IFC-led group to lend USD 653m for 752 MW of solar in Egypt

The International Finance Corporation (IFC) said on Sunday it is leading a consortium that will provide a USD-653-million (EUR 562.3m) debt package for the construction of 13 solar parks in Egypt totalling up to 752 MW.

The photovoltaic (PV) facilities will be developed under the so-called Nubian Suns feed-in tariff (FiT) financing programme and will be situated within the Benban complex in the region of Aswan, which is designed to have a total capacity of 1.8 GW. The plants are expected to generate electricity for over 350,000 residential customers once completed.

IFC, part of the World Bank, will provide the financing together with a consortium of nine international lenders, including the African Development Bank, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, the Arab Bank of Bahrain, UK’s CDC Group, Europe Arab Bank, Finance in Motion, FinnFund, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd (HKG:1398) and the Development Bank of Austria Oesterreichische Entwicklungsbank.

Separately, the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency, also part of the World Bank, will provide USD 210 million in political risk insurance to 12 projects within Benban complex.

Egypt has set a 20% renewable power target by 2022. The country launched Round 2 of its FiT programme in October last year.

(USD 1.0 = EUR 0.861)

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