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AfDB approves loan for Tanzania-Kenya power project

Xinhua, February 20, 2015 Adjust font size:

The African Development Bank Group (AfDB) said on Thursday that it has approved a 144.9 million U.S. dollar loan for the implementation of the Tanzania-Kenya electricity interconnection project.

The bank said in a statement that the project will allow the two east African countries to exchange power.

"In addition, the Tanzania-Kenya interconnection project plays an important role in promoting regional integration through power trade," said the statement.

It said that the project was expected to improve the supply, reliability and affordability of electricity in the Eastern African region through cross-border exchanges of cheap and cleaner surplus power from neighboring countries.

At initial stage, the project will allow the two countries to exchange power and will be followed by import and export of energy from the interconnected countries, according to the statement.

Alex Rugamba, AfDB's director of energy, environment and climate change department, said the project involved the construction of approximately 508 kilometers of transmission line between Kenya and Tanzania (about 93 km in Kenya and 415 km in Tanzania) and associated sub-stations in Arusha and Singida regions in Tanzania.

He said the line would have a transfer capacity of up to 2,000 megawatts in either direction.

It will allow to interconnect the Eastern African power pool to the Southern African power pool and in the future to Northern Africa through East Africa electricity highway project, the Ethiopia-Kenya interconnection line, said Rugamba.

He said the interconnection line would create competitiveness in the energy sector and encourage the private sector investing in generation of electricity by facilitating power transfer through the interconnector. Endi