AfDB to consider $200m Rivers water project this month

The African De¬velopment Bank (AfDB) board of di¬rectors will meet on March 26, 2014 to consider a possible approv¬al of $200 million financing for Rivers State water project.

Ousmane Dore, director, Nigeria country office of AfDB, told BusinessDay that should the bank’s board of directors approve the project, and the loan be signed with¬out any unforeseen delays, the project should start run¬ning by September 2014, and be completed in mid-2019.

The proposed project is specifically the “Urban Wa¬ter Sector Reform and Port-Harcourt Water Supply and Sanitation Project” which had been in the news lately.

“Regarding the invest¬ment in Rivers State, the pro¬posed AfDB financing that is under consideration amounts to USD200 million….Follow¬ing negotiations last month, the project is programmed for our board consideration on March 26”, Dore confirmed in a mail to BusinessDay.

Dore said there had been series of discussions and due diligence on the project with the latest being negotiations on key provisions of the loans between the bank and the borrower (Federal Government of Nigeria) on February 26, 2014.

He said the bank finds this particular project vi¬able, saying that through the project development process there had been recognition of the significant water sec¬tor reforms undertaken in Rivers State over the past few years as a sound basis for an investment project at this point in time.

The project for the pro¬posed bank’s funding sup¬port has two main compo¬nents, the Port-Harcourt Water Supply and Sanita¬tion which aims at provid¬ing sustainable access to safe drinking water and sanitation to the residents of Port-Harcourt city (Port- Harcourt and Obio/Akpor LGAs) in Rivers State.

Rivers State government is providing counterpart funding of up to $48 million for the project.

The second component is the Urban Water Sector Re¬form on federal level which will cover financing for the establishment of a National Urban Water and Sanitation investment programme, including national & state investment plans, appropri¬ate financing mechanisms and the preparation of two feasible/bankable invest¬ment projects.

Dore explained that the proposed project is a holistic intervention, covering the full water and sanitation cycle in order to ensure the benefits of clan water and improved sanitation are felt by the pop¬ulation of Port-Harcourt.

It also includes infra¬structure development, institutional support for best practice operations, and environmental hygiene and sanitation promotion for healthy living.

“The bank is proud to be collaborating with the Nigerian authorities on this project and we are bringing to the table a combination of our comprehensive ap¬proach to sustainable service provision; capacity to mobi¬lise the significant funding needed to make a tangible difference; experience from operations in Nigeria and its other regional member countries; and collaborative partnering with stakehold¬ers in defining and imple¬menting the project”, Dore also noted in the mail to BusinessDay.

He explained that dialogue between the Federal Govern¬ment, Rivers State govern¬ment and AfDB on the water project started in 2012.

He said that the Federal Government had addressed a funding request to the AfDB at the end of that year for the financing of an urban WSS project in Port-Har¬court, through the bank’s AfDB window.