Bloomberg reported that the New Development Bank (NDB), founded by a group of developing BRICS countries, has approved a loan of up to $1 billion to help develop water and sanitation infrastructure in South Africa.
The funding will be provided under South Africa's Urban Infrastructure Finance Program, aimed at reducing infrastructure backlogs and ensuring the provision of basic services to poor households, according to the NDB's announcement on August 31.
The funding source was announced at the NDB's annual general meeting in Cape Town.
The NDB Bank was founded in 2015 by BRICS members Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, while the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Egypt, Bangladesh and Uruguay are also members.
The bank has also decided to approve Algeria as a member - Dilma Rousseff, Chairman of the NDB, told the press after the meeting.
She said that although the bank's policy is to expand membership among Global South countries and many of them have applied for joining, she is not allowed to name them and needs to assess their conditions before approving them.
The UAE, Egypt, Iran and Ethiopia joined BRICS on January 1, 2024, but Iran and Ethiopia have yet to join the NDB. Saudi Arabia has also been announced as a new member of BRICS, although the kingdom later said it was still studying an invitation to join.
Ms. Rousseff said that while the NDB aims to focus on financing long-term projects, the bank also wants private companies with short-term funding needs to be able to access them.
She added that the NDB set a target of providing 30% of its loans in member countries' currencies but has yet to achieve that target.
In addition to the South African loan, the NDB has also agreed to provide a loan equivalent to 150 million USD in yuan to the China Bank for Communications Finance Leasing Company (BCFL) for a national liquefied natural gas transport project. BCFL said the loan would be used to buy back at least three LNG tankers and help address significantly increased gas demand in China.
The NDB has also approved a revised policy on handling sovereign loans and loans with sovereign guarantees. These amendments will " restore new efficiency to the project approval cycle," noted BCFL.
The BRICS Bank also approved the club's loan of up to 1.5 billion USD, without providing further details.
