ADDIS ABABA — Public raised over 19 billion Birr for the construction of Abay dam over the past 13 years, said Coordination Office.

The Office of National Council for the Coordination of Public Participation on the Construction of the Abay Dam launched Bond Week yesterday to augment contribution to the construction of the dam via bond sales, 8100 SMS, donation and others schemes.

Yesterday, the Office, Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE) and Ethiopian Development Bank (DBE) jointly expressed their readiness to sale bond coupons to public at large . Accordingly, they planned to collect about 100 million Birr in the Bond Week.

Speaking at the occasion, DBE Vice President Getachew Wakie said that over the past 13 years, over 16.8 billion Birr collected via bond sale. During the past eight months, the country has collected more than 767 million Birr.

He hoped for more fundraising in connection with the special 13th year of the launch of the flagship dam construction. For this year's bond week, it has prepared worth of 9.5 billion Birr bond coupons. The bond coupons are now available in all branches of the CBE, DBE and others across the country.

On her part, CBE Customers' Relations Director Bethel Tadesse said that the bank itself has purchased over 200 million Birr bond during the past 13 years. It also collected over 9. 8 billion Birr from bond sales apart from collecting over 319 million Birr via donation.

Furthermore, the bank collected 61 million USD, 1.6 million pound and 49 million Euros the construction of the dam from members of Ethiopian Diasporas .

In her finial message ,she called on public to renew commitment till the finalization of Abay dam construction .