Lake Chad Basin Commission other countries with observer status are Egypt—in the neighboring Nile Basin—and the Republic of Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo which are fed by the Ubangi River being considered for diversion into Lake Chad. The member countries fund the commission's $1 million annual budget based on an agreed-upon formula: Nigeria 52%, Cameroon 26%, Chad 11%, Niger 7%, the Central African Republic 4%. The Commission's Basin Committee for Strategic Planning (BCSP), coordinates local activities between the member states. The LCBC controls the hydro-active regions in the Chad Basin, called the "Conventional Basin". The initial Conventional Basin consisted of approximately 427,500
Niger River Fund. The World Bank approved a US$500 million soft loan in July 2007 to finance projects in the basin over a 12-year period. Funding will be awarded in two phases. The initial $185 million credit will go to Nigeria, Guinea, Benin, Mali and Niger. The second, $315 million investment, is slated for Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad and Ivory Coast. Besides financing the rehabilitation of dams in Nigeria, the loan will also fund the "sustainable management of selected degraded ecosystems and rehabilitation of small water infrastructure" and capacity building. In September 2009, the Nigerian government commenced a 36 billion naira dredging