Lhe dam on the Blue Nile is expected to produce 6000 megawatts of electricity. Africa's largest hydropower plant should become operational by 2017. Eventually, according to local authorities, it will have the capacity to produce 6.000 megawatts and will allow the country to increase its electricity exports to its neighbors. (Sudan, Djibouti, but also Kenya, South Sudan and Yemen). The income from the export of electricity that will result from new hydraulic projects are estimated at 2 million euros per day, or 730 million euros per year from 2017. A windfall that will help reduce the Ethiopian trade deficit which reached $ 9 billion, because the country imports a lot. Electricity is key. Africans are sorely lacking. The Ethiopians are building their dam, the Kenyans have invested in wind power. Ultimately, a network will have to be built, observes David Cowan, an economist at Citi specializing in Africa.
The project of the great renaissance dam is completed at the third stage. It will take 5 to 7 years, according to the international organization rivers, to fill the reservoir which will be able to contain 70 billion cubic meters of water. Started in 2011, it was funded by the government and by the Ethiopian people as well as by the diaspora, which subscribed to the dam bonds. The total cost is estimated at $ 4,7 billion. It was said that the government was pushing for citizens (88 million people), and especially civil servants, to buy these bonds. There is no pressure, assures Michele Ashebir Weldegabir, first counselor at the Ethiopian embassy in Paris, the Ethiopians are engaged because they are determined to get out of poverty and access development.
