The European Investment Bank (EIB) announced on Friday that it signed a 200-million euro (2.1 billion Moroccan dinars) finance agreement with Morocco’s national railway company Office National des Chemins de Fer (ONCF) to supports its low-carbon sustainable mobility investment programme.

The agreement accounts for 80 percent of an overall funding envelope of €250 million made available to ONCF with remaining €50 million (MAD 527 million) planned to be signed in 2023 and is the first project signed under the EU-Morocco Green Partnership, signed in Rabat on 18 October 2022, EIB said in a press statement.

EIB said the financing will supports ONCF’s investment plan to renew existing conventional railway infrastructure and strengthen the modernisation of equipment across a 2,300-km rail network.

The loan will finance network rehabilitation and upgrade projects for infrastructure, equipment and industrial workshops, renewal and repair of tracks, infrastructure and electric traction installations, as well as improvements to signalling, communications and safety systems

Climate change adaptation measures such as the implementation of flood protection programmes are also planned. The EIB will help ONCF to consolidate its climate adaptation roadmap throughout the project.

The financing is the first of its kind for ONCF without a government guarantee and follows the certification of its first green bond operation in July, according to the statement.

The financing is aligned with United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly building sustainable, resilient and accessible infrastructure (SDG 9.1), ensuring access to safe, accessible, viable and affordable transport systems for all (SDG 11.2), and strengthening resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards (SDG 13.1), the EIB statement noted

(Writing by Anoop Menon; Editing by Bhaskar Raj)

(anoop.menon@lseg.com)