The government has decided to activate the electrical connection projects with Ethiopia and several African countries, following operating the connection line with Sudan which will take place next month.
Government sources told Daily News Egypt that the ministry of electricity has cooperated with a consulting company in order to carry out a feasibility study to implement an electrical connection project with African countries, including Sudan, Djibouti, and Ethiopia.
The sources added that the first phase of the project between Egypt and Sudan with a capacity of 300MW has started, and it will be expanded to reach 3,000MW, in order to start exporting the energy to Ethiopia and Djibouti.
The economic benefits of the electrical connection include profits for the countries where the connection lines will pass. The line will also secure energy resources and improves reliability, according to the sources.
Moreover, they explained that the relations between Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia are strategic and multi-dimensional on the long, medium and short terms. The interests of the three countries must be united in order to make them a unified large economic bloc.
The sources explained that Egyptian companies have offered to establish the developmental project and the plants to produce electricity from renewable energy sources, including El Sewedy which offered to establish an Egyptian industrial zone in Addis Ababa with investments worth $150m.
Mohamed Shaker, the minister of electricity, said that Egypt is willing to contribute with its experience into the various electricity and renewable energy fields with the African countries. Egypt can utilise this expertise, especially in the field of building skills, and transferring specialised human cadres to set up the organisational and legislative frameworks in order to create a suitable climate for the private sector.
Through its presidency of the African Union, Egypt’s envisioned and ambitious strategy aims to achieve sustainable development in Africa, through connecting it to infrastructural projects in the fields of transport, energy, IT, as well as the stimulation of economic growth and industrialisation, in addition to developing the sector of agriculture in Africa.