Ethiopia plans to electrify 880 towns this year

March 18, 2007 (ADDIS ABABA) — The state-owned Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation (EEPCo) said Sunday it has enabled 173 towns in the country get access to electric power over the past eight months since July last year.

Sahilu Alemayehu, EEPCo public relations representative, told reporters that the corporation has set plans to make 880 towns beneficiaries of electric power service this year.

Some 1.2 billion birr (136 million U.S. dollars) budget has been set aside for the execution of the project, he said.

The project is being efficiently implemented in 401 towns in various regions of the country while installation of electric power lines will be carried out in the remaining 307 towns shortly, Sahilu said.

The national electrification project, which is part of the corporation’s five-year development program, will increase electric power service provision in the country to 50 percent in 2009 from the current 17 percent, he said.

Some 10.5 million birr (1.19 million dollars) budget is needed for the implementation of the project launched last year to electrify 6,000 towns in five years, Sahilu said.

Since last year, some 1,036 towns have become beneficiaries of electric power service, he said.

(Xinhua)