The Government authorizes BCIE loan of 170 million for drinking water

The Presidency of the Republic authorized the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit to sign Loan Agreement No. 2374 with the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI), for an amount of US$170,000,000.00, to finance the “Program for the Improvement and Expansion of Drinking Water Systems in 4 Cities of Nicaragua.” The decision is contained in Presidential Agreement No. 137-2026, published in La Gaceta, Official Gazette No. 194 on Thursday, October 22, 2026, on page 10282, and takes effect from its own date.

The agreement was issued by Co-President Daniel Ortega Saavedra and Co-President Rosario Murillo Zambrana at the Government House, Managua, on October 15, 2026, “in exercise of the powers conferred upon them by the Political Constitution.” The text appears in the Government House section of the bulletin, alongside the presidential decrees and agreements of the week.

It is a brief instrument, consisting of three articles, which does not itself establish the financial conditions of the credit: it is limited to enabling the signing of the contract whose terms had already been agreed upon between the Ministry of Finance and the regional bank.

What the agreement authorizes

Article 1 of Presidential Agreement No. 137-2026 contains the central elements of the operation:

• Signatory: the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit, acting in the name and representation of the Government of the Republic of Nicaragua.
• Counterparty: the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI).
• Instrument: Loan Agreement No. 2374.
• Amount: US$170,000,000.00 (one hundred seventy million United States dollars).
• Purpose: the “Program for the Improvement and Expansion of Drinking Water Systems in 4 Cities of Nicaragua.”
• Executing agency: the Nicaraguan Water and Sewerage Company (ENACAL).

The published text does not identify by name the vice minister who will sign the contract nor does it list the four cities benefiting from the program.

Certification and entry into force

Article 2 establishes that the certification of the agreement itself “shall accredit the representation of the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit” in the signing of the contract. That is, the document published in the bulletin serves as formal support for the official’s legal standing before the bank.

That same article specifies that the terms and conditions of the loan “have been previously agreed” between the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit and CABEI, such that the publication does not open a new negotiation but formalizes an operation already agreed upon.

Article 3 closes the agreement with two provisions: it takes effect as of the date of issuance and orders its publication in La Gaceta, the Official Gazette. The document was signed in Managua on October 15, 2026, and appears in the 40-page issue corresponding to October 22.

External financing and water service

The operation is part of the use of external debt for drinking water infrastructure, with ENACAL as the entity responsible for executing the works in the four cities included in the program. The authorized amount is equivalent to the total credit approved through Loan Agreement No. 2374, although the published agreement does not detail partial disbursements, interest rates, or amortization periods.

The bulletin also does not include the details of the planned works—treatment plants, distribution networks, or coverage expansion—nor the number of users who would benefit.

For readers, the publication has a double effect: it enables the signing of the contract and provides public record of a new debt commitment for 170 million dollars, the future payment of which will depend on the conditions agreed upon between the Treasury and the BCIE. The impact will be felt both in the State’s budgetary programming and in the quality and coverage of the drinking water service in the cities included in the program, whose names are to be known in subsequent stages of execution.

Source: La Gaceta, Official Gazette No. 194, Thursday, October 22, 2026, Government House section, p. 10282 (official reference: Presidential Agreement No. 137-2026).