Parliament clears a state guarantee for a 110-million-euro EBRD loan to the Gafsa phosphate company
The Assembly of the Representatives of the People approved on July 28, by 58 votes to 13 with 9 abstentions, the bill guaranteeing a 110-million-euro loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development to the Compagnie des phosphates de Gafsa, signed in November 2025 and repayable over ten years with a three-year grace period, alongside a 7-million-euro grant. Economy and Planning Minister Samir Abdelhafidh said the money buys mining equipment and builds the Capsa wastewater treatment plant, aiming to lift extraction capacity by around 30 percent and raise industrial water reuse from 60 to 90 percent. Phosphates were Tunisia's export mainstay before 2011 and output has never recovered; with no IMF programme in place, concessional lenders such as the EBRD and the World Bank are now the main source of borrowed foreign currency.