China Construction Bank provides $56.9 million loan for Last Mile Connectivity for Rural Area and National Data Centre Project

In 2018, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) agreed to provide a $56,908,596.50 loan to the Government of Malawi for the Last Mile Connectivity for Rural Area and National Data Centre Project. The loan authorization act was passed in the Malawi Parliament on July 26, 2018, and the loan was slated to commence on August 24, 2018. However, in 2019, Malawi’s legislature voted to repeal the loan authorization act that was passed on July 26, 2018, Then, on January 25, 2019, Malawi’s Parliament authorized a $56,908,596.50 loan from China Construction Bank for the same project. The national data centre entails 136 tower installations to improve ITC (information and communications technology) services for rural parts of the country. The ‘Last Mile Connectivity’ refers to fibre from the National Fibre Backbone Project being connected from landing points to users, facilitated by the towers. The construction of a mobile network tower in Mbvunguti Village, Nankumba in Mokey bay under the project was launched on June 13, 2020. In the current phase, the government is expected to construct 28 towers.

Additional details

This loan is omitted from the SAIS-CARI database of Chinese loan commitments that was released in July 2020. AidData includes this loan in its dataset because the loan agreement was approved by Malawi's legislature in 2018.

Number of official sources

6

Number of total sources

12