By Gabriel-Eddie Njoroge
Siemens has pledged to support Ethiopia’s objective of becoming a low middle-income country by 2025 through the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the country’s government.
Addressed in the MOU are Ethiopia’s energy and infrastructure sectors. Other key aspects of the agreement include financing concepts that will ensure long term sustainability of these infrastructure initiatives; and creating opportunities for local upskilling and job creation during construction and operation.
Ethiopia’s Growth and Transformation Plan serves as a catalyst towards realizing its national vision of accelerated and sustained economic growth in order to eradicate poverty and increase prosperity.
“Siemens can make a significant contribution to Ethiopia’s development. We will apply our vast experience and proven technologies as well as training and education capabilities to help shape the future of Ethiopia and its people,” said Joe Kaeser, CEO for Siemens AG, “one of the starting projects affirming our strong commitment in the region is the East Africa Interconnector.”
Through an interconnector being built between Kenya and Ethiopia, Siemens is currently helping to increase the reliability of energy supply. The long transmission is roughly 1000 kilometers-long and will be used to transmit environmentally friendly hydroelectricity from Kenya and Ethiopia. The project is one of the largest infrastructure projects in Africa and currently supports 200 direct jobs in Ethiopia alone.
Commitment to a long-term partnership between Siemens and the people of Ethiopia to develop, fast track solutions that will enable government to stabilize and expand existing grid infrastructure, explore solutions for industrial parks and co-develop micro grid solutions for remote villages is the primary goal of this agreement.
“This milestone agreement is another step in demonstrating our strong commitment to the people and government of Ethiopia,” said the Siemens CEO of Southern and Eastern Africa, Sabine Dall’Omo, “we are here today as we have been since 1927, to help achieve affordable and reliable power supply, create jobs, increase access to training and develop local skills alongside local partners”. Contact: Keshin.govender@siemens.com
