Arab fund grants $8.4 million loan to Morocco

The Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development will grant Morocco a $8.4 million loan to partially finance an electricity project.

The project will enable the Moroccan electricity utility "Office National d'Electricití" (ONE) to use, during slack periods, the surplus of electricity produced by the thermal power stations to pump water from the Afourar waterfalls (central Morocco). The stocked water will be used to produce 450 MGW of electricity in peak periods.

The project, to cost nearly $200 million, will be co-financed by the European Investment Bank.

The loan agreement was signed in Rabat Thursday by the fund's general manager, Abdellatif Youssef Al Hamad, and the ONE assistant general manager in the presence of Moroccan Minister of Economy and Finance Fathallah Oualalou.