Ethiopia to receive IMF credit, grant for water projects

ABBIS ABABA, Aug 24, 2004 (dpa) — Ethiopia is to receive 200 million dollars in long-term credit and grants for water supply and sanitation services from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the soft-loan arm of the World Bank, it was announced Tuesday.

The agreement was signed between Ethiopia’s Minister of Finance and Economic Development Sufian Ahmed and the World Bank Country Director for Ethiopia and the Sudan, Ishac Diwan.

Half the money will be used to finance water supply and sanitation projects to benefit some 3,500 communities in rural areas and the residents of 50 major towns, according to a joint statement issued Tuesday.

The remaining 100 million dollars is to be used for the implementation of the government’s Public Sector Capacity Building Programme (PSCBP).