OFID’s Governing Board approves fresh funding to boost socio-economic development in over 30 partner countries

Vienna, Austria, July 22, 2015. Over 30 partner countries stand to benefit from the latest round of financing approved at the 151st Session of the Governing Board of the OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID).

Public sector approvals amounting to nearly US$250m comprise the following:

Belize: US$12m.  Reconstruction of Hummingbird Highway

To ease travel constraints and improve road safety for some 32,000 people. As the stretch passes through major agricultural, industrial and tourism areas, the project is expected to enhance economic activities and thus reduce poverty.    

Burkina Faso: US$14m.  Ouagadougou University Expansion

 To build and equip student dormitories able to house 1,500 students and a new training and academic research unit in the science and technology fields.  

Burundi:  US$10m.  Rural Electrification Project in Kirundo Province

To provide nearly 10,000 consumers in over 34 rural towns with electrical power. This will improve living conditions, help develop local businesses and reduce reliance on biomass for generating energy.    

Chad: US$6m. INSTA Expansion

To construct and equip a biomedical department at the University Institute of Science of Technology in the city of Abéché to help mitigate the country’s shortage of biomedical professionals.    

Haiti: US$20.4m. Péligre Hydroelectric Plant Rehabilitation, Phase II

To ensure a reliable supply of electricity to the capital Port-au-Prince and the central province by upgrading three generating units. This will bring significant benefits to the population as the plant is Haiti’s only large-scale renewable energy source.   

Lao PDR: US$15m.  Vientiane Sustainable Urban Transport

To facilitate connectivity within the capital by improving urban services such as busways, stations and new buses. This will ease travel constraints for those commuting to Vientiane for work or accessing social services.    

Morocco: US$70m.  Second Rural Electrification

To provide around 19,000 rural, low-income households, spread across 49 provinces, with reliable electricity services. This will help stimulate job creation and boost productivity of the agriculture sector, and in turn reduce poverty.   

Niger: US$15m.  Family Farming Development Program

To enhance food security and food crisis resilience in the south-central region, populated by over two million people. Project activities will include, among others, upgrading and constructing relevant infrastructure to improve farmers’ access to markets.  

Paraguay: US$43.36m.   South-West Integration Road Corridors Infrastructure

To improve the country’s paved road network to ease the transport of trade goods, particularly with its main trade partner Argentina. Works will be carried out in areas populated by over two million people and home to around 12,000 individual agricultural producers and microenterprises.        

Togo: US$10m. Oti Plain Rural Development

To develop agricultural land and provide machinery and technical assistance, as well as build/upgrade socio-economic infrastructure for around 10,000 people across 14 villages and settlements.        

Uzbekistan. US$11m:  Improving Drinking Water Supply in Rural Areas of Koshrabad District of Samarkand Region

To improve health indicators and living conditions of approximately 68,000 people through the construction and upgrading of water supply infrastructure.        

Zimbabwe: US$20m.  First Education

To develop 12 rural primary and five secondary schools and provide equipment and furniture to improve learning conditions of over 10,000 pupils. Also planned is the construction of teachers’ housing.    

Grant funding totaling US$4.24m was also approved for the following:

The Patient’s Friends Society 

US$200,000. To expand the “OFID Department of Surgery” at Al-Ahli Hospital in Hebron through the purchase of patient beds and other hospital furniture needed to meet to growing numbers of patients.

Alliance of Rural Electrification

US$990,000. To provide a de-risking mechanisms for business ventures to facilitate the deployment of mini-grids for affordable and sustainable energy services in Bangladesh, India, Mali and Mozambique.

Hope ’87 

US$250,000. To establish a Hope learning center for teachers to enhance the quality of primary and secondary education in Pakistan. The estimated indirect beneficiaries will be more than 220,500 students and at least 300 trainees who will be enrolled at the center every year.

Foundation for Rural Energy Services 

US$500,000. This grant will help provide households, local businesses and community centers in Contuboel village in Guinea Bissau with affordable and reliable electricity services by providing solar mini-grid systems.

International AIDS Society (IAS) 

US$300,000. To sponsor the AIDS 2016 Conference in Durban, South Africa, and fund a joint OFID/IAS workshop on HIV in Conservative Social Settings.

United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO)

US$300,000. To improve the productivity and competitiveness of fisheries value chains in Colombia, Cuba, Dominican Republic and Nicaragua.

United Nations Register of Damage Caused by the Construction of the Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (UNRoD)

US$300,000. To help protect the legal rights of over one million Palestinians.

United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine (UNRWA)  

US$1.4m. To improve the health and living conditions of around 16,000 residents of the Shu’fat camp in Jerusalem through the upgrading of storm water and sewerage networks.

Three financing facilities totalling US$40m were approved under OFID’s private sector business activities. One will support a financial institution in Cambodia to expand its lending activities to micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), while another will go towards infrastructure investment in Kenya in the energy sector. The third is OFID’s first private sector project in the education sector, aimed at supporting financial institutions in Africa to provide funds to schools in the continent, in addition to students via microfinance intermediaries.

Under OFID’s trade finance facility, nearly US$56m was approved to support international trade finance activities in Burkina Faso, Turkey and Mongolia. The Board also approved an increase of US$200m for a global co-finance facility with a multilateral development finance institution in selected countries in Africa and Asia.