(3 Minutes Read)
Angola has secured financing for a €200 million water infrastructure programme that will significantly expand access to safe drinking water across Luanda and Icolo e Bengo. The initiative—ProÁgua—marks a defining step in Angola’s long-term public service modernisation and human development strategy.
Finalised with HSBC and supported by European export credit agencies (Bpifrance Assurance Export and Swiss Export Risk Insurance – SERV), the agreement establishes a sovereign-led, multi-layered financing model focused on risk mitigation, sustainable procurement, and strategic international partnerships.
According to the Ministry of Finance of Angola, ProÁgua represents a crucial investment in the national water sector, long constrained by decades of underfunding and uneven access. Current government data indicates that only 34% of rural populations have reliable access to safe drinking water—a gap this initiative seeks to narrow decisively.
The €200 million package is structured in two tranches: a €30 million commercial loan covering the 15% advance payment, and a €170 million ECA-backed buyer’s credit financing the remaining 85%. HSBC acted as coordinating and mandated lead arranger, while Bpifrance and SERV provided comprehensive export credit insurance and reinsurance. This structure enables Angola to access long-tenor, competitively priced financing typically unavailable to sovereign borrowers in global markets.
The financing framework also fosters mutual economic benefits for France and Switzerland by promoting export collaboration. The transaction marks a milestone for Bpifrance, which issued its first export credit insurance policy linked to a Swiss engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor—Mitrelli—operating outside France.
Implementation will be led by a consortium of Mitrelli (Switzerland) and SUEZ International (France), with Angola’s public water utility serving as the executing agency. The project encompasses:
- Rehabilitation of four existing water treatment plants
- Construction of two decentralized compact units
- Installation of six desalination systems
- Drilling of 15 new boreholes
- Deployment of smart metering and digital management systems
Stakeholders have described the structure as a “robust, de-risked model for infrastructure investment in emerging markets,” balancing fiscal prudence with delivery assurance. The project’s digital and capacity-building components will strengthen institutional capabilities across Angola’s water utilities, embedding long-term operational sustainability. Once completed, ProÁgua is projected to provide clean, reliable water to over nine million residents, bolstering national water security, improving public health, and enhancing resilience to climate-induced variability.
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The initiative builds on a wider continental trend of ECA-backed financing for African infrastructure, following recent US Exim and UK Export Finance-supported projects in Angola and Côte d’Ivoire. Discussions for a second phase are already underway, aiming to extend coverage to additional regions. By structuring ProÁgua as a sovereign-led, transparent, and inclusive investment, Angola is asserting a new model of development financing—one that prioritizes social equity, sustainability, and national ownership over extractive or dependency-based paradigms.
