· 8 min read
How banks in Jordan can launch a PPP program: financing $86 billion of projects, with $46 billion in Aqaba
The desk, credit approach, products and first pilot a bank in Jordan needs to finance PPP projects from tender to operation, in Aqaba and across the country.
A bank in Jordan can launch a PPP program by approving a mandate, naming a PPP desk, mapping the pipeline, packaging its guarantees, loans, hedging and accounts into one offer, opening co-lending talks and taking a first pilot to term sheet. The program targets Jordan’s $86 billion of PPP and infrastructure projects in development, $46 billion of them anchored in Aqaba. This post draws on the free guide for banks in JordanPDF, one of 96 on this site, and sets out why lenders matter, what a program contains and where Aqaba fits.
Why should a bank in Jordan launch a PPP program?
A bank in Jordan should launch a PPP program because debt carries most of the capital in a typical PPP, and lenders set the terms every other party has to meet. Without a program, the bank meets each PPP as a one-off transaction and its teams relearn the structure every time.
A program gives the bank a team, a credit approach and standard documents that make each new project faster and cheaper to finance than the last. The bank gains long-dated assets backed by contracted revenue, fees across the life of each project and a place at the table when consortiums form. Every PPP also brings sponsors, contractors, operators, suppliers and employees who need accounts, payments and loans, so each project opens a new cluster of clients.
Jordan’s pipeline is large and early, and the lenders in the room when sponsors form their consortiums are the ones who end up financing them.
$86B
of PPP and infrastructure projects in development in Jordan, every one of which will need loans, guarantees and accounts
Readers new to the model can begin with the starting guide, which explains what a PPP is and how it works. The capital category gathers the guides for the banks, brokers, funds, insurers and investors that finance PPP projects.
What does a PPP program at a bank in Jordan contain?
A PPP program at a bank in Jordan can sit inside the corporate and investment banking teams, with a PPP desk at its center. Around the desk sit a credit policy, one package of products, standard terms for small projects, technology lending, a pilot of tokenized notes and co-lending partners.
- 01PPP desk. A small team of project finance, credit, legal and technical people that covers every PPP in Jordan’s pipeline from the first market sounding.
- 02Credit approach. A PPP credit policy built around contracted revenues, availability payments and the risk allocation in each concession agreement.
- 03Products. Bid bonds, guarantees, construction and term loans, hedging, project accounts, supply-chain finance and refinancing in one package.
- 04Small projects. Standard terms and documents for small-scale PPPs below $14.1 million and for direct proposals under Article 15.
- 05Technology lending. Equipment finance, leasing and working capital for the Jordanian companies supplying AI, robotics and tokenization to the projects.
- 06Tokenized notes. A pilot issue of tokenized participations in an operating PPP loan, offered to the bank’s own clients.
- 07Partners. Co-lending with regional and international banks, development finance institutions and infrastructure funds on the larger projects.
Those partners have guides of their own. The development finance institutions guidePDF and the infrastructure funds guidePDF describe the same pipeline from the side of the institutions a bank would lend beside.
Which products do banks in Jordan offer at each stage of a PPP?
Banks in Jordan can serve a PPP from tender to exit. The products start with bid bonds and letters of support during the tender, move through senior and mezzanine loans and construction guarantees, and continue with project accounts and refinancing in operation, before bonds, sukuk and tokenized notes sell operating assets to long-term investors.
Early term sheets show the contracting authority that a bid can be financed. Hedging and the security package fund the build at financial close, and advance payment guarantees, performance guarantees and drawdown control follow it through construction. During operation the bank holds debt service reserves and collects tolls, tariffs and availability payments, then refinances once the asset has a track record.
Finance for the supply chain widens the business. Working capital, equipment finance and supply-chain finance for the Jordanian contractors, subcontractors, suppliers and technology companies that deliver each project bring the bank a wide base of new clients around every concession.
How can banks in Jordan finance projects in Aqaba?
