The Saudi Fund for Development (SDF) is providing a $5 million loan to the Central African Republic (CAR). The funding is for solar street lighting.
The Central African government obtains funding for the deployment of solar streetlights in Bangui. The $5 million loan is provided by the Saudi Fund for Development (SDF). The related agreements were signed recently in Washington in the United States of America. This was on the sidelines of the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank Group.
The Central African delegation was led by Prime Minister Felix Moloua who signed the soft loan agreement with Sultan bin Abdulrahman Al-Marshad, the Managing Director of the SDF. According to the Central African Prime Minister’s Office, the financing will allow the implementation of the second phase of a public lighting project. This involves equipping the Central African capital with solar street lamps, a method that will help to reduce public lighting expenses in the long term, but which still requires a certain amount of care and maintenance.
Read also- CAR: VCF and IDA release $138 million for solar electrification
The SDF estimates that these solar streetlights should cover a corridor of at least 70 km in the Central African capital. “As part of the project, state-of-the-art lighting poles and solar panels will be installed to provide clean, sustainable energy to ensure the highest level of lighting efficiency,” says the Riyadh, Saudi Arabia-based financial institution.
This equipment should above all enable the level of security in the Central African capital to be improved. The Sica 2 and 3 neighborhoods, in the second arrondissement of Bangui, are the most affected by the phenomenon, which is reflected in robberies and armed attacks. The improvement of public lighting in the Central African capital was initiated with the Boali Electricity System Development and CAR-DRC Electricity Interconnection Project, financed by the African Development Bank (AfDB). This project has notably enabled the reinforcement of public lighting and the electrification of households in the neighborhoods of Galabadja, Ngongonon, Kolongo, Carmel Bimbo and Boy Rabbé.
Jean Marie Takouleu
