The World Bank Implementation Status & Results Report AFCC2/RI-Central African Backbone - APL3 - Republic of Congo (P122398) AFCC2/RI-Central African Backbone - APL3 - Republic of Congo (P122398) AFRICA | Africa | Digital Development Global Practice | IBRD/IDA | Investment Project Financing | FY 2011 | Seq No: 14 | ARCHIVED on 09-Feb-2019 | ISR35644 | Implementing Agencies: Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications in Charge of ICT, Ministry of Teleommunications, Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications in Charge of ICT, CAB Project Implementation Uniit Key Dates Key Project Dates Bank Approval Date: 25-May-2011 Effectiveness Date: 19-Dec-2011 Planned Mid Term Review Date: 31-Mar-2014 Actual Mid-Term Review Date: 27-Oct-2014 Original Closing Date: 31-Dec-2016 Revised Closing Date: 31-Dec-2019 pdoTable Project Development Objectives Project Development Objective (from Project Appraisal Document) The development objective of the proposed project is consistent with the PDO for the CAB Program: to contribute to increase geographical reach and usage of regional broadband network services and reduce their prices, in the Republic of Congo. Has the Project Development Objective been changed since Board Approval of the Project Objective? No Components Table Name Component 1: Enabling environment at the regional and national levels:(Cost $3.55 M) Component 2: Connectivity:(Cost $14.04 M) Component 3: Promotion of ICT sector:(Cost $0.96 M) Component 4: Project Management:(Cost $1.00 M) Overall Ratings Name Previous Rating Current Rating Progress towards achievement of PDO Satisfactory Moderately Satisfactory Overall Implementation Progress (IP) Satisfactory Moderately Satisfactory Overall Risk Rating Substantial Substantial Implementation Status and Key Decisions This is the last ISR for P122398. This ISR was prepared after the mission to Brazzaville on November 22-24, 2018. The restructuring package for Africa: AFCC2/RI-Central African Backbone - APL3 - Republic of Congo (P122398, PE)) conducted in November 6, 2018 included: 1. Reallocation of the funds under component C and savings from component D to component B; and 2. Cancellation of the component C: ICT incubator and the DDF activities. The restructuring was thus usefully completed. The progress towards achievement of the PDO has been downgraded from Satisfactory to Moderately Satisfactory to reflect that out of the 5 core indicators monitored throughout the project time, two have not been achieved (the wholesale prices and the female beneficiary indicators). The 2/9/2019 Page 1 of 6 The World Bank Implementation Status & Results Report AFCC2/RI-Central African Backbone - APL3 - Republic of Congo (P122398) overall Implementation Progress has been downgraded from Satisfactory to Moderately Satisfactory, to reflect that the Government did not establish the Special Purpose Vehicle that will own the network built under the CAB3 project. The creation of the SPV is important to strengthen the government’s institutional capacity to monitor the management contract and make sure that the network and its resources are managed efficiently. The team recommends that the Government, the Ministry of Telecom, and Ministry of Finance and Public Portfolio, give the effective operationalization of the SPV a priority. Nonetheless, the Government successfully awarded the management of the network build under the project to a private company for the next three years. Risks Systematic Operations Risk-rating Tool Risk Category Rating at Approval Previous Rating Current Rating Political and Governance -- Substantial Substantial Macroeconomic -- Substantial Substantial Sector Strategies and Policies -- Moderate Moderate Technical Design of Project or Program -- Substantial Substantial Institutional Capacity for Implementation and Sustainability -- Low Low Fiduciary -- Low Low Environment and Social -- Moderate Moderate Stakeholders -- Low Low Other -- -- -- Overall -- Substantial Substantial Results PDO Indicators by Objectives / Outcomes Network Coverage Impact IN00658652 ►Volume of international traffic- International internet bandwidth (bits per second person) (Number, Custom) Baseline Actual (Previous) Actual (Current) End Target Value 2,480.00 6,045.00 15,500.00 3,341.00 Date 30-Jun-2016 12-Oct-2018 31-Dec-2018 31-Dec-2019 IN00658653 ►Access to Internet Services (number of subscribers per 100 people) (Number, Custom) Baseline Actual (Previous) Actual (Current) End Target Value 32.00 42.00 42.00 40.00 2/9/2019 Page 2 of 6 The World Bank Implementation Status & Results Report AFCC2/RI-Central African Backbone - APL3 - Republic of Congo (P122398) Date 30-Jun-2016 12-Oct-2018 31-Dec-2018 31-Dec-2019 IN00658654 ►Average monthly price of wholesale international