(Ecofin Agency) - The French Development Agency (AFD) granted a €110 million (CFA72, 131, 147, 540) loan to Côte d'Ivoire to complete the construction of a 7,000 km fiber optic network.

The project agreement was signed June 29 in Abidjan between Bruno Leclerc, Côte d'Ivoire’s AFD country manager, and Euloge Kipeya, Director General of the national agency for universal telecoms services “Agence nationale de service universel des télécommunications-TIC (ANSUT)”.

The highly anticipated financing will allow populations and businesses to benefit from better access to quality communication services at affordable rates across the country. The project is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2018, Euloge Kipeya said.

The fiber network which was launched in 2012 was estimated at around 5000 km in 2017, up from 2000 km at the end of 2016. Back in 2015, local commercial banks had approved CFA100 billion in financing to advance work.

Bruno Leclerc stressed that the €110 million new financing is a non-sovereign loan. This type of loan is a financing facility granted by AFD to public enterprises, local authorities, public institutions or NGOs, without any guarantee from the beneficiary State. Let’s note that the loan has 20-year term period of which five years are deferred.