[Sino-Congolese Programme] China Eximbank provides $10 million loan for Solar Street Light Acquisition and Installation Project (Linked to Record ID#450)

Project narrative

In 2008, China Eximbank issued a $3.003 billion general buyer's credit loan to Sino–Congolais des Mines (Sicomines SARL) — a joint venture — to finance infrastructure projects in the DRC (as captured via Record ID#450). All subsidiary borrowings under the (government-guaranteed) general buyer's credit loan agreement were to be repaid with revenues from mining projects managed by Sicomines SARL. Each subsidiary loan carried a maturity of 25 years, a grace period of 10 years, and an interest rate of 6-month LIBOR plus a 1% margin (or 3.839% at the time of the agreement). All infrastructure projects supported through the general buyer's credit loan were part of the so-called “Sino-Congolese Programme." One of the subsidiary loans issued as part of the ‘Sino-Congolese Programme’ was a $10 million loan for the Solar Street Light Acquisition and Installation Project. As of 2020, the loan had achieved a disbursement rate of 85% ($8,534,403.23 out of $10,000,000). The purpose of the project was the acquisition and installation of 5000 solar street lights in Tanganyika Province. Sinohydro is the contractor responsible for project implementation. It was awarded a $10 million contract (ID#ACGT/DG/021/2015) on August 17, 2015. However, a company called Energy Plus was responsible for supplying the solar street lights (or “solar poles”). On November 25, 2017, project implementation commenced. The solar street light equipment arrived on-site on February 27, 2018. The originally scheduled project completion date was April 21, 2018. However, the expected completion of the project was late delayed to November 2018. Also, according to the ACGT 2018 Annual Report, sometime during 2018 the number of solar street lights to be acquired and installed was revised downward from 5000 to 1382. The project achieved provisional acceptance on March 10, 2022.