ADDIS ABABA, March 30 (Xinhua) -- Ethiopia said on Friday it had sold 56 million U.S. dollars' worth of bond to its diaspora population to finance a 6,450 megawatts dam being built on Blue Nile river.
Speaking to journalists, Meles Alem, Spokesperson, Ethiopia Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA), said Ethiopia aims to include the diaspora in nation building exercise with the bond sale.
The bond sale to Ethiopia's diaspora estimated to number more than 2 million covers a period close to seven years, ever since the construction of the 6,450 MW dam was started on April 1, 2011.
Ethiopia has already collected several hundred million dollars from the public at home to finance the construction of the dam which is expected to need 4.7 billion dollars to complete.
Alem further said the Ethiopian government has helped form an association, Ethiopian International Professional Support for Abay (EIPSA), bringing economists, engineers and water experts of Ethiopian origin to give technical expertise to the Ethiopian government on the hydro dam.
Named Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) and located in western Ethiopia, 40 km from Ethiopia's border with Sudan, it is the largest hydro project in Africa.
Expected to be completed with entirely domestic funds, GERD has been billed as a landmark project signaling Ethiopia's renaissance.
Already a high voltage electric transmission line built by State Grid of China Electric Power Equipment and Technology Co. Ltd (SGCC) at a cost of 1 billion dollars has been inaugurated, waiting for GERD's total commissioning to be operational.