Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has firmly denied claims by United States President Donald Trump that Washington financed the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), insisting the landmark project was entirely funded by Ethiopians at home and abroad.
Speaking to parliamentarians on Tuesday, Abiy said Ethiopia did not receive “a single birr” in foreign loans or financial aid for the construction of the $4 billion mega-dam, which is set to become Africa’s largest hydroelectric power plant by capacity.
“We achieved this through the strong commitment of Ethiopians living in the country and in the diaspora,” the prime minister said, pushing back against Trump’s remarks made last month at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
At the Davos meeting, Trump described the GERD as a project “financed by the United States” that “basically blocks the Nile,” echoing long-standing concerns raised by Egypt, a close US ally. Egypt relies on the River Nile for about 97 per cent of its water supply and has repeatedly described the dam as an “existential threat” to its national security.
The GERD, which began construction in 2011, is built on a tributary of the Nile and is expected to generate 5,150 megawatts of electricity, a development Ethiopia says is crucial to powering its economy and expanding regional energy access. Ethiopian authorities have consistently maintained that the dam poses no harm to downstream countries.
That position has been reinforced by the project’s main contractor, Webuild. Its chief executive officer, Pietro Salini, said the dam does not consume water and therefore does not threaten Nile flows to Egypt or Sudan.
“These are not irrigation schemes that consume water,” Salini told AFP during the dam’s inauguration in September. “The dam releases water to produce energy.”
Salini also dismissed suggestions of international financial backing, saying no global lender was willing to fund the project. “Not one international lender was willing to put money in this project,” he said, stressing that financing came entirely from Ethiopia.
Despite Ethiopia’s assurances, the GERD has remained a source of diplomatic tension in the Nile Basin. Trump, a vocal supporter of Egypt, has pledged to revive negotiations between Cairo and Addis Ababa. Egypt has since said it is ready to relaunch mediation efforts, though Ethiopian authorities have yet to publicly respond.
The dispute underscores the broader geopolitical sensitivities surrounding water security in the region, as Ethiopia presses ahead with a project it views as a symbol of national pride and self-reliance, while downstream nations continue to seek binding guarantees over Nile water flows.
Melissa Enoch
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