China Eximbank pledges a $847,132 loan USD for West Africa Regional Communications Infrastructure Program

According to a 2015 report published by the Bilateral Cooperation Department of Togo’s Ministry of Planning and Development, the Export-Import Bank of China agreed to extend a $847,132 USD loan to Togo's Ministry of Post and Digital Economy for the West Africa Regional Communications Infrastructure Program (WARCIP). The World Bank provided a $336,879 loan USD for this project. The World Bank also reportedly financed this project with a $336,879 loan at first and then with an additional $30 million. WARCIP aims to increase the geographical reach of broadband networks and reduce the cost of communications services in West Africa. More specifically, it supports the Government of Togo in creating a public-private partnership (PPP) framework for ownership and management of an African Coast to Europe (ACE) landing station. The WARCIP project sought to improve Togo's Internet connectivity, to lower the costs of Internet access prices, and to create a friendly environment for the digital economy sector. Under the framework of WARCIP, the Ministry of Posts and Digital Economy sought offers for the supply, installation, and commissioning of a fixed station for monitoring and managing the radio frequency spectrum Togo's National Agency for the Spectrum of Radiofrequncies (ANSR)'s the center frequency control in November 2019; the contract was to be partially covered by the World Bank's financing to Togo. The implementation start and end dates of the project are unknown.

Additional details

The French project title is Programme régional d'infrastructure de communication en Afrique de l'Ouest or Programme Régional Ouest-Africain de Développement des Infrastructures (WARCIP). The Bilateral Cooperation Department of Togo’s Ministry of Planning and Development ("Togo-rapport sur l’aide publique au développement 2015”). reported that China Eximbank provided a loan for this project. However, for the time being, AidData has coded the status of this loan as a pledge rather than a commitment because it has not identified any official, corroborating evidence that a China Eximbank loan agreement was ever finalized. The database of Chinese loan commitments that SAIS-CARI released in July 2020 does not identify a China Eximbank loan for WARCIP. Moreover, the commitment year is unclear; the Ministry of Planning and Development reported $847,132 figure in USD-2015 terms, but does not clarify a specific year for commitment. As a result, AidData has coded 2015 as the commitment year and checked the "Year uncertain" box.

Number of official sources

5

Number of total sources

9