France offers Ethiopia $590 mlnfor power, water projects Thu Jun 23, 2011
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Francehas signed a $590 million agreement with Ethiopia to boost water andenergy projects, as well as for the construction of electricitytransmission lines with Kenya, its embassy in Addis Ababa said.
The loan and grant deal will enable the French Development Agency(ADF) to develop water and sanitation schemes and support themanagement of geothermal and windmill projects, it said in a statement.
"In the same area, an important support is provided for theconstruction of Ethio-Kenyan electricity interconnection," the embassysaid.
Ethiopia signed a 220 million euro deal with French wind turbinemanufacturer Vergnet in 2008 for the construction of a 120 MW wind farmin the northern Tigray region as part of efforts to diversify its energysources.
Addis Ababa has also started work on building a 5,250 MW damalong its share of the Nile river at the cost of $4.78 billion. Theproject will be the continent's largest and is expected to be completedin five to 10 years time.
The Horn of Africa nation aims to produce 15,000 MW of powerwithin 10 years as part of a plan to spend $12 billion over 25 years toovercome chronic power shortages and export to other energy-starvedAfrican countries.
The deal with France was signed on Wednesday by Ethiopia'sFinance Minister Sufian Ahmed and French ambassador Jean-ChristopheBelliard, the statement said.