Paul Igbinoba
The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) is the largest hydropower dam in Africa, was recently commissioned on September 9, 2025, and is acclaimed to be a civil engineering marvel considering its massive scale and the use of the innovative Roller Compact Concrete technology and an engineering triumph over remote site location and geological conditions. The US$5 billion cost of the dam was entirely domestically financed. Its capacity of 5,150 megawatts (MW) is nearly twice the capacity of Nigeria’s four main hydropower dams of Kainji (760 MW), Zungeru (700 MW), Shiroro (600 MW) and Jebba (578 MW). Construction was started in 2011 with the final phase completed in 2025, a period of 14 years. The successful delivery of GERD ought to be an object lesson for Nigeria in the purposeful, cost-effective and timely delivery of major national infrastructure projects.
The history of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) dates back to the 1950s when the US Bureau of Reclamation identified the site of the GERD in the Blue Nile, signifying Ethiopia’s hydroelectric power potential. But it was not until April 2011 that work was initiated on the project under Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, sparking protests from downstream neighbours Sudan and Egypt over Nile water rights.
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The following are the dam’s key technical specifications:
Dam Type: Roller-Compacted Concrete (RCC) Gravity Dam, with main dimensions of approximately 170 metres high and 1800 metres long, with 10.7 million m³ (volume) of concrete. It has a saddle dam, a subsidiary dam, which is 5 kilometres long and 50 metres high, and a rockfill with concrete facing, meant to prevent water loss. The reservoir has a capacity of 74 billion m³ (volume of water), a surface area of about 1.875 square kilometres, and a catchment area of 172,250 square kilometres, which is the Blue Nile. The dam has an installed capacity of 5,150 MW, revised downward from the initial 6,450 MW, with 13 Francis turbines and energy production of about 15,700 gigawatt hours (GWh)/year. The inauguration of the GERD has literally doubled the power generation of Ethiopia, with a surplus for export.
The financing strategy of the dam was quite unique and exigent, a child of necessity. Because of the dispute with Sudan and Egypt over the Nile River, Ethiopia avoided large-scale international financing for the dam and tagged it a project of national priority in order to achieve energy security and national economic development, requiring patriotic support and commitment of all Ethiopians. The government financed 91 percent of the dam through its own revenues and large loans from the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE), a state-owned enterprise and the largest commercial bank in Ethiopia. The remaining 9 percent was financed through government bonds, salary deductions, and diaspora contributions.
Ethiopia has demonstrated through the successful delivery of the GERD the need for a new African development paradigm based on a strategic vision of self-reliance and internal generation of substantial resources for Africa’s development with minimal dependence on foreign loans and foreign technical manpower and civil engineering contractors.
“ The government financed 91 percent of the dam through its own revenues and large loans from the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE), a state-owned enterprise and the largest commercial bank in Ethiopia. The remaining 9 percent was financed through government bonds, salary deductions, and diaspora contributions.”
This is in sharp contrast to Nigeria’s current development model, which is budget-driven, has prolonged project implementation timeframes, cost overruns, an absence of value for money, and project abandonment. Nigeria is currently rated as the country with the largest number of abandoned projects in the world, with thousands of projects abandoned at the federal and state levels. The Chartered Institute of Project Management of Nigeria (CIPMN) reported in 2022 that there were 56,000 abandoned government projects in Nigeria, with an estimated value of N12 trillion. A 2011 committee report also indicated that 63 percent of public sector projects initiated in Nigeria since political independence in 1960 have been abandoned. The Association of Practising Professional Project Managers of Nigeria (APPPNON) stated that Nigeria has the highest number of failed public projects globally and labelled the country a “project management graveyard”.
Returning to hydropower projects, the mission-driven, disciplined project implementation of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam is in sharp contrast to the stalled US$5.8 billion Mambilla hydropower project, which remains on paper despite decades of planning, legal hurdles and financial uncertainty as a result of ongoing arbitration at the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC). The poor level of project execution and the high level of cost overrun are evidence of poor project management and poor public sector economic governance, which are well-documented. These are major reasons for poor infrastructure project delivery and the dearth of critical infrastructure to deliver development at all levels of government in Nigeria.
Public sector project management failure and a dearth of critically needed infrastructure have been key constraints to Nigeria’s national development for decades and are certainly going to be key constraints to realising President Tinubu’s aspiration for a US$1 trillion economy by the year 2030. The key areas of constraint will be abandoned and underperforming projects in the power sector and other abandoned projects and underperforming assets and collapsed infrastructure in the iron and steel, road, rail and seaport sectors, among others.
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While current road construction efforts at the federal level need to be commended, a great deal more needs to be done, especially on major road arteries that have collapsed over a number of years. On the whole, our approach to infrastructure development, from conceptualisation, design and construction and delivery, needs to be reconsidered with greater emphasis on self-reliance, greater use of local resources and professional services and manpower. Current efforts to pass legislation on a local content development framework for the construction sector similar to that of the oil and gas industry should be fast-tracked. The presidential directive for local contractors to be given preference even at a slightly higher cost to build capacity should be commended. The capacity is largely there. What is needed is for local contractors to be encouraged and for their fees to be paid on time.
For big-ticket projects, however, there is a need for capacity building and the forming of strategic technical and business alliances to create formidable new engineering, procurement and construction companies in oil and gas, the power sector and infrastructure. There should be an across-the-board repositioning of infrastructure development and delivery in Nigeria, both for an enhanced governance framework, political will and fidelity for timely, within-budget public sector infrastructure delivery and the development of local project delivery capacities. The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam landmark achievement should be a wake-up call for Nigeria, a country that truly has the potential of being the largest economy in Africa, though we are currently the fourth, regrettably.
Mr Igbinoba is Team Lead/CEO at ProServe Options Consulting, Lagos.
Source: Businessday.ng | Read the Full Story…
