The Board of Directors of the World Bank today approved $700 million in guarantees for Ghana’s Sankofa Gas Project, the bank says in a press statement issued in Washington and copied to ghanabusinessnews.com.
The statement describes the guarantee as a “record investment” for a transformational project that will help address the country’s serious energy shortages by developing new sources of clean and affordable natural gas for domestic power generation.
The Board approved a unique combination of two guarantees for the Project – an IDA Payment guarantee of $500 million that supports timely payments for gas purchases by the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) and an IBRD Enclave Loan guarantee of $200 million that enables the project to secure financing from its private sponsors. Together, the guarantees are expected to mobilize $7.9 billion in new private investment for offshore natural gas, representing the biggest foreign direct investment in Ghana’s history, the statement says.
By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi