NEA seeks $320 M from ADB, WB

The National Electrification Administration (NEA) is negotiating for two new loans amounting to $320 million from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the World Bank to partly finance its rural electrification project, NEA Administrator Manuel Luis Sanchez said.

Sanchez said they are taking advantage of all available packages considering that they still have 8,500 barangays to energize and that many of them are considered unviable or missionary areas.

There is an ongoing technical assistance program with an ADB task force, he said, for a two-month project assessment. The ADB mission will work out the details of the loan package which is worth $120 million, Sanchez said.

The World Bank loan, on the other hand, will amount to $200 million which will be spread over a period of 10 years. The first drawdown from what is called "Adaptable Program Loan" will be in 2002 amounting to $25 million for the so-called off-grid electrification project. Succeeding drawdowns will depend on NEA’s compliance with pre-agreement targets.

According to Sanchez, they have a pending loan release from Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund/Japan Bank for International Cooperation worth $14 million this month. This represents the last tranche from a $95-million loan approved in 1995.

Newly-installed Energy Secretary Jose Isidro Camacho supports the rural electrification program of the former administration and considers this as one of his priorities.

NEA will need about P15 billion for its upgrading and expansion program in the next three years.

Aside from tapping multilateral creditors, the NEA is also continuously working out a program with independent power producers (IPPs) for the electrification of the 1,700 barangays located around the areas of responsibility of the various IPP power plants.

Under the Philippine Rural Electrification Program, NEA plans to bring electricity to 90 percent of all barangays in the country by 2004. This will be achieved through line extension for on-grid areas and installation of appropriate new and renewable energy (NRE) systems for areas outside the grid.