CAIRO: Egypt has raised $170 million in loans from the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development to assist in the construction of a 750 megawatt power plant north of Cairo, an Electricity and Energy Ministry official said on Monday. Egypt, which currently has some 25,000 megawatts of electricity capacity, is looking to add another 9,200 megawatts by 2012, Reuters news agency reported on Monday. According to local reports, the country is looking to spend $100-120 billion to triple capacity by 2027. “The loan reflects investor trust in the performance of the sector,” Aktham Abul Ela told Reuters, adding that the electricity sector had attracted 12 billion Egyptian pounds under its current five-year plan ending in 2012. The plant, in Benha, 25 miles north of the capital, is scheduled to begin producing in August 2012, Abul Ela said. The Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development has already lent Egypt $100 million loan to build a 1,300 megawatt plant, in the Red Sea coastal town of Ain Sokhna east of Cairo. Around 99.1 percent of Egyptians have access to electricity. BM
