CAF Approved USD 1.1 Billion for Ecuador in 2020

In a year marked by the COVID-19 pandemic, CAF—development bank of Latin America—approved a total of USD 1.1 billion in loans to Ecuador, mainly in the areas of health, chronic child malnutrition, support for local governments, logistics infrastructure, financing to SMEs through micro-finance, support for the Ecuador’s finance ministry to improve its crisis response capacity and countercyclical role.

“CAF is an unconditional partner of Ecuador’s development, and a proof thereof is the record approvals we have completed this year. In addition to responding quickly and in a timely manner to the external financing needs caused by COVID-19, we have continued our support in key areas of the nation’s development such as infrastructure, water and sanitation or fiscal stability,” said CAF executive president Luis Carranza.

During the bank’s last board session of the year, two loans were approved for the nation, totaling USD 462 million.

• USD 242 million for the Logistics Infrastructure Program, Phase I. This loan will promote the development of specialized logistics infrastructure for the modernization of multimodal transport and enhance the Quito-Guayaquil, Quito–Cuenca, Quito–Manta and Quito–Tulcán logistics corridors, in an effort to diversify their export base and give greater efficiency to the logistics services of road and maritime transport, and border integration. It will also improve connectivity and integration to production centers and enhance user trafficability safety.
  
  
• USD 220 million to promote territorial economic development. This loan is set to finance projects in the road, irrigation and drainage sectors in Ecuador’s 23 provinces through the implementation of actions on: pre-investment (feasibility and final design studies); investment (execution of projects to improve provision of infrastructure); institutional strengthening (capacity-building activities of Provincial Decentralized Autonomous Governments in structuring, implementation and operation of investment projects).

Between 2015 and 2019, CAF has approved an average of USD 811 million per year, equivalent to 6.5% of total CAF approvals in that period. In the case of disbursements, the annual average reaches USD 694 million, for a cumulative total of USD 3.47 billion over the same period.