The African Development Bank approved a $98 million grant package for Ethiopia in August 2019 to build the first section of a four-lane Adama-Awash expressway on the Ethiopia-Djibouti trade corridor.
Road traffic in the town of Awash, Afar region, on the highway toward Djibouti, January 2014 (Ji-Elle / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0) [file photo]
The project's total cost was put at $255 million, including a $5.3 million grant to Djibouti and $151 million in co-financing from Ethiopia's government, the bank said, according to Africanews and Reuters. “The project will enhance trade by significantly reducing transport costs,” the AfDB said, calling the road part of the main import-export corridor.
Finance Minister Ahmed Shide and AfDB country manager Abdul Kamara signed the grant agreement in Addis Ababa on Aug. 5; Xinhua, citing the Ethiopian News Agency, put the signed amount at $95.6 million. Shide said the road would save travel time and vehicle operating costs and create jobs for young people and women.
The first phase covers a 126-kilometer, four-lane expressway from Adama to Awash. The grant pays for the first 60 kilometers, from Adama to Melka Jilo, and for the design of a border post at Dewele on the Djibouti frontier, The Construction Index reported, with work due to start in 2020 and run for five years.
Sources: Africanews / Reuters, via Wayback Machine, Xinhua, via Wayback Machine, The Construction Index