The French Development Agency (AFD) has offered Egypt a $75.8m grant to finance a mega-project that aims to facilitate access to natural gas to 2.4m Egyptian households. The project tends to prioritize the underprivileged areas in various governorates over those that are more developed and to increase the number of households connected to the natural gas grid by 40%, to reach 8.2m, Daily News Egypt reported.

According to the World Bank, the majority of Egyptian households (+75%) rely on liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) cylinder distribution for meeting their energy requirements. The Egyptian government aims to reduce this figure and shift to the usage of natural gas which is a better alternative especially for commercial and industrial usage.

In addition, the AFD is also offering Egypt a $68m loan,  already approved by the Egyptian cabinet, to fund the construction of a regional control center in the Nile Delta’s Daqahleya governorate. This project’s objective is to improve the effectiveness of the power grid and operate it at full efficiency in an attempt to increase the competitiveness of the Egyptian economy.