Emerging Capital Partners (ECP), the pan-African private equity firm, on Monday  said its portfolio company Finagestion, the African utility sector operating group, was selected the preferred bidder for a three-year technical services contract in the water supply project in the DRC.

Under the contract, Finagestion and Senegalese water company, Sénégalaise Des Eaux (SDE) will provide expertise through the secondment of five experts to REGIDESO, the DRC’s public sector water distribution company.

These companies are also expected to implement new techniques to improve operations at the water distribution company.

Brice Lodugnon, ECP’s director in Cote d’Ivoire, said ECP acquired a 60 percent control stake in Finagestion in 2009, with the ambition to leverage its operating and management strengths.

It plans 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,” Lodugnon said.

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 percent.

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.

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