Finagestion, a portfolio company of pan-African private equity firm Emerging Capital Partners (ECP), has been selected by REGIDESO (Régie de distribution d’eau), the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) public sector water distribution company, for a three-year technical services contract.
The contract is partly funded by the World Bank as part of its Water Supply Project.
The management and technical services contract awarded to REGIDESO was awarded following a competitive process organised by the World Bank and begins on 28 February 2013. Finagestion’s Senegalese water company, Sénégalaise Des Eaux (SDE), was instrumental to its bidding success.
Under the contract, Finagestion and SDE will provide expertise through the secondment of five experts to REGIDESO, as well as implementing new techniques to improve operations at the water distribution company.
Brice Lodugnon, director in ECP’s Cote d’Ivoire office, says: “ECP acquired a 60 per cent control stake in Finagestion in 2009, with the ambition to leverage its operating and management strengths to become an even more prominent player in the Sub-Saharan utility sector. The REGIDESO contract is the first step of our external growth strategy into Central Africa whose objective is to replicate the successful business model of SDE in other African countries.”
Sub-Saharan Africa currently has one of the world’s lowest access rates to drinking water. Most countries have water distribution rates in urban areas well below 50 per cent. This presents a major market opportunity for companies like Finagestion that can economically and effectively provide these much-needed services. Finagestion employs more than 6,200 people and provides clean drinking water to 13 million Africans.
