Arab Fund helps finance electricity, road projects in Sudan

KHARTOUM, Jan 22 (AFP) — The Kuwait-based Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development will provide Sudan with two loans totaling 131.5 million dollars to finance electricity and road projects, an official daily reports.

Al-Anbaa said the fund’s president Abdel Latif Yousuf al-Hamad and Sudanese Finance Minister Al-Zubair Ahmed Hassan signed the two loans.

Under the accords, the fund will lend 100 million dollars to partially finance electric power generation at the Merowe Dam project and another 31.5 million dollars to build the Gedaref-Doka-Galabat road linking east Sudan to Ethiopia.

Work has already started on the dam in northern Sudan that is financed by several Arab funds and by China. It is due for completion in 2008 to produce 1,250 megawatts, double the country’s current output.

The loans carry an annual interest rate of 3% and will be repayable in 25 years, after grace periods of seven years for the first project and six years for the second, Al-Anbaa said.