Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced on July 10, that his country would consider lending Tanzania $500 million to finance water projects.

During an official visit of Modi to Dar es Salaam, India and Tanzania signed various bilateral agreements, including a $92 million convention to finance water projects in the Tanzania’s semi-autonomous Zanzibar islands. The Prime Minister at the occasion said India was ready to provide additional funding to finance water projects in the East African nation which currently lacks the resource.

“India is willing to consider an additional $500 million line of concessional credit,” Modi said at a joint news conference with Tanzanian president John Magufuli.

“President Magufuli and I agreed to deepen India-Tanzania ties in agriculture, food security, trade, natural gas and other vital sectors,” he added.

In February, Tanzania announced it has discovered a possible additional 2.17 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of natural gas in an onshore field, bringing its total estimated recoverable gas reserves to 57 tcf.

Mr. Modi started on July 7 a tour in Africa including South Africa, Tanzania, Kenya and Mozambique as the countries to visit.