China Development Bank has signed a 2.1 billion yuan ($292.5 million) loan agreement with the Development Bank of Southern Africa, the Chinese bank said in a news release on Wednesday.

The deal, inked during the BRICS Interbank Cooperation Mechanism annual meeting in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Tuesday, will channel funding toward projects in sectors such as infrastructure, energy, information and communications, water, sanitation, and manufacturing, the bank said.

Boitumelo Mosako, CEO of Development Bank of Southern Africa, said that both sides will jointly promote sustainable infrastructure financing to bring a brighter future to Africa.