AfDB to approve a $100 million loan for new power project in Ethiopia
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia – The African Development Bank (AfDB) is scheduled to approve USD 100 million loan for a new hydro power project in Ethiopia in September this year, Lamin G. Barrow, AfDB Ethiopia Country Office Resident Representative, told The Reporter.
The project, two power plants with an aggregate installed capacity of producing 371 MW, 1,680 GWH per year, will be built in Illubabor and Jimma Zones, at a site some 400 km west of Addis Ababa.
The Bank has earlier on provided finance for the installation of power transmission lines to Djibouti where Ethiopia began its maiden power export to neighboring country. It will also finance other similar power connectivity projects that will eventually make Ethiopia the power hub of East Africa and the region across, Barrow said.
The project, a cascading development on Geba River, involves a dam construction that will have 45 meters height, according to Barrow.
The power plant project will cost over USD 400 million where AfDB is set to finance the USD 100 million and mobilize the rest with co-financing from other financial institutions, which is actually the norm the bank follows in streamlining the financing of such projects.
