Addis Ababa, October 23, 2026 (FMC) — Ethiopia’s ability to turn its abundant resources into tangible development depends on strengthening domestic capacity, completing projects once they begin, and improving coordination between federal and regional governments, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has stated.
Speaking at the inauguration of the Megech Irrigation Dam in Gondar city, Amhara Region, the Prime Minister used the project’s 19-year journey to completion to illustrate the importance of these three priorities, emphasizing that development potential alone cannot deliver results without the capacity to execute plans and fulfill public commitments.
For Ethiopia, strengthening sovereign capacity means being able to plan and carry out projects through its own resources, professionals and contractors. Prime Minister Abiy cautioned against dependence on external parties for critical components that can hold up an entire project, even after most of the work has been completed.
He stressed that Ethiopia must develop the capacity to carry projects from conception to completion, rather than allowing a remaining component or outside dependency to prevent an investment from serving the public.
The country’s potential, he explained, becomes meaningful when it is translated into infrastructure, productive activity and services that improve people’s lives.
The Megech Dam’s prolonged construction provided a stark illustration of the second priority: finishing what has been started. The project remained incomplete for 19 years, during which substantial resources were spent while people continued to face water shortages.
Prime Minister Abiy described the delay as an injustice to the public. A person born when the project began, he observed, could now be approaching university age. The comparison underscored the human cost of leaving public investments unfinished for years.
The project was ultimately completed after the government changed the contractor and demolished earlier work deemed unsuitable for the dam and its setting.
The Prime Minister said the turnaround over approximately the past two years required more than additional funding; it demanded ownership of the work and a determination to deliver the finished project.
His third priority concerned the relationship between federal and regional governments. Prime Minister Abiy stressed that certain development tasks cannot be accomplished by either level of government independently. Effective delivery requires joint planning, synchronized action and coordination of responsibilities.
This cooperation is essential to bringing resources and institutions together around shared objectives. Without it, individual efforts may fail to produce the results that coordinated action could achieve.
The inauguration also demonstrated the practical value of completing major infrastructure. The Megech Irrigation Dam has a storage capacity of 185 million cubic meters and is designed to support irrigation across more than 17,000 hectares.
It is also expected to improve clean drinking-water supplies for Gondar and nearby towns, with further opportunities in fisheries, tourism and employment.
Beyond the dam itself, Prime Minister Abiy emphasized that Gondar still has substantial development needs. He described the project as a beginning, not the limit of what the historic city deserves, and reaffirmed his commitment to accelerating development in the city and the wider Amhara Region.
The priorities outlined in his address place execution at the center of Ethiopia’s development agenda: build the domestic capacity to deliver, ensure that projects reach completion, and strengthen cooperation across levels of government.
For the Prime Minister, the measure of development is not simply the resources committed or the plans announced, but the results delivered to the public.