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After 14 years of toil, Ethiopia has completed the construction of Africa’s largest hydroelectric dam — and its neighbors are fuming.  

The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, which will drive a 5,150-megawatt hydropower plant, is a source of great national pride for the continent’s second-most populous nation. The towering concrete structure stretching across a major tributary of the Nile River was officially inaugurated at a ceremony on Tuesday.

The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. Photographer: Amanuel Sileshi/AFP/Getty Images

The government sees the project, which cost more than $4.5 billion, as an antidote to chronic power shortages and as a driver of its nascent manufacturing industry. It will also bring in foreign revenue, with excess electricity to be sold to Kenya, Djibouti and Tanzania.

But Sudan and Egypt, which lie downstream, have balked at the prospect of Ethiopia wielding control over the flow of the Nile — a key water source for both countries. Their irrigation ministers met in Cairo last week and raised alarm over how it will be managed and whether adequate safety measures are in place.

Officials from the three nations have held numerous rounds of talks to try and resolve their differences over the GERD, the last time in 2023. They’ve failed to agree on a range of issues, including how quickly the dam could be filled and whether Egypt’s and Sudan’s water supply could be guaranteed. 

WATCH: Bloomberg’s Jennifer Zabasajja reports on Ethiopia’s new dam and the tension it has caused.

The bulk of Egypt’s 115 million people draw their water supply from the Nile, and the nation’s agriculture and industrial industries are heavily reliant on it. Sudan gets much of its water from its Roseires dam, which it fears could be swamped if the GERD isn’t controlled responsibly.  

The completion of the project may well be a boon for Ethiopia’s economy.

Yet its unilateral decision to forge ahead in the absence of a pact with its neighbors bodes ill for regional stability. — Simon Marks

Key stories and opinion: 
Africa’s Largest Dam Starts Powering Ethiopia Despite Egypt Row
Ethiopia Readies Plans to Export Power to Tanzania via Kenya
Why Ethiopia’s $5 Billion Dam Has Riled Its Neighbors: QuickTake
A Cold War is Brewing on the Blue Nile: Amr Adly 
Egypt Stresses Right to Defend Interests as Nile Dam Talks Fail

Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara will face four rivals in next month’s election and appears to be a shoo-in to win after key opposition leaders were disqualified from running. The final candidates were drawn from a list of 60 aspiring contenders. Former Credit Suisse CEO Tidjane Thiam and ex-President Laurent Gbagbo were among those excluded, along with former Prime Minister Guillaume Soro and Ble Goudé, a previous youth minister.

Alassane Ouattara. Photographer: Issouf Sanogo/Getty Images

The International Finance Corp. is setting up an entity to lower the cost of mini grids in Africa, part of a plan to give hundreds of millions of people access to electricity by 2030. The so-called Mission 300 Accelerator set a target of reaching financial close on about $300 million of funding by the end of the year and ultimately plans to raise $1 billion, CEO Andrew Herscowitz said in an interview. 

Africa’s biggest climate-resilience program is looking to the private sector to fill the gap after Western nations scaled back development assistance. Despite the reduced support, the Africa Adaptation Acceleration Program — led by the Global Center on Adaptation and the African Development Bank — doubled its fund-raising target for the next five years. “We need to broaden the financing base,” Macky Sall, the GCA’s chairman, said in an interview.

A flooded street in the Mozambican city of Beira in March 2024.  Photographer: Douglas Condzo/Bloomberg

Malawian President Lazarus Chakwera apologized for chronic fuel shortages, which he blamed on state oil company employees trying to sabotage his reelection bid. Some National Oil Company of Malawi officials “intentionally frustrated timely importation of fuel,” he said, in an address on Monday aimed at quelling drivers’ frustration over long waits for fuel. A poll published last week by the Institute for Public Opinion and Research showed former leader Peter Mutharika winning the most support in next week’s vote.

The benefits of an oil pipeline being built in East Africa outweigh the environmental risks, according to Sim Tshabalala, the CEO of Standard Bank, which is helping fund the $5 billion project. TotalEnergies’ 1,443-kilometer East African Crude Oil Pipeline will transport crude in Uganda to the coast for export — a prospect opposed by environmental groups. “Our focus is unequivocally on driving Africa’s growth,” Tshabalala said. “We’re completely clear that African countries have a right and a duty to use their fossil fuels to lift themselves out of poverty.”

A protest against the pipeline at a BRICS summit in Johannesburg in August 2023.   Photographer: Waldo Swiegers/Bloomberg

The African Development Bank approved the awarding of contracts to four Chinese companies to reconstruct a 278-kilometer highway in Cameroon’s north that’s vital for trade with neighboring Chad. CGCOC, China Harbour Engineering, China First Highway Engineering and China International Water & Electric will rehabilitate the road, which connects Cameroon’s port city of Douala to N’Djamena, landlocked Chad’s capital. The project, which the AfDB is helping fund, is expected to be completed by 2030. 

Thank you for your responses to our weekly Next Africa Quiz and congratulations to Orson Gard, who was first to identify Zimbabwe as the African nation that signed a protocol with China enabling it to export blueberries to the Asian nation for the first time.

South Africa’s economy expanded at the fastest pace in two years in the second quarter, lifted by a rebound in manufacturing and mining. Gross domestic product grew 0.8% compared with growth of 0.1% in the prior three months. The momentum is expected to stall in coming months due to the 30% tariffs US President Donald Trump has imposed on South African shipments of vehicles, citrus fruit and other products.

Thanks for reading. We’ll be back in your inbox with the next edition on Friday. Send any feedback to mcohen21@bloomberg.net