Five international banks have teamed up to provide US$170 million in loans to develop information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure to Eastern and Southern African countries.
The banks involved in the plan are the Africa Development Bank, the World Bank, Southern Africa Development Bank, the European Development Bank and Kreditanstalt Für Wiederaufbau of Germany.
Most countries in Eastern and Southern Africa have been struggling to raise money for ICT, especially for telecommunications projects such as the East Africa Submarine Cable System (EASSY) project.
The EASSY project was established to build a submarine cable system to provide fiber-optic telecommunications facilities on the east coast of Africa and link northern and southern African international gateways.
The head of Eassy's project secretariat, Simon Olowa, said last week that the banks are to give loans to countries that have had trouble raising money for the EASSY project. The EASSY system was expected to be operational by the fourth quarter of 2007 though it is already behind schedule.
The World Bank has been struggling to convince Southern African countries to accept loans for telecommunications projects. Some countries have hesitated because of conditions attached to the loans. However, details of conditions attached to the latest $170 million in proposed loans have not been made available.
