• Egypt signs €202M deal with EBRD, EU to upgrade electricity grid
  
  
• Package includes €165M in concessional finance, €35M EU grant for renewables
  
  
• Part of NWFE plan to boost climate finance and reach 42% renewables by 2030

Egypt signed financing agreements worth 202 million euros (216 million dollars) with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the European Union on Tuesday, Dec. 9, to upgrade the national electricity grid and support the country’s sustainable energy strategy, the planning minister and the electricity and renewable energy minister said in a joint statement.

The package includes 165 million euros in concessional financing to strengthen the grid, a 35-million-euro EU grant administered by the EBRD, and a 2-million-euro technical assistance grant. The EBRD also signed a separate agreement with the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company.

The agreements form part of the government’s NWFE (Nexus of Water, Food and Energy) program, which aims to mobilise climate finance for Egypt through 2030. The EBRD leads the initiative’s energy component alongside the EU. Since 2015, the bank has invested more than 13.5 billion euros in 207 Egyptian projects spanning infrastructure, financial services and agribusiness, making Egypt its largest investment destination in the SEMED region in 2024.

The new support is intended to help prepare the grid to absorb additional renewable power, as Egypt targets renewables to supply 42 percent of its electricity mix by 2030.

Abdoullah Diop