The national palace project, which Prime Minister Abiy is directing, might cost up to $9 billion, according to official sources.
His most recent appearance before the parliament indicated that the palace construction could cost up to 400 billion birr. To put it into perspective, that is around nine billion dollars.
The national palace, dubbed the Chaka Project, will be the largest project in the country's history, even larger than the contentious Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, a five-billion-dollar energy project being built on the Nile River.
The national palace will include artificial lakes as well as a 20-kilometer-long road, cable transportation, and residential and commercial complexes. It will take up 3,700 hectares of land.