Housing in Southern Africa May 2016

News

New Development Bank approves first loans

T he NDB recently announced tha t i t s Boa rd o f D i rec- tors has approved loans of US$811 million to be disbursed in tranches, supporting 2 370 MW of renewable energy capacity. The NDBwas established by BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) to finance infrastructure and sustainable development projects. The projects were presented at the fifth Board of Directors. Veteran Indian banker and NDB’s President, Kundapur Vaman Kamath says, “This is an important milestone for the bank and we are delighted to have met the goals and the time sched- ules envisioned by the leaders of the BRICS countries. With this, we embark The New Development Bank (NDB) has approved its first set of loans worth US$811 million, whichwill go towards supporting renewable energy initiatives.

the projects will collectively provide additional generation capacity of 2 370 MW of clean energy. This will lead to a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by nearly four million tonnes per year. Each loan modality is different, based on project specific features and borrower preferences, government approvals, where neces- sary, will be sought as part of follow- up procedures. ■

on a journey to provide speedy assis- tance to projects across developing nations. We are also pleased that the projects deal with green and renew- able energy and hope they will act as catalysts for development in our member states.” In accordance with its core focus, this first set of projects being financed by NDB is in the area of green and renewable energy. It is estimated that

May 2016