Benin gets $5.8m to build dorm
2004-03-07 17:42
Khartoum, Sudan - The Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa granted a US$5.8m loan to Benin on Saturday to help the small African nation service debts and build a university dormitory, the head of the bank said.
Director-General Medhat Lotfy said that some $2.6m of the loan will go to help in debt servicing, and the rest to build a dormitory at a university in the town of Parakou in central Benin.
The loan, with a six-year grace period and thereafter payable in 30 years, was formally granted to Benin on Saturday in a signing ceremony with Lotfy and Benin's state minister for planning and development, Bruno Amoussou.
Benin, which borders eastern Nigeria, is among eight countries, all in Africa, to have completed the Paris Club's debt reduction process under a special program known as the Enhanced Initiative for the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries.
Last year the 19-member Paris Club, an informal group of creditor nations that seeks solutions for payment difficulties of indebted nations, canceled $60m of debts by Benin estimated at $159m.
The Khartoum-based Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa was established in 1974 to assist with economic development in non-Arab African countries.
- AP