ADDIS ABABA, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- The African Development Bank (AfDB) on Tuesday commended Ethiopia's utilization of funds in undertaking development projects in various sectors.
The remarks are made by Calleb Weggoro, AfDB's Executive Director in charge of Eastern Africa, who paid a working visit to Ethiopia from September 4 to 12, which includes a visit to the Bank's funded transport and energy projects along the Ethiopia-Kenya corridor.
Weggoro, after his visit, commended the Ethiopian government for the quick action in conjunction with the country office to bring new contractors to undertake works, which are expected to be completed by end of 2018, the bank indicated in a statement issued on Tuesday.
The 300km of road from Hagaremariam to Moyale, funded by the Bank as part of the 1,200km road from Modjo to Isiolo in Kenya, is complete, while the one stop border post (OSBP) at Moyale in Ethiopia is 80 percent complete and 100 percent complete on the Kenyan side of Moyale.
The OSBP is an ultra-modern facility that will facilitate trade between Ethiopia and Kenya and by extension the whole of East Africa Community (Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi) and Eastern DR Congo, it was noted.
The 1,000km high voltage electricity transmission lines project funded by the Bank that will evacuate about 2,000 MW of energy from Ethiopia to Kenya are very advanced and soon Ethiopia will start earning money from power export to Kenya, he noted.
The executive director further commended the improvement as part of the nationwide electricity transmission lines, which was funded with a 200 million U.S. dollars facility by the Bank.
In addition to the Kenya-Ethiopia energy project, the Bank also funded the construction of transmission lines taking power from Ethiopia to Djibouti. These regional integration projects will earn Ethiopia foreign currency through exports of energy products, he stated.
