World Bank, AFDB to Fund $1.26 Billion Ethiopia-Kenya Power Line
The World
Bank and African Development Bank will provide 80 percent of the funds
needed for a $1.26 billion line that will take power to Kenya
from Ethiopia, Bloomberg reported. The
World Bank will lend the countries $684 million for the 1,070-kilometer
(665-mile) line that will run from Wolayta-Sodo in Ethiopia to Suswa,
100 kilometers northwest of the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, African
Development Bank Regional Director Gabriel Negatu told reporters today
in the city. The AFDB is lending $338 million, he said. “The
interconnection with Ethiopia will ensure access to reliable and
affordable energy to around 870,000 households by 2018,” Negatu said.
Four
out of every five Kenyan households light their homes with kerosene
lamps because they aren’t linked to the national grid, which doesn’t
reach many rural communities. Ethiopia, which according to the World
Bank has the highest hydropower potential in Africa after the Democratic
Republic of Congo, hopes to finish the self-funded $5 billion Nile dam
in 2018, which will be the continent’s biggest power plant. Kenya
plans to spend as much as $50 billion over the next 20 years to meet a
14 percent annual increase in electricity demand, according to the
country’s energy regulator. The nation, which has East Africa’s biggest
economy, will need 16,905 megawatts annually by 2031 from 1,520
megawatts this year, the regulator said.
The
line will have capacity to carry 2,000 megawatts, with the power
sources from hydroelectric projects in Ethiopia, Negatu said. One
megawatt is enough electricity for 500 to 1,000 U.S. homes. Agence
Francaise de Developpement, the French agency that provides financing
to emerging-market countries, will make $118 million available for the
project, while Kenya will contribute $88m and Ethiopia $32 million,
Negatu said.
Construction of the line will start in September, he said.
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