Johannesburg - Standard Bank, Africa’s biggest lender, arranged funding for a $126 million desalination plant in Ghana’s capital that will provide drinking water to Accra residents.
The seawater desalination project company Befesa Ghana will provide potable water for about 400,000 Accra residents who have limited access to clean water, Standard Bank Power and Infrastructure Finance head George Kotsovos said in an e-mailed statement.
Abengoa SA of Spain and Sojitz Corp. of Japan are covering 30 percent of the project costs with Standard Bank senior debt making up the balance, the Johannesburg-based lender said today in the statement.
Ghana is Africa’s second-biggest gold producer after South Africa and the world’s second-largest cocoa producer after the Ivory Coast.
“Because of the 12-year term of the project’s debt funding and lack of mature funding mechanisms in Ghana, the World Bank had stepped in to perform project feasibility studies and to provide credit enhancement to underpin the long-term nature of the funding,” Standard Bank said. - Bloomberg News