(MENAFN- Daily News Egypt)
A 68m grant from the French Development Agency (AFD) was approved by the cabinet to finance a mega-project, according to press statement from the cabinet on Thursday.
The project funded by the grant aims to expand access to natural gas to 2.4m Egyptian households, focusing on the disadvantaged areas in different governorates.
Currently more than 75% of Egyptian households depend on liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) cylinder distribution to supply their energy requirements, according to the World Bank.
The government aims to gradually switch from the consumption of LPG, which is mainly imported, connect the grid to natural gas which is safer, more convenient and more reliable.
By the end of the project the number of households connected to the natural gas grid will increase by 40% reaching 8.2m.
Furthermore, the cabinet approved a loan of 61m to be financed by the AFD in order to fund the construction of a regional control centre in the Nile Delta's Daqahleya governorate.
The projected goal is to reinforce the efficiency of the power grid which would result to a decline in the number and duration of power outages, while also reducing the time required for maintenance.
That being the case, the government hopes that increasing the efficiency of the power grid will in turn lead to increasing the competitiveness of the Egyptian economy, and increasing the revenue of the Egyptian Electricity Holding Company.