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The African Development Bank Group is expected to “receive the green light from our governors at our annual summit in Marrakesh in May” to return to its headquarters in Côte d’Ivoire after a decade in which the exiled multilateral has “enjoyed Tunisian hospitality”, AfDB president Donald Kaberuka said.

With Khartoum’s finances in disarray following South Sudan’s independence (it has lost nearly three-quarters of its crude production, which was around 450,000 b/d in H1 2011), China has agreed to provide support.

The African Development Bank (AfDB) board on 19 December agreed a $3m loan to Comoros to support energy sector reforms, particularly for electricity and financial governance. The reforms aim to strengthen the governance and performance of the energy sector so that it can support the country’s economic development, and to encourage the state to consolidate and deepen the reform of public finance management.

Lagos-based Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) has completed a $50m bilateral loan facility with Rand Merchant Bank. AFC aims to use the proceeds with its other financings to fund further investments in the development of critical infrastructure.

The Export-Import Bank of India announced in December that it had signed a line of credit (LoC) agreement with the government of Mozambique, dated 20 September 2012. The agreement makes available a $250m LOC to purchase goods, machinery, equipment and services from India to improve the quality of power supply in Mozambique.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) has approved €75m ($100m) of funding to the government of Sierra Leone for its part of the proposed Côte d’Ivoire, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea interconnection.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) and African Development Bank (AfDB) have signed loan agreements totalling about $120m for the 120MW Itezhi-Tezhi hydro plant and transmission line project on the Kafue River. The AfDB’s loan of $55m was approved by the Bank board in June and signed on 19 December, while the EIB has agreed to provide €50m ($67m).

The World Bank’s International Finance Corporation has invested $127.5m in a $400m trade facility that will finance Mauritania’s entire refined energy import needs for the next two years.

The African Development Bank announced on 20 December that its board had approved a $50m senior loan to Azito Energie for the 139MW expansion of the Azito gas-fired power plant. The loan will contribute to financing the Azito Phase III project.

AIM-listed Gulfsands Petroleum has reached an agreement with Caithness Petroleum to acquire Cabre Maroc, which has oil and gas exploration and exploitation licences covering 13,352km2 in northern Morocco.

Export-Import Bank of China has signed a $500m soft loan agreement with the government to finance construction of the long-mooted 275MW Soubré hydropower project. Chinese ambassador Zhang Guoqing told reporters the loan was the biggest agreed between China and Côte d’Ivoire in over 30 years.

The World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) announced in December that it would be joining the consortium developing the 100MW Singida wind project. The IFC will take a 20% stake in project company Wind East Africa alongside Aldwych International (40%) and Tanzania’s Six Telecoms (40%). The investment is being made through IFC InfraVentures, which deals with constraints to private investment in infrastructure.

The debt-laden Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has secured a $1.5bn loan to help pay off the backlog of debts owed to a number of international fuel traders, which NNPC group managing director Andrew Yakubu revealed had threatened its creditworthiness.

Amid its financial problems, one bright spot for Office National de l’Electricité et de l’Eau, the merged entity created from the kingdom’s power and water utilities, is that Morocco continues to be a favourite for financiers.

Securing early-stage project development financing is a major hurdle to getting renewable projects off the ground in many African countries, and a new facility aims to address this. On 4 December, the UK Department for International Development (DfID) and the Department of Energy and Climate Change approved the Green Africa Power (GAP) fund, a new facility housed under the Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG) umbrella.