Addis Abeba– The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) project requires an additional 80 billion Birr to complete its remaining construction work, despite reaching 97.6% completion, according to the GERD Project Coordination Office.
Launched 14 years ago with an initial estimated cost of 80 billion Birr, the project still faces a significant financial gap to finalize the remaining 2.4% of the work.
Speaking to Sheger Radio, Dawit Amare, a Director at the Development Bank of Ethiopia (DBE), which oversees GERD bond sales, confirmed the funding gap but noted that “specific figures are best provided by the GERD Project Coordination Office.”
Dawit further disclosed that over 20.2 billion Birr has been collected through bond sales from the public to date, with the Development Bank contributing an additional 10 million Birr to support the project.
Meanwhile, the GERD Project Coordination Office has set a goal of raising 1.6 billion Birr from public contributions this year to help address the funding shortfall. AS
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