Critical infrastructure is central to a country’s prosperity and stability. Yet many countries face significant energy poverty and physical infrastructure gaps due to the substantial capital required for large-scale projects.
DFC is helping businesses build infrastructure in developing countries across the world, from Africa, Latin America, and the Indo-Pacific to the Middle East and Eastern Europe and Eurasia.
Our investments in roads, ports, airports, and other large-scale projects are helping facilitate trade, create jobs, and improve access to essential services such as clean water, food, healthcare, energy, and education.
DFC's investments are helping advance the Build Back Better World (B3W) Initiative, which aims to mobilize private sector capital for infrastructure projects in four key areas: climate change mitigation and adaptation, global health, gender equity and equality, and information and communications technology.
DFC financing is supporting the Energy Access Relief Fund, which is providing low-cost loans to viable off-grid energy providers that serve low-income communities across 50 countries in Africa and Asia but are facing liquidity challenges due to COVID. Energy Access Relief Fund is a collaboration of development institutions, donors, and impact investors including the Dutch development agency FMO, the U.K. development agency CDC Group, as well as the World Bank, the International Finance Corporation, Rockefeller Foundation, and Shell Foundation. The fund plans to deploy up to $100 million of financing to small and medium businesses providing a variety of off-grid energy solutions including solar home systems, clean cookstoves, and solar-powered irrigation.
A $9 million DFC loan is helping Ampersand, a young company headquartered in Kigali, Rwanda, build a fleet of electronic motorbikes in Rwanda and expand into Kenya to provide sustainable replacements to gas-powered motorcycle taxis.
DFC financing is supporting development of a modern souk in Zarqa, which is located in the Jordanian Government’s King Abdullah Bin Aziz City urban development project, a master-planned community to alleviate urban congestion and expand access to public resources. This new community will serve as a gateway to new affordable housing in Zarqa, which will help relocate refugees into a more sustainable living environment that offers public resources and affordable housing.
DFC financing to the Meridiam Infrastructure Africa Fund is supporting the Dakar Bus Rapid Transit project to expand mass transit in and around the city. The project will introduce more than 140 electric buses and construct new roads and garages for the fleet.
Up to $250 million in financing is supporting construction of the 84 kilometer Rumichaca-Pasto Toll Road in southeastern Colombia. The new four-lane highway will reduce transit times between the city of Pasto and Ipiales near the Ecuador border, and improve safety along treacherous mountain corridors with improved lighting shoulders, signage, and road design.
$100 million in financing is helping Africell expand affordable mobile voice and data services in The Gambia, Sierra Leone, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and upgrade its network equipment to accommodate increased traffic. The World Bank estimates that a 10 percent increase in mobile phone technology coverage in developing countries will increase annual economic growth by 1.2 percent, and that a 10 percent increase in broadband penetration results in a 1.4 percent increase in annual economic growth in low and middle-income countries.
A 50 percent U.S. loan guaranty to HFC Bank, a local financial institution is helping reduce reliance on central government transfers and donors and mobilize more private financing to build more infrastructure in the rural village of Embu.
$250 million in political risk insurance supported construction of a spent nuclear fuel storage facility in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. With capacity to store 169,000 tons of spent fuel each year, the new facility will reduce the need to ship spent fuel to Russia and help Ukraine move closer to energy independence. The project also generated significant business for Holtec International of Camden, New Jersey, such is manufacturing storage casks for the facility.
$200 million in long-term financing helped developer HAS Development Corporation and its partners attract additional lenders into the deal so that there was sufficient financing to move the project forward.
Financing totaling $250 million together with $150 million in political risk insurance supported construction of a 202-mile pipeline running from an aquifer in southern Jordan to Amman. The pipeline has the capacity to transport 100 million cubic meters of potable water a year.
Political risk insurance provided Ellicott Dredges the assurance it needed to sell its equipment to the Iraqi Ministry of Electricity. Ellicott’s dredging equipment has enabled the country to more efficiently supply electricity and ensure navigation for river traffic.
Financing and political risk insurance to ContourGlobal supported construction of the 100 MW Lomé Thermal power plant, a tri-fuel plant designed to run on a variety of fuels including natural gas.
DFC is providing $50 million of debt financing to the Meridiam Africa Infrastructure Fund, which is investing in a variety of infrastructure projects. Meridiam’s investments include solar energy projects in Senegal and a geothermal project in Ethiopia, helping those countries grow and diversify their energy supply; a university hospital in Cote d’Ivoire to expand access to healthcare, an airport renovation in Madagascar to support the country’s tourism industry, and port development projects in Gabon and Mauritania to support trade.
Financing and political risk insurance supported ContourGlobal’s construction of the 86 MW Cap des Biches thermal power plant outside of Dakar, increasing the country’s energy supply. The combined-cycle plant was designed to run on heavy fuel oil or natural gas, when supply is available, and was built on the site of an existing diesel power plant in order to achieve cost efficiencies. Under the terms of the project, the country’s state-owned utility Senelec, entered a power purchase agreement with ContourGlobal.
Financing supported construction of an oil transshipment terminal—the first private port in Brazil—to move oil extracted offshore in a cost-effective and environmentally sustainable manner from floating production ships to large tankers.
Political risk insurance is supporting construction of a mineral and specialized bulk terminal port, which will advance economic growth by increasing the country’s ability to import and export goods. DFC is providing reinsurance to Chubb European Group SE, which is insuring Meridiam Africa Infrastructure Investments, which owns a 25 percent stake in the project.
Political risk insurance is supporting a project by Houston, Texas-based Noble Energy to rehabilitate a natural gas pipeline and transport natural gas from the Leviathan and Tamar offshore fields in Israel to customers in Egypt.
Financing is helping Alistair Group, a small business based in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, introduce a more efficient system for moving cargo. Alistair operates a fleet of hundreds of trucks that serve mining, oil and gas companies, as well as global relief organizations throughout Tanzania, Zambia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mozambique and South Africa. Alistair equips its trucks with GPS tracking, trains drivers extensively on safety and accident prevention, and maintains a zero-tolerance policy to bribery and corruption that often poses a hurdle to moving goods across borders. In addition to improving the quality and reliability of ground transportation across the region, the project has created hundreds of local jobs, while helping local businesses and relief organizations transport cargo.
Financing is supporting construction of a 200-bed, full-service hospital in central Tbilisi that is expected to provide services to 220,000 patients per year, including many who would otherwise travel outside of the country for medical care.
$250 million in financing to Apollo Towers Myanmar supported the development of telecommunications towers throughout the country. Apollo has built nearly 2,000 towers and mobile penetration has soared from three percent a decade ago to almost 90 percent in 2019. This increased connectivity is bringing significant improvements to the way people live and work, stimulating business activity and economic growth.