The OPEC Fund for International Development’s Governing Board held its 197th session today. Building on the prior meeting, the OPEC Fund approved US$645 million in new financing for programs in 14 partner countries. The funding is designed to strengthen water and energy security, improve transport connectivity, advance economic and financial reforms, and expand access to finance for businesses and farmers.
OPEC Fund President Abdulhamid Alkhalifa highlighted that the investments support “the key building blocks” of sustainable development—reliable water and energy, resilient infrastructure, effective economic institutions, and financial inclusion. He added that the approach combines efforts across public and private sectors to address urgent constraints while creating conditions for longer-term opportunity and resilience.
The approved package is split between US$435 million for public sector initiatives and US$210 million for private sector operations.
On the public sector side, projects include: support for drinking water infrastructure in Argentina; highway upgrades and flood-resilient works in Belize; strengthening finance-sector capacity in Cambodia; improving urban mobility and road links in El Salvador; financing a new major dam in Morocco; expanding renewable electricity generation in Sierra Leone; supporting structural reforms in Sri Lanka; rehabilitating a major highway segment in Tajikistan; and reinforcing power distribution networks across provinces in Zambia.
For the private sector, financing supports expanded SME and agribusiness lending in Armenia and Kazakhstan, desalination investment in Azerbaijan, broader MSME access (including women-owned businesses) in Azerbaijan, construction of an emissions-targeted mixed-use district in Oman, and a syndicated term loan framework in Paraguay to fund lending to agribusinesses and MSMEs, including women-led MSMEs.
Source: OPEC Fund
