Africa Growing Together Fund provides $50 million loan for Nigeria Transmission Expansion Project (NTEP1) (Linked to Umbrella Project ID#36104)

On May 22, 2014, the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the People's Bank of China (PBOC) signed an agreement for the Africa Growing Together Fund (AGTF) (see Umbrella Project ID#36104). The purpose of this $2 billion loan facility was to finance large development projects in Africa between 2014 and 2024. The AGTF is sponsored by the PBOC and the administered by AfDB. Then, on January 28, 2021, AGTF signed a $50 million loan agreement with the Government of Nigeria for the Nigeria Transmission Expansion Project (NTEP1). On the same day, the African Development Bank (AfDB) issued a $160 million loan to the Government of Nigeria for the same project. The borrowing terms of the AGTF loan are as follows: a 20-year maturity, a 5-year grace period, an interest rate of 6-month LIBOR plus a 0.8% margin, a 0.25% commitment fee, and a 0.25% upfront (management) fee. The AfDB and AGTF loan proceeds were then on-lent to the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), which is a state-owned company that manages Nigeria’s electricity transmission network. The project consists of brownfield and greenfield subcomponents, and aims at strengthening and improving the grid wheeling capacity where the transmission lines are the most constrained. The project will support power infrastructure in the following states: Abia, Anambra, Delta, Edo, Imo, Kaduna, and Kano. More specifically, the project involves (i) the reconstruction of two (2) 330kV double circuit quad transmission lines, 138km Alaoji–Onitsha and 125km Delta–Benin; (ii) the construction of one (1) 330kV double circuit quad transmission line, 204km Kaduna–Kano; (iii) the construction of two (2) 330/132kV, 2 x 150MVA Sub stations at Zaria and Millennium City; and (iv) the construction of two (2) 132/33kV, 2x 60MVA Substations at Rigasa and Jaji, respectively. The project also involves the provision of capacity building and technical assistance in the form of consultancy services, training and engineering support in order to improve TCN’s performance and management, and the technical capacity for the implementation support for this project and those comparable in future. Shanghai Electric Group Company Limited is the contractor responsible for project implementation. It was awarded an EUR 28,919,097.11 contract. The implementation start date of its contract is September 2021.

Additional details

1. The AfDB project identification number is P-NG-FA0-011. 2. The project’s economic rate of return is estimated at 68%. 3. The all-in interest rate (1.041%) was calculated by adding an 0.8% margin to the average 6-month LIBOR rate in January 2021 (0.241%). 4. The margin of 0.8% is calculated by adding the Funding Cost Margin (unknown) to the Lending Margin (0.8%). 5. This project is also known as the Nigeria Transmission Expansion Project Phase-1 (NTEP-1).

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