By Islam Zayed

The French Ambassador to Egypt, Nicolas Galey, and Pierre Marcelli, director of the French Development Agency (FDA)’s office in Cairo, signed an agreement to provide a €50m soft loan to the Egyptian government. The loan will be provided in cooperation with the World Bank, the European Investment Bank, and the German Bank of Construction.

FDA representatives said that the loan is to strengthen the capacity of the Egyptian electrical grid.

The project includes expanding the country’s national electrical grid by 400 kilometres in addition to adding 10 new transmission lines and developing 260 kilometres of standing lines. The loan will also finance ten new power stations and 22 new transformers.

The loan is in consistent with the Government’s new energy policy which seeks to increase the amount of electricity generated and place emphasis on renewable energy sources.