NFD Loan

completed

The proposed project involves (i) the purchase by National Fisheries Development Ltd. (NFD) of three used large purse seiners, (ii) long term financing for capex and working capital needs for the ongoing operations of NFD’s fishing fleet, and (iii) technical advice on environmental and social best practices under the leadership of CES Advisory (“the Project”). Total project cost is estimated at US$60 million. IFC will provide an A loan and mobilize a Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP) loan, in aggregate of up to US$30 million, with IFC/GAFSP’s loan covering 50% of the total Project cost.  This addition of three purse seiners will bring NFD’s fleet size to a total of eight purse seiners and two pole and line vessels. Each new purse seiner is estimated to provide an additional 8,000 MT per year for an annual total of 24,000 MT. This will increase its purse seine capacity by approximatively 70 percent. The new vessels and resulting increase in domestically caught tuna will facilitate the direct creation of 30 new jobs at NFD and additional 200 jobs at SolTuna Limited (SolTuna) (a tuna processing plant adjacent to NFD, a sister company under the Tri Marine Group and considered an associated facility to NFD), including approximatively 130 for female employees. This is expected to increase SolTuna’s production from 100MT per day to 150MT per day. This will boost SolTuna’s profitability, thus reinforcing the company’s long term viability.