New Delhi, March 14 (IANS): The Exim Bank of India Friday signed a Line of Credit (LoC) agreement for $25 million to Niger for financing a drinking water system in the rural areas of the West African nation.

The line of credit will finance works for a potable water system for semi-urban and rural communities in Niger.

The agreement was signed by Exim Bank chairman Yaduvendra Mathur and visiting Niger Minister of Planning and Regional Development Amadou Boubacar Cisse.

"We'd like to thank very much Exim Bank and the Indian government for touching on a core need of Niger through this line of credit," the minister said adding that Niger's President Mahamadou Issoufou in his speeches was always highlighting the country's pressing need for water and electricity.

Informing that Exim Bank is planning to set up a project development company with the African Development Bank for projects development in Africa, Mathur said: "Exim Bank would like to be associated with project development in Niger in the future."

The Exim Bank, till date, has extended four lines of credit for Niger. One of $17 million was extended in 2005 for procurement of buses, trucks, tractors, flour mills and motor pumps etc. Another line of credit for $20 million in 2008 was given for power supply and electrification. Both these lines of credit have been utilized.

Two lines of credit worth $34.54 million have been extended last year for electrification of 30 villages using a solar photovoltaic system and for the setting up of a solar plant of 5 MW capacity.

India's trade with Niger stood at $125.18 million during 2012-13.

Exim Bank has in place 136 lines of credit with credit commitments of around $6.5 billion to cover around 48 countries in Africa. These lines of credit are for developmental projects like railway rehabilitation, setting up textile, cement, tractor assembly, agro and food processing plants, rural electrification and transmission, and irrigation projects