THE OPEC Fund is keen to help Eswatini to fund the Mkhondvo- Ngwavuma Water Augmentation Project (MNWAP) Phase 2b.
Minister of Finance Neal Rijkenberg noted that currently they were in phase one which they had virtually raised the funds for, and were now working on raising funds for phase 2b.
He was speaking on Eswatini’s participation in the International Monetary Fund (IMF)/World Bank annual meetings in Washington D.C. Finance In Focus on Tuesday.
The meetings brought together global finance ministers, central bank governors, and development partner to discuss strategies for sustaining economic growth, managing debt and addressing global financial vulnerabilities.
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The phase 2 includes the Themba Dam at Mkhithini that is going to be built a huge dam, water could be put under the Hlathikulu mountain range into Mkhondvo-Ngwavuma the catchment area, so that they could irrigate this 30 000 hectares of land in the greater Lavumisa area.
Meanwhile, the phase 2b includes the main conveyance, secondary and infield distribution system as wee as on-farm development in greater Lavumisa irrigations areas; 18 000 hectares benefitting Somntongo, Matsanjeni and beyond.
The minister noted that the areas had fantastic soils first of the poor people living there and the project would have a huge impact on the economy.
Cost of phase according to the study phase that was completed between June 2020 and September 2022 was projected to be E346 million (US$20 million).
“The OPEC is willing to not only help us with funding for that phase 2b, but also give us a grant support to be able to do a feasibility on making sure we maximise on the hydroelectricity potential that we can create on the water going from that high elevation to low elevation.
There is a lovely hydro plan we can do there and we are going to be now very intentional to make sure we get everything. They have committed to help funding, as well as committed to help to bring the other what we call referred to as Arab funders together to support to ensure that we have a large enough group of funding there,” he said.
Adding, the minister said they had a great meeting with the Saudi Fund. He noted that government had not taken a loan from them yet, but they showed keen interest to help and support Eswatini.
He said they also met with the statistics teams, the Financial Affairs Department (FAD) and the Moody’s of the rating agency that looks at Eswatini to monitor what is done right and wrong.
He also noted that in the previous year, Eswatini, got an upgrade from a very low B3 rating to B2 rating. He said they were working towards marinating or improving the current rating moving forward.
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“The better our ratings are, the cheaper our funding becomes as a country which we get from generally the private sector. So it is an important thing to try and focus on getting everything right. Our small team from the ministry did well, we often had to split up because we had to be in different places at the same time and we had ensure that we represented very well on all the different fronts.
We believe that we continue to be on the right track as a country to get ourselves into a high growth country is really where the main focus is. As a country, we’ve been very honest to say we have a problem in Eswatini with poverty, unemployment, but really pushing to try and get our growth right. So that the growth means that there are better jobs for Emaswati and more jobs,” he added.
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