Ethiopia Raises Over 1.1B birr to Complete GERD Construction

In the last nine months, Ethiopia collected more than 1.1 billion birr to complete the construction of GERD (Nile Dam). The Office of the National Council for the Coordination of Public Participation in the Construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam shared this news.

For the last ten years, Ethiopia has been building this dam on the river Nile in the Benishangul Gumuz region of Ethiopia. Egypt and Sudan, down the river Nile countries have been opposing the construction. Several rounds of talks involving Ethiopia, Egypt, and Sudan could not lead to an agreement about the dam construction.

Abraham Hailu, the Public Relations Director of the Office overseeing public involvement in the Great Renaissance Dam project, has announced that support from the public of Ethiopia has been ongoing in various forms to help complete the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD).

Abraham mentioned that over 1.1 billion Ethiopian birr were collected for the dam in nine months of this financial year. He explained that the money came from local and international bonds and grants, as well as through the 8100 mobile text service. Out of the total amount collected, 9.9 million birr was contributed by the diaspora community.

He noted that the revenue collected from July 2015 to November 2016 (Ethiopian Calendar) was lower than the same period of 2015, but from December to March 2016, there was an improvement in revenue collection due to better activities.

Mr. Abraham mentioned that in March, different events were organized to mark the 13th anniversary of the Nile Dam construction. During these events, they managed to collect 182 million 899 thousand 52 Ethiopian birr.

The amount raised in March was 87% higher than the same month in 2015. He explained that from the beginning of the dam construction in 2003 until March 2016 (Ethiopian Calendar), more than 19 billion 345 million birr were raised from domestic bond sales and gifts, diaspora community bond sales and gifts, and other sources.

Last month Ethiopian government spokesperson Gideon Asfaw said, “The project is now 95% complete, all work is scheduled to be completed in seven months. The commissioning of the dam and the hydroelectric power station located on it will be an event of great significance for the whole of Africa, especially for its eastern part. It will not only be the most powerful hydropower facility on the continent, but it will help fight floods and optimize connections between the energy systems of Ethiopia and its neighbors”.

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