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The Export-Import Bank of India has agreed two more loans totalling $144.44m to fund transmission and distribution infrastructure to evacuate power from the Katende and Kakobola dams being built by Angelique International Ltd (AIL) and Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd.The letter of credit agreements were signed in Abidjan during the African Development Bank annual meetings on 28 May. One was for $109.94m for the evacuation of power from the 64MW Katende dam in Western Kasai, and the other for $34.5m for power distribution from the 9.3MW Kakobola dam.

LIBYA: Domestic investment fund; NAMIBIA: UNX raises C$30m in bought deal financing

Players in the political risk insurance (PRI) market report growing concern about the payments situation at state-owned Société Nationale de Raffinage (Sonara) and its 45,000 b/d capacity Limbe refinery. By end-2011, the refinery was owed some CFA163bn ($335m), equivalent to around 1.4% of GDP. Standard Chartered Bank said in early 2013 that “the accumulation of arrears, more than cash-flow problems, highlights deficiencies in public expenditure management”. The bank said that Sonara’s financial difficulties affected the banking system “because of its high credit concentration on this entity”.

Officials and corporate executives are talking up the improved business environment they see resulting from the three-year $12bn facility agreed with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) last November, support from the World Bank Group (WBG) and other multilaterals, and continued financial flows from the Gulf states. This has helped to stabilise the Egyptian pound and should allow Cairo to finance critical infrastructure developments – led by new power plants – and tackle the burden of arrears owed to international oil companies (IOCs).

Senegal has submitted a candidature application to the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI). The application will be considered by the EITI board at its next meeting in October. “As part of the EITI process, Senegal will publish all mining contracts, as well as revenue to be derived from these contracts,” said President Macky Sall. Senegal’s mining industry accounts for some 20% of export earnings and 20% of GDP. The country has a small amount of onshore gas production, but exploration is under way offshore, where Tullow Oil hopes to replicate the success of its West African Cretaceous play, and ConocoPhillips and Cairn Energy farmed into three blocks held by Australia’s FAR earlier this year.

Engen has introduced MTN Mobile Money payments at its ten service stations in Kigali. Customers can purchase fuel, lubricants and other goods via the platform, and the service will be rolled out to up-country service stations in early 2017. Engen started operations in Rwanda in November 2008 after acquiring the assets of Total. It now has 21 service stations in the country.

Oslo Börs-listed Artumas Group has retained DnB NOR Markets to help it work out ways to resolve its short-term financing problems (AE 159/4). Some $10m of convertible bonds fall due in June, and the Canadian company concedes that meeting the payments will pose a challenge in the present environment. The Oslo-based bank, part of Norway’s largest financial services group,

Tullow Oil says it has “agreed the principles” of a capital gains tax payment to the Ugandan government on the farm-down of its assets. The company said in its 2018 results statement on 13 February that tax payments would be phased and partly linked to project progress. A final investment decision (FID) on the upstream development is held up by a government demand for a $167m tax payment on the $900m farm-down deal.

United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim have announced the members of the advisory board and executive committee for the Sustainable Energy for All (SE4All) initiative. The initiative is a partnership between governments, the private sector, and civil society. Launched in 2011, it has set three objectives to be achieved by 2030: to provide universal access to modern energy; double the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix; and double the global rate of improvement in energy efficiency.

President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf has renewed calls for a fast-track court on corruption. Speaking during the dedication of projects undertaken for independence celebrations on 26 July, she said that the three branches of government – executive, legislative (consisting of the Senate and House of Representatives) and judiciary – would work together for the country’s prosperity. “We have been calling for a fast-track court on corruption; so we are emphasising that call on the legislature because the executive cannot do it alone. We need to address some problems,” she said.

The government’s draft finance bill, approved by the cabinet on 18 December, looks forward to stronger economic growth, higher exports – including from increased oil output – and a lower budget deficit next year. Prime Minister Motazz Moussa observed that the 2019 budget was “based on real resources [and] disciplined spending”.

ICBC Standard Bank has agreed to pay fines in the UK and US for failing to prevent a former affiliated bank from trying to bribe officials in Tanzania. Lord Justice Leveson at Southwark Crown Court on 30 November approved the first application by the UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO) to use a deferred prosecution agreement to end an investigation. The bank agreed to pay a fine of $25.2m and a further $7m in compensation to the government of Tanzania. The $25.2m penalty consisted of a $16.8m fine and $8.4m in disgorgement of profits, the SFO said.

No public money is available to support Algeria’s ambitious renewable energy development programme, which remains a high national priority despite the lack of projects. So support for solar and wind projects will have to come from the private sector and mostly from international companies, according to the most recent statements from energy minister Noureddine Bouterfa, who says the programme will now be rebooted. But despite the low global oil price and domestic fiscal austerity, it is far from clear that Algeria is ready to return to international project financing, which has been outlawed for more than a decade. The sector may fall back on the tried and tested backstop of bringing in state-owned oil and gas company Sonatrach to fill the gap.

Burkina Faso, Democratic Republic of Congo, Morocco, Mozambique and Zambia presented investment plans and projects for approval at the Climate Investment Funds (CIF) partnership forum in Cape Town on 24-25 June, hosted by the African Development Bank (AfDB). New projects included:

President Muhammadu Buhari visited China in mid-April, accompanied by ten government ministers, and returned with a number of trade agreements. Buhari secured a $6bn loan for infrastructure projects, an increase in the amount of Nigerian foreign reserves held in yuan, a deal with Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) to extend the use of the Chinese currency in trade finance arrangements, and the opening of negotiations on a ‘Panda’ bond, denominated in yuan and marketed in China. ICBC also agreed to lend $2bn to Dangote Group for two cement plants.