China Eximbank provides $81 million export seller's credit to CWE for the 4th Phase of the Self-Help Electrification Project (SHEP)

On November 12, 2006, the Government of Ghana and China International Water and Electric Corporation (CWE) signed an $81 million supplier credit agreement for the 4th Phase of the Self-Help Electrification Project (SHEP). This credit has a 16.5 year maturity. Its final maturity date is July 7, 2023. The loan’s (principal) amount outstanding was GHS 382,560,000 ($68,314,285) as of December 31, 2020 and GHS 272,400,000 ($52,384,615) as of December 31, 2021. In order to finance its supplier credit agreement with the Government of Ghana, CWE secured an export seller’s credit from China Eximbank. The purpose of the project was to connect 580 communities (villages and towns) in 8 regions (Ashanti, Central, Eastern, Volta, Western, Greater Accra, Brong Ahafo and Upper West regions) to the national electricity grid. CWE was the EPC contractor responsible for implementation. It signed an EPC contract in January 2006 worth $90 million. The supplier credit was used to finance 90% of the cost of the EPC contract. The Government of Ghana was responsible for financing the other 10% of the cost of the EPC contract. Construction began on August 30, 2007. As of 2010, the project was still in implementation. This project was eventually completed, but its exact date of completion is unknown.

Additional details

1. This project is also known as the 4th Phase of the National Electrification Scheme (NES) or the Supply & Installation of Equipment SHEP 4 Project. The Chinese project title is 加纳政府农村电气化自助4期项目 or 农村电气化自助4期项目. 2. In the database of Chinese loan commitments that SAIS-CARI released in July 2020, it does not record a maturity for the supplier credit that supported this project. AidData records the maturity that is reported by Ghana’s Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning. 3. Although all sources agree the commitment year is 2006, CWE identifies the precise commitment date as November 22, 2006 rather than November 12, 2006. This discrepancy warrants further investigation. 4. The (principal) amounts outstanding are drawn from the Ghanaian Ministry of Finance’s Annual Public Debt Reports. These amounts are reported in GHS by the Ministry of Finance. AidData has estimated the USD amounts by applying the average GHS-to-USD exchange rate in 2020 (5.6-to-1) and the average GHS-to-USD exchange rate in 2021 (5.2-to-1).

Number of official sources

14

Number of total sources

17