CAIRO – Egypt has signed a 500 million dollars loan with the World Bank to provide natural gas to Egyptian households, the government said in a statement on Thursday.
The loan will help fund a Petroleum Ministry plan to connect 850,000 Egyptians to a natural gas grid, Minister of International Cooperation Najla Ahwani said in the statement.
The plan is particularly for largely rural Upper Egypt.
Egypt will pay back the World Bank loan over 30 years, with a five-year grace period. [eap_ad_2] The country is experiencing its worst energy crisis in decades, due to declining gas production, rising consumption and generous power subsidies.
Foreign energy firms are wary about investing in the country as the government has decided, over the past year, to divert gas earmarked for export to the power-hungry domestic market.
The government also signed an agreement with the European Union for a 67.6 million euro grant to fund short-term jobs for unskilled workers who are unemployed.
Egypt’s unemployment rate is 13.4 per cent, up from nine per cent in 2010 before the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak, the planning minister said last week. (Reuters/NAN)[eap_ad_3]
