Egypt approves use of USD25 bln Russian loan for building nuclear plant

Egypt has approved the use of a 25 billion U.S. dollar loan from Russia in the construction of nuclear power plant in the Arab country, official MENA news agency reported Thursday, citing a presidential decree.

Egypt and Russia reached an agreement in Cairo last November on their cooperation in building a nuclear power plant in Egypt.

The MENA report Thursday did not disclose the duration or the interest rate of the loan, but Russian media reports said Russian cover 85 percent of the costs of the power plant that that Egypt will have to provide the remaining 15 percent.

The loan will be provided in installments from 2016 to 2018, while Egypt will have to repay over a 22-year period. The first repayment is scheduled for 2029, at an annual interest rate of three percent, according to the Russian reports.

In June 2015, Russia's state-owned nuclear-energy company Roseatom offered to construct Egypt's first nuclear plant in Dabaa city of Egypt's Mediterranean coastal Matrouh province.

Dabaa was designated as the site of a proposed nuclear power plant in 1981 but it was in 2015 that actual steps were taken to finalize the plan.

The 2015 agreement between Russia and Egypt commits both countries to building a nuclear power plant that is to start operation in 2022, securing about 50 percent of Egypt's energy needs, according to officials. Endit