Chaka Project, Palace, is said to be part of the ten-year development plan
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Ethiopia is not in the best of shape in its finances, although the Ministry of Planning and Development is expecting a 6.6 percent economic growth.
The war has ravaged the economy and communities in many places. Devastating drought has affected considerably large parts of Ethiopia.
Recently, after an apparent rapprochement between Abiy Ahmed’s government on the one hand and the U.S. and European Union, if it is not a staged one, the World Bank injected $300 million in “aid” for reconstruction of war torn areas.
The gap is still big. Yet, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has his own priority. A prestigious project of a $1 billion dollar new palace. That makes it the next mega project in the country next to the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), according to a report by the Reporter
The place selected for the project is Yeka-Sub City. It will be constructed on 503 hectares of land.
The project entails gentrification too. Thousands of residents in the region will be required to vacate the area. The Reporter’s Report indicated that “the residents will be given a chance to develop their own property on their land, if it fits the standard of the area, where the palace will be built.”
How many of the residents, given the level of poverty in the city, will be able to redevelop their homes is a question that is not addressed in the report. It is not indicated if the government will make financial arrangements for it.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed seems to like artificial lakes from other projects he has been passionately showcasing for visitors and his colleagues, and members of the defence force too. The new luxurious palace will have three, not one, artificial lakes.
It is named “Chaka project.” According to the source, the government of the United Arab Emirates, a country that has been having growing influence in Ethiopia sine Abiy Ahmed took power in 2018, will chip in the chunk of the funds needed for the construction.
The fate of the historic Emperor Menelik Palace?
It will be turned into a national museum. The Prime Minister is currently working from Menelik Palace.
Grand Jubilee Palace, which is in a walking distance from Menelik palace, is currently undergoing renovation at a cost of one billion Ethiopian birr, according to the source.
It is to be recalled this year, Addis Ababa City Administration announced that it has spent 2.2 billion birr just to renovate the structure that was constructed under Haileselassie’s Imperial government.
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