Financial close occurs when all the project and financing agreements have been signed and all the required conditions contained in them have been met. It enables funds to start flowing so that project implementation can actually start. Both the public entity and the private partner must understand the fact the reaching financial close is a time consuming exercise which would involve execution of several financing agreements. It is at this stage that the lenders feature in the project development process; the lenders perform their due diligence on all aspects of the project prior to issuing the letter to the private partner of its reaching financial close.