Banks in Jordan can finance Aqaba’s projects by meeting them early, because about $46 billion of the $86 billion pipeline is anchored in the city and its largest consortiums are forming now. Port terminals, dry ports, logistics zones, rail freight, water, resorts and economic zone utilities all sit within a few kilometers of each other there.
$46B
of Jordan’s $86 billion of PPP and infrastructure projects are anchored in Aqaba, Jordan’s only port and its gateway to the Red Sea
A project in one of those sectors changes the demand for the others, which gives a PPP desk that sees the whole city an advantage. The guide for organizations in AqabaPDF places equity, land contributions and local investors beside the banks and funds at financial close, and it expects most of the $46 billion to need local partners to prepare, build and run it.
Those partners are natural clients for a bank’s supply-chain lending. Port operators, logistics firms, contractors, hotels and utilities join the consortiums that bid for Aqaba’s projects, and each will need accounts, guarantees and working capital as those projects move from tender to operation.
How do small PPPs and Article 15 proposals help banks in Jordan?
Small PPPs and Article 15 proposals give banks in Jordan an early, repeatable way into the market. PPP Regulation No. 9 of 2024 defines small-scale PPPs below $14.1 million, which can be bundled into one feasibility report and one tender, while PPP Law No. 19 of 2023 accepts direct private proposals under Article 15.
$14.1M
the ceiling for small-scale PPPs under PPP Regulation No. 9 of 2024, a size a bank can serve with standard terms
Small PPPs have similar contracts, similar revenues and small tickets spread across every sector, so standard terms let a bank lend to many of them at low cost. A bank that finances PPP research labs and their pilots builds a book of performance data on new technology and Jordanian contracts, and lends into the large projects with that risk already priced. The small PPPs page explains the method.
Every direct proposal needs a financial case and a lender willing to stand behind it. A bank that issues letters of support and early term sheets meets projects at their very first stage, and the proposer’s right to match the best offer at tender gives the bank a sponsor with a head start. In Aqaba, such a proposal could be a cold store, a marina service, a district cooling plant or a smart parking network. The unsolicited proposals page sets out this route for each kind of organization.
How can a bank in Jordan issue tokenized PPP notes?
A bank in Jordan can start with a pilot issue of tokenized participations in an operating PPP loan, offered to its own clients. The bank originates the loan, places the participations with retail and private clients, pays them from project revenue through smart contracts and keeps the borrower relationship, which releases capital for the next project.
That role makes a bank an issuer, a custodian and a distributor for infrastructure, and it opens operating assets to Jordanian and regional investors. Aqaba offers clear candidates, since the Aqaba guide describes tokenized stakes in a terminal, a resort utility or a water plant, paid from the asset’s own revenue. The first bank in Jordan to issue tokenized participations in a PPP loan will set the standard for how operating infrastructure is sold to investors at home and across the region. The tokenization page and the $500 trillion opportunity go further into the model.
AI and robotics change the lending too. Credit teams can test a financial model, read a concession agreement and its schedules, and compare a project against similar deals in hours. Sensors and digital twins let covenants be tested on live data, and projects that use inspection drones, leak-finding robots and automated construction finish closer to schedule and fail less often in operation, which feeds directly into how lenders price risk.
What are the first steps for a bank in Jordan?
A bank in Jordan can start with six steps that use the teams, products and clients it already has: a mandate from the board and executives, a named PPP desk lead, a pipeline map, one PPP offer, co-lending talks and a pilot. The pipeline map covers the $86 billion, including the $46 billion anchored in Aqaba.
The mandate sets the target sectors, the first-year goals and the risk appetite for long-dated project lending. The desk draws project finance, credit, legal and technical people from the bank’s existing teams. The map sorts projects by sector and stage and leads to early meetings with the sponsors and contracting authorities behind the first of them. The pilot takes a first small-scale PPP and a first tokenized PPP note from idea to term sheet.
The banks guidePDF is free to read online or download as an 18 page PDF. The summary of all 96 guides brings the method together in one document, and the Vision page explains the infrastructure singularity these programs prepare for.
