São Paulo – France has loaned 45 million euros to Mauritania for investment in the electricity sector. According to information disclosed by the African news agency Panapress, the credit was granted by means of the French Development Agency (AFD, in the French acronym).
The government should allocate the funds to the restructuring of the sector and to balance the finances of the Mauritanian Electricity Company (Somelec). The transaction was signed by the Mauritanian minister of Economic Affairs and Development, Sidi Ould Tah, and the French ambassador to Nouakchott, Michel Vandenpooter.
The 45 million euros will be freed up in three stages of 15 million euros each, in 2011 and 2012. The sector is facing problems in the Arab country, brought about by the oil price hike, according to Panapress>/i>.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum