Bridging the digital divide and scaling up the digital inclusion of young people and women in Jordan

Jordan Telecommunications Company (JTC) is a publicly listed joint stock company organized in Jordan. JTC is the incumbent fixed network operator of Jordan and the parent company for Orange Middle East Africa (Orange MEA) activities. JTC has five wholly owned subsidiaries, for each of its lines of business - mobile services, internet services, mobile payment services, renewable energy development -  plus the CSR activities; “Orange Jordan” (or OJ) is the name used for the group (i.e. JTC and its subsidiaries together).

The Project consists in a USD 15m corporate loan to Jordan Telecommunications Company (JTC) aimed at funding JTC’s capex plan for 2023-2024, specifically targeting the expansion of its fiber network. It is tied to a EUR 1m grant from PROPARCO (“Envelope 209”) to JTC to support its CSR activities, more specifically financing its coding academies program over close to 2 years.

The project meets key objectives of PROPARCO’s digital infrastructure strategic priorities; the loan bridges the territorial digital infrastructure gap by funding the expansion of broadband connectivity investments in favor of underserved territories, while the grant reduces regional and gender economic and social inequalities by supporting digital inclusion for youth and women, in a country with high youth and female unemployment rates. The Project also met the 2X Challenge and a MoU was signed recently.

The project is contributing to SDGs 5 "Gender equality", 8 "Decent work and economic growth", 9 "Industry, innovation and infrastructure" and 10 "Reduced inequalities".