New Loans for New Roads

Parliament has approved a half a billion dollar loan for infrastructure construction.

The loans are for five construction projects The financing is coming from foreign sources. The projects mostly focus on upgrading electricity and transportation facilities in the Amhara Regional State and Addis Abeba.

The five projects include: the Addis Abeba High Voltage Network Rehabilitation and Upgrading Project, the Qality to Tulu Dimto and Qality to Qilinto road project, the Hamusit Este road project, the National Load Dispatch Centre construction project, the Addis Abeba Bus Rapid Transit Project and the road project that extends from the Pushkin ring road to Gotera Masalecha.

The first two projects will be funded by loans from the Chinese Export-Import Bank, while the funding for the Hamusite Este Road Project will be provided by the Arab Bank and the OPEC Fund.

The remaining two projects are funded by the French Development Agency. The payment for the loans will each have an average 1.5pc interest rate by each year, and will be paid back within 10 to 20 years. Ethiopia’s external debt grew at an average annual rate of 20.8pc during the first edition of Growth and Transformation Plan. In March 2016, the country’s public debt as a percentage of GDP stood at 55pc.