A consortium has delivered refinancing of more than $400m loans for Uganda’s electric energy generating company Bujagali Energy (BEL), which owns the Bujagali hydropower project.
The consortium includes IFC, African Development Bank (AfDB), Netherlands Development Finance Company (FMO), France’s Proparco, Germany’s DEG, and the UK’s CDC.
Two commercial banks ABSA and Nedbank are also part of the consortium.
Senior and subordinated loans for the project were originally provided in 2007 and the new refinancing package will be extending the tenor.
Refinancing of loans is also expected to reduce BEL’s annual debt servicing payments and enable the company to further reduce electricity costs in the country over the next five years.
Located on the river Victoria Nile, Bujagali is reported to be one of the major power generation plants in the country, generating 45% of its annual electricity.
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By GlobalDataCommissioned in 2012, the hydropower project has been generating clean energy and also reduced Uganda’s dependency on thermal power generation.
Commissioning of the project also enabled the government to cease more than 100MW of diesel power plants in the country.
The hydropower project is backed by the World Bank Group and AfDB, while Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) has agreed to provide political risk guarantees of up to 20 years for equity investors in BEL.
In addition to previously announced financing for BEL, AfDB’s public sector window financed a transmission line project at Bujagali, called the UECTL Bujagali Interconnection Project.
