NAIROBI: Africa’s largest hydroelectric dam, inaugurated in Ethiopia Tuesday, had to overcome financial, logistical and war-related challenges, the Italian construction magnate behind the scheme told AFP.
African leaders joined Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed in officially unveiling the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) that has promised to revolutionize the country’s energy sector but also caused tensions with neighboring Egypt.
The dam is the largest by power capacity on the continent and could transform a country where almost half the 130-million population still lacks electricity, according to World Bank data.
“This country that was dark in the evening when I first arrived here... is now selling energy to neighboring countries,” Pietro Salini, CEO of Webuild, the main contractor for the project, told AFP.
Kenya, Tanzania and South Sudan have already agreed deals to buy the electricity.
