Private equity firm Emerging Capital Partners (ECP) has announced that African utility sector Finagestion has signed a three-year technical services contract
The contract, which was awarded to REGIDESO, has been funded by the World Bank as part of its Water Supply Project.
The agreement states that Finagestion and Senegalese water company, Sénégalaise Des Eau (SDE), will offer expert help to water distribution company REGIDESO and use new methods to improve operations at the company, ECP said.
Brice Lodugnon, director in ECP’s Côte d’Ivoire office, said, "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."
Sub-Saharan Africa currently has one of the world's lowest access rates to drinking water, according to a report conducted by UNICEF and WHO.
"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" added Lodugnon.
Finagestion employs more than 6,200 people and provides clean drinking water to 13mn Africans.
