OREANDA-NEWS. KfW Development Bank on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) has signed a USD 60 million promotional loan with the Eastern and Southern African Trade and Development Bank (PTA Bank). The Bank is providing companies in the COMESA member states (Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa), the SADC member states (Southern African Development Community) as well as the EAC member states (East African Community) with this loan in order to help them finance climate-friendly investments in renewable energy and energy efficiency measures.

"By providing the PTA Bank with this promotional loan, KfW is establishing solid foundations on which the economy in Eastern and Southern Africa can be developed sustainably, based on the use of renewable energies. At the same time, KfW is also making an important contribution towards strengthening the local finance sectors", said Dr Norbert Kloppenburg, a member of the KfW Group's Executive Board.

“PTA Bank deeply values its growing and multifaceted partnership with KfW, one of the leading bilateral development finance institutions in Europe that is providing much needed leadership in a number of priority areas of development financing, particularly clean energy financing. There is a lot of potential for clean and efficient energy generation in eastern and southern Africa, but unlocking it needs strong partnerships with committed financial institutions such as KfW”, underlined Admassu Tadesse, President of PTA-Bank.

Over the last ten years, Africa has experienced its longest and strongest period of growth since the 1960s, despite a global economic crisis and revolutions in North-African countries. Experts believe that this positive trend, which has been particularly evident in Eastern and Southern Africa, will continue in the years to come. This, however, will require the rectification of the current shortcomings in the infrastructure, for example in the energy sector.

The PTA Bank was founded by the COMESA member states in 1985. The role of the Bank is to promote economic development in and trade relations between the member states. In addition to offering medium and long-term project financing solutions in the energy, transport and telecommunication sectors, this also includes the financing of cross-border trading activities.