Investment

EBRD announces major loan for Tunisie Telecom

EBRD announces major loan for Tunisie Telecom

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), a multilateral developmental investment bank, and Tunisie Telecom, Tunisia’s national telecom operator, say they are partnering to improve the country’s digital infrastructure and drive the company’s transformation.

The (up to) €190 million (about US$221.2 million) EBRD development-linked loan will be disbursed in four tranches, including a first committed tranche of €50 million (US$58.2 million). The loan will finance multi-year investments in upgrading Tunisie Telecom’s mobile access network from 4G to 5G, expanding its fibre network, connecting up to 200,000 Tunisian households to fibre-to-the-home, and modernising the company’s backbone and core network. There will also be targeted investments in energy efficiency and energy production.

The loan will also finance Tunisie Telecom’s connection to the Medusa submarine cable, a subsea cable network in the Mediterranean Sea, supported by the European Union (EU) and led by infrastructure and licensed telecommunication operator AFR-IX. Medusa spans more than 8,000 kilometres and connects close to 13 countries in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.

The EBRD loan is complemented by an €11 million (US$12.81 million) grant from the EU under the Neighbourhood Investment Platform, comprising an investment grant to support Tunisie Telecom’s investments in its core networks and in cybersecurity, and a technical assistance grant for a comprehensive transformation programme to modernise and underpin the growth of the national operator.

EBRD says that the transformation programme will focus on critical areas of corporate development, such as skills development, sustainability, energy efficiency, digitalisation, cybersecurity and strategic reform, and is expected to improve the company’s efficiency, resilience and competitiveness.

The EBRD says it is providing, for the first time since 2012, financing without a sovereign guarantee in Tunisia’s public sector.

Moreover, the loan is structured as a development-linked loan. The interest rate is tied to the achievement of key transformation programme milestones: sustainability objectives and broader state-owned enterprise (SOE) reform objectives.

Since 2012, the EBRD says it has invested more than €3 billion (US$3.5 billion) in 89 projects across Tunisia and provided support to around 2,000 local small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) through EU-funded technical assistance. The EU is Tunisia’s largest investor and trading partner.



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