The African Development Bank (AfDB) has approved a $144.9-million African Development Fund loan to support the development of the Kenya–Tanzania Power Interconnection project.
The interconnection project would entail the construction of about 508 km of transmission line between Kenya and Tanzania and substations in Arusha and Singida to allow for the exchange of up to 2 000 MW of electricity between the two countries.
At a later stage, the project would also allow for the import and export of electricity from other interconnected countries in Eastern and Southern Africa, as it would interconnect to the Eastern Africa Power Pool and the Southern African Power Pool and, in future, also to North Africa.
The project was expected to improve the supply, reliability and affordability of electricity in the East Africa region through crossborder exchanges of cheap and cleaner surplus power from neighbouring countries.