- The International Finance Corporation (IFC), the World Bank Group’s private sector financing arm, has partnered with cement manufacturer Sococim in Senegal.
- The subsidiary of the French group Vicat will use this financing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) linked to the production of its cement.
€242 million have been mobilised as part of the collaboration between Sococim and the International Financial Corporation (IFC). The private sector financing division of the World Bank Group will provide €120 million. The other portion of the financing, or 122 million euros in local currency (the CFA franc), will come from several commercial banks, most notably the Senegalese branch of the French bank Société Générale and the Banque Internationale pour le Commerce et l’Industrie du Sénégal (BICIS), a unit of the French banking giant BNP Paribas.
Together with the Senegalese affiliate of Ecobank Transnational Incorporated, CBAO Groupe Attijariwafa Bank will take part in the money mobilization in support of Sococim. As part of this transaction, Société Générale Sénégal will act as an administrative agent to manage the local currency financing with the other lenders.
The majority of the funds generated ($214 million) will support Sococim’s investments in decarbonizing cement manufacturing. Due to its high-temperature manufacture needing a substantial amount of energy, clinker, the fundamental cement component, is known to have a negative carbon footprint.
With its investment plan, Sococim anticipates spending $260 million to upgrade its clinker production facility. A new, more fuel-efficient line will be installed in place of a portion of the factory’s current clinker production lines. Sococim claims that the new line will increase the energy efficiency of its factory by using “alternative fuels” in place of petrol.