From Reuters:

The European Union signed a development grant with Ethiopia on Monday worth 212.4 million euros ($287.26 million) to help finance road construction and projects targeting maternal health and drought resilience.

Ethiopia, Africa’s second most populous country after Nigeria, is midway through a five-year economic plan that foresees almost tripling the country’s road network and beginning the building of 5,000 km of new railway lines.

Addis Ababa’s big push on infrastructure is aimed at connecting remote regions and has propelled the economy to double-digit growth for much of the last decade.

“Expanding and upgrading … (the) road network is playing a central role in the country’s economic development – notably in improving access for the rural population to markets and basic service,” Andris Piebalgs, the EU’s Commissioner for Development, told a signing ceremony.

Once run by communists, Ethiopia’s economy is now sub-Saharan Africa’s fifth biggest economy, leap-frogging Kenya, after a decade of robust growth. But it remains one of the world’s largest aid recipients.

Written by Aaron Maasho | Read more at  Reuters