An official from Addis Ababa’s office overseeing the project has said that the facility was built “without any foreign aid”
Ethiopia has rejected US President Donald Trump’s claims that Washington funded a multibillion-dollar hydropower dam that the East African country has built on the Blue Nile, calling the statement false and “destructive.”
Trump repeatedly said at a White House dinner with Republican senators last Friday that Ethiopia constructed the controversial Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) “largely” with US money.
“It doesn’t allow much water going into the Nile River. So you can imagine Egypt’s not thrilled because, they live off the Nile River,” he said. The president also claimed in a post on his Truth Social online platform last month that the “massive” dam, “stupidly financed” by the US, “substantially reduces the water flowing” into the Nile River.
However, on Tuesday, Fikrte Tamir, deputy director of the GERD Coordination Office, told reporters that the project had been completed “without any foreign aid.” She said that over its 14-year construction period, it was financed entirely through government resources and public contributions, including salary deductions and donations from the diaspora.
“Regarding the remarks made by US President Donald Trump, the Ethiopian government should respond diplomatically and wisely,” Fikrte added.
The landlocked country’s government announced the completion of the GERD earlier this month. The facility has been under construction since 2011 and is designed to generate up to 5.15 gigawatts of electricity, making it the largest hydroelectric power plant in Africa. The project was initially scheduled for completion within six years on a $4 billion budget. On Tuesday, the GERD Coordination Office announced that 1.7 billion birr (about $12.3 million) has been raised from the public alone during the 2024/25 Ethiopian fiscal year.
The project, which Addis Ababa sees as a transformative energy source for the region and a symbol of “regional cooperation and mutual benefit,” has long been a source of dispute. Egypt and Sudan have repeatedly voiced concerns over its impact on downstream water flows. The Nile reportedly provides approximately 97% of Egypt’s supply of fresh water. Both Cairo and Khartoum fear that upstream water retention could severely affect agriculture and water security in their countries.
