ADDIS ABABA, Feb 2 (Reuters) - Gridworks, a British government-owned investor in Africa's electricity networks, on Monday signed agreements to develop and invest in transmission projects worth around $400 million during a visit by Britain's foreign minister.
Yvette Cooper's trip to Ethiopia is part of efforts by the UK government to use job creation initiatives to try to stem rising numbers of migrants from the Horn of Africa seeking to reach the United Kingdom.
The two projects are the first public-private partnerships in Ethiopia's transmission network, as Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's government is gradually opening up the state-dominated economy to more private investment.
One of the projects connects Ethiopia's Somali region with its central and northeast grids, while the other enables the development of wind and solar plants in the northeast and strengthens the interconnection with neighbouring Djibouti.
"Transmission infrastructure is fundamental to growth, jobs and improving lives, and these projects will help unlock Ethiopia's vast renewable energy potential," British Ambassador to Ethiopia Darren Welch said in a joint statement issued by the Ethiopian and British governments.
Ethiopia's Finance Minister Ahmed Shide said the projects would bolster industrial growth by making power supply more reliable.
They will also accelerate electrification for the nearly half of Ethiopian households still awaiting their first grid connection, he said.
The UK also agreed to provide up to 17.5 million pounds ($23.91 million) in technical assistance under a programme to strengthen Ethiopia's systems for public investment and asset management.
Around 30% of people crossing the English Channel on small boats over the past two years were nationals from Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia and Sudan, the British foreign ministry said.
Successive British governments have tried to tackle illegal immigration, an issue which has helped to propel populist campaigner Nigel Farage's Reform UK party into a commanding opinion poll lead.
($1 = 0.7320 pounds)
(Reporting by Dawit Endeshaw; Writing by Vincent Mumo Nzilani and William Schomberg; Editing by Hugh Lawson, Alexander Winning and Sharon Singleton)
