5.2 Billion

In Birr is the amount of money collected from the public, out of the pledged 10.2 billion for the construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), as reported by the National Council for the Coordination of Public Participation. The collected money has covered 23pct of the expenses so far. The report by the Council, which held its annual meeting, which was closed to the media other than the public owned Ethiopian Television at Sheraton Addis on August 2, 2013, stated that 24pct of the construction of the project is completed. This progress was 13pct last year at this time. By the end of August, the progress of the construction of the dam is planned to be 26pct. GERD, whose construction started on April 2, 2011, will have a power generation capacity of 6000MW and will consume USD4.8 billion upon completion in 2017.