China pledges funding for Nata-Maun Road Rehabilitation Project (linked to #88502)

On November 6th, 2018, the first meeting of the fifth session of the eleventh parliament of Botswana was held. The Minister of Transport and Communications, Mr. Mokaila, reported that China pledged 10 billion BWP of funding for the construction of the Francistown-Nata and Nata-Maun Road (Francistown-Nata-Maun Road Rehabilitation Project or Nata-Maun Road Rehabilitation Project). However, an agreement was not signed at that point. On May 24th, 2019, China and Botswana signed an Exchange of Notes on the Feasibility Study of Nata-Maun Road Project, which is based on the consensus reached by the two state heads in the August 2018 (which is likely where the securing of funding mentioned above came from). The feasibility study was ongoing as of May 30th, 2019. In a Facebook post released by the Botswana government, the Nata-Maun Road Rehabilitation project feasibility study is valued at P3.4 million and was funded by China (see project ID #88502). As of August 2019, a document provided by the parliament of Botswana claims that loan negotiations had not yet commenced, and the only relevant transaction to the project so far was the feasibility study grant. The Chinese government stipulated that this feasibility study was a requirement for the infrastructure project to be considered for a loan.

Additional details

The Chinese name for this project is 纳塔-马翁公路项目.

Number of official sources

13

Number of total sources

16