JEDDAH, 21 April — The Saudi Development Fund extended loans worth SR283.9 million to several development projects in six African and Asian countries last financial year, according to a report released by the fund.
Four African nations received SR225.9 million while two Asian countries were provided with SR58 million, the report said.
The loans included SR37.5 million for the fourth phase of the Djibouti port project, SR82 million for a power plant in Algeria, SR31.4 million for a water project in Kenya and SR75 million for the expansion, furnishing and maintenance of the Marrakesh University Hospital in Morocco.
The fourth phase of the Mali international airport was given SR18 million while SR40 million was extended to the completion of the fifth stage of the rural electricity project in Bangladesh, the report said.
The fund also coordinated with several international and regional institutions in financing several other development projects in a number of countries.
In the same period, the amount of withdrawals from the fund reached SR430.1 million for financing 48 projects in 13 countries. With 76.25 percent, African nations topped the list with the highest level of withdrawals involving SR327.96 million followed by Asian projects came with SR92.09 million. Countries in other regions were provided with loans worth SR10.05 million.
The fund has extended a total of SR21.73 billion to 63 countries — 16 Arab, 30 African, 12 Asian and five European and Latin American — since its inception. The recently commissioned Aleppo Steam Power Generation Plant in Syria is one of the major projects financed by the fund with a loan of $200 million.
The report noted that the loans were given to projects in countries which had problems in debt servicing