E1 capacity link from capital city to Europe (Amount(USD), Custom) Baseline Actual (Previous) Actual (Current) End Target Value 1,592.00 1,592.00 1,465.00 892.00 Date 30-Jun-2016 12-Oct-2018 31-Dec-2018 31-Dec-2019 IN00658655 ►Direct project beneficiaries (Number, Custom) Baseline Actual (Previous) Actual (Current) End Target Value 1,500,000.00 1,573,673.00 2,119,873.00 1,732,051.00 Date 30-Jun-2016 12-Oct-2018 31-Dec-2018 31-Dec-2019 IN00658656 ►Female beneficiaries (Percentage, Custom) Baseline Actual (Previous) Actual (Current) End Target Value 30.00 32.00 35.00 37.00 Date 30-Jun-2016 12-Oct-2018 31-Dec-2018 31-Dec-2019 Overall Comments PDO All 5 core indicators monitored throughout the project have improved over time, which indicates that the project has contributed to the increase in the geographical reach and usage of internet services in Congo. However, the female beneficiary and wholesale prices have not met their targets. The price for wholesale international services has decreased compared to baseline but did not reach its intended target. This is partially explained by the failed restructuring of the incumbent operator Congo telecom. This restructuring was supposed to separate between the wholesale and retail businesses of the incumbent. In absence of this separation, regulation did not succeed in preventing a vertically integrated monopoly from keeping the wholesale prices from decreasing further. Congotelecom remains the sole international bandwidth capacity provider. Intermediate Results Indicators by Components Connectivity IN00658657 ►Average cost of mobile call (three minutes, local, peak) (Amount(USD), Custom) Baseline Actual (Previous) Actual (Current) End Target Value 0.61 0.17 0.16 0.55 2/9/2019 Page 3 of 6 The World Bank Implementation Status & Results Report AFCC2/RI-Central African Backbone - APL3 - Republic of Congo (P122398) Date 30-Jun-2016 12-Oct-2018 31-Dec-2018 31-Dec-2019 IN00658658 ►Retail price of internet service (per 256kbit/s per month, in USD) (Amount(USD), Custom) Baseline Actual (Previous) Actual (Current) End Target Value 83.00 83.00 74.00 70.00 Date 30-Jun-2016 12-Oct-2018 31-Dec-2018 31-Dec-2019 IN00658659 ►Coverage of mobile network (percentage of population covered) (Percentage, Custom) Baseline Actual (Previous) Actual (Current) End Target Value 95.00 96.00 97.00 97.00 Date 30-Jun-2016 12-Oct-2018 31-Dec-2018 31-Dec-2019 IN00658660 ►Number of operators and service providers buying capacity from the regional infrastructure deployed (Number, Custom) Baseline Actual (Previous) Actual (Current) End Target Value 0.00 1.00 1.00 3.00 Date 30-Jun-2016 12-Oct-2018 31-Dec-2018 31-Dec-2019 IN00658661 ►Number of localities with broadband internet access (128kbps) (Number, Custom) Baseline Actual (Previous) Actual (Current) End Target Value 10.00 43.00 43.00 50.00 Date 30-Jun-2016 12-Oct-2018 31-Dec-2018 31-Dec-2019 Overall Comments IR Regarding this objective, the average retail prices of mobile services have surpassed their targets. While the prices of internet retail services is almost at par with the target and has significantly increased since 2016. As of end of December 2018, two mobile operators were in negotiations with SKYTIC ROFA the private company in charge of the management of the CAB3 network. And it is expected that the agreement on mobile operators’ usage of the network will be finalized soon. This will increase the number of companies using the network to three. The number of localities connected to broadband has considerably increased from 10 to 43 during the span of the project. However, it is still short of 7 localities to reach the target. Data on Financial Performance 2/9/2019 Page 4 of 6 The World Bank Implementation Status & Results Report AFCC2/RI-Central African Backbone - APL3 - Republic of Congo (P122398) Disbursements (by loan) Project Loan/Credit/TF Status Currency Original Revised Cancelled Disbursed Undisbursed % Disbursed P122398 IDA-49740 Effective USD 15.00 15.00 0.00 13.51 0.00 100% P122398 IDA-59910 Effective USD 5.00 5.00 0.00 5.16 0.04 99% Key Dates (by loan) Project Loan/Credit/TF Status Approval Date Signing Date Effectiveness Date Orig. Closing Date Rev. Closing Date P122398 IDA-49740 Effective 25-May-2011 15-Jul-2011 19-Dec-2011 31-Dec-2016 31-Dec-2019 P122398 IDA-59910 Effective 30-Mar-2017 18-Apr-2017 06-Oct-2017 31-Dec-2019 31-Dec-2019 Cumulative Disbursements Restructuring History Level 2 Approved on 17-Mar-2015 ,Level 2 Approved on 29-Nov-2016 ,Level 2 Approved on 06-Nov-2018 Related Project(s) 2/9/2019 Page 5 of 6 The World Bank Implementation Status & Results Report AFCC2/RI-Central African Backbone - APL3 - Republic of Congo (P122398) P160292-Central African Backbone SOP3 Republic of Congo Additional Financing 2/9/2019 Page 6 of 6