World Bank backs South Africa's infrastructure rollout with $350 million funding

JOHANNESBURG, March 6 (Reuters) - The World Bank has agreed to give South Africa $350 million of financing for a new credit guarantee facility that is meant to unlock private financing for infrastructure including an expansion of the power transmission grid.

• The World Bank said in a statement dated March 5 that the funding would come from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, part of the World Bank Group.

• The Credit Guarantee Vehicle aims to mobilise about $10 billion of capital, including from private investors, commercial lenders and institutional investors, over a 10-year period.

• Reuters reported last year that the World Bank Group was considering providing funding for the facility.

• South African Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana was quoted in the World Bank statement as saying the vehicle would "support massive investments in transmission infrastructure" and that it would be incorporated as a company in the coming months.

• South Africa is courting private investment for a plan to add thousands of kilometres of new power lines and enhanced transformer capacity as it looks to recover from more than a decade of crippling power cuts.

• The World Bank said the initiative would support the government's economic reform agenda.