China Eximbank provides RMB 496 million government concessional loan for Phase 1 of National Broadband Network Project (Linked to Project ID#91638)

On April 7, 2015, China Eximbank and the Government of Benin signed an RMB 496 million government concessional loan (GCL) agreement [CHINA EXIMBANK GCL NO.35 (2014) TOTAL NO.(538) No. 1420103052015110579] for Phase 1 of National Broadband Network Project. This loan, which is captured via Project ID#58955, carried the following terms: a 20-year maturity, a 7-year grace period, a 2% interest rate, a 0% default (penalty) interest rate, a 0.25% management fee, and a 0.25% commitment fee. The borrower agreed to deposit project-related revenues in a special account to facilitate repayment. The borrower was expected to use the proceeds of the loan to finance a commercial contract between Benin Telecom S.A. and Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., which was signed on August 5, 2014. The purpose of the project was to expand access to high-speed internet, a fiber optic cable, and 4G technology by rehabilitating a 1060 km fiber optic backbone network that runs from Cotonou to Malanville, constructing a 222 km metropolitan fiber optic loop in Cotonou and surrounding areas, and deploying a 974 km high speed fiber optic broadband network with IMS/MPLS core. The project had six components: 1. Reinforcement of 2000 km of fiber optic cable called the ‘National Backbone’. 2. Building a metro network in Cotonou, comprised of almost 24 km of fiber optic cable. 3. Building a FTTx access network by modernizing sub-distributors of 125 Multi-Service Access Nodes (MSAN). 4. Modernizing a 230 km fiber optic cable line. 5. Creating 30 new 4G base stations. 6. Creating another IP Multimedia Subsystem core network. This project also involved the installation of 48 IP/MPLS routers to extend the IP BTS network. Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. was the contractor responsible for implementation. A formal groundbreaking ceremony for the project’s first phase was held on November 26, 2015. However, Phase 1 implementation did not commence until December 2016. By March 31, 2018, the project’s first phase had achieved an 83% completion rate, with 67 of Benin’s 77 communes (municipalities) currently connected to the fiber-optic backbone. The project’s first phase was originally scheduled for completion in June 2018 but it ultimately reached completion in June 2018. Then, on September 14, 2021, the Government of Benin and China Eximbank signed an RMB 265 million government concessional loan agreement for Phase 2 of the National Broadband Network Project. This loan is captured via Project ID#91638. The purpose of the project’s second phase is to build a 484.1 km fiber optic backbone network in the localities of Mono, Zou, Collines and a 204.8 km metropolitan fiber network to serve more than ten cities as well as the ‘Route des Pêches’ (Fishing Road).

Additional details

1. This project is also known as the Telecommunications Infrastructure for 4G Project or Phase 1 of the PDI2T Project. The Chinese project title is 国家宽带NBN一期项目 or 贝宁国家宽带项目. The French project title is Projet de Développement des Infrastructures des Télécommunications et des Technologies de l’Information et de la Communication Large Bande Nationale (PDI2T) and Le Projet PDI2T. 2. In the database of Chinese loan commitments that SAIS-CARI released in July 2020, it does not identify the borrowing terms of the China Eximbank loan that supported this project. AidData relies upon the borrowing terms (20-year maturity, 7-year grace period, and 2% interest rate) that are specified in the original loan agreement itself [CHINA EXIMBANK GCL NO.35 (2014) TOTAL NO.(538) No. 1420103052015110579]. 3. The China Eximbank loan agreement can be accessed in its entirety via https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/20484971-ben_2015_465

Number of official sources

23

Number of total sources

25