ADDIS ABABA – A month-long campaign to raise funds for the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) project has been launched today.
The launch of the nationwide fundraising campaign comes ten days after the successful completion of the fourth and final round filling of dam’s reservoir.
Ethiopia is financing the $4.2 billion dam internally through fundraising in the form of selling bonds and contributions.
The newly launched fundraiser for the GERD is organized by the Office of the National Council for Coordination of Public Participation in the construction.
Its deputy director Fikirte Tamir says the nationwide fund raising effort will run for a month, calling for the public to maintain their support to the national flag project.
The target is to raise upto 900 million Birr fund. According to Fikirte, a digital platform has been set up to enable Ethiopians residing abroad and foreign citizens of Ethiopian origin to continue their contribution to the project.
The GERD bond sale is being managed by the Development Bank of Ethiopia (DBE) which has already distributed 3 billion Birr worth of coupons to the regions.
Anyone can buy the bonds from selected financial institutions in their vicinity, DBE’s Resource mobilization head Dawit Amare says.
This year, authorities plan to raise 1.6 Billion Birr from the public as they push to take the hydroelectric dam to the finishing line.
The hydroelectric dam – currently 93% complete, began generating electricity in February 2022. Once fully complete, it will have the capacity to generate more than 6,000 megawatts, doubling Ethiopia’s electricity output.
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