INDUSTRY TRENDS

ETHIOPIA: $104m in financing to strengthen electricity system in east of the country  

Addis Ababa has just received funding of €104 million for electricity transmission in the east of the country. The funding is being provided in equal parts by the African Development Fund (ADF), the concessional lending arm of the African Development Bank (AfDB) Group, and Korea’s Economic Development Cooperation Fund (EDCF), “under the Korea-Africa Energy Investment Framework Agreement”, says the AfDB.

The funding will support the authorities’ efforts to strengthen electricity transmission in the eastern part of the country. To this end, 157 km of 400 kilovolt double-circuit transmission line will be installed. Substations will also be built in Harar, Jijiga and Fafem. For the AfDB, strengthening electricity transmission in the east of the country is a vector for development.

Supplying irrigation systems

Batchi Baldeh, the AfDB’s Director of Power Systems Development, believes that “improving the electricity network in the east of the country will make it possible to remedy power failures and load shedding in the region, connect more industries and households to the electricity network and eliminate the use of diesel generators, which currently provide a basic supply of electricity”.