Stanbic Bank pulls out from Lusaka-Ndola dual carriage way $200m financing deal?
The local unit of South African leading lender Stanbic bank was conspicuously missing from the attendance list of financiers for the much anticipated Lusaka-Ndola dual carriage way road construction deal signing ceremony held in Lusaka today on 26 March, 2024.
Their absence at today signing ceremony of the common financing terms as well as the confirmation of NAPSAs $300m financial commitment billed as the single largest investment by the pension fund in it’s history perhaps confirms that Stanbic bank Zambia has indeed pulled out of its reported initial $200m financing commitment.
The dual road construction deal that is estimated to cost about $650m had in a 2023 announcement lined up getting $300m debt financing from NAPSA, $200m from Stanbic Bank Zambia and $100m from Workers Compensation Fund Control Board – WCFCB.
The contractor selected was and still is Macro Ocean Investment Consortium – MOIC, a consortium of Chinese companies that include AVIC International, China Railway Construction and Zhenjian Communications construction.
But the deal announced today has now included the contractor Macro Ocean Investment Consortium – MOIC as both a part financier and contractor for this very important logistics and transporting road for Zambia and no mention of Stanbic Bank Zambia.
The Zambian Business Times – ZBT has since reached out to Stanbic Bank Zambia to find out why the bank has allegedly pulled out after they had initially committed to get on board, an action that some members of the public blame the bank for the delays the project has been forced to undergo despite it’s very critical nature to the health of the economy of Zambia.
At the time of publishing, efforts were still underway to get formal responses from the South African Lenders local unit in Zambia. The dual carriage way road construction involves about 327 kilometers between Lusaka and Ndola and a further 45 kilometers for the Masango-Fisenge-Launshya road.- Zambian Business Times