Egypt expects to finalise contracts before the end of 2017 for its first nuclear power plant with 4,800 megawatt (MW) capacity, Egyptian Electricity Minister Mohamed Shaker was quoted as saying in a media report.

Egypt signed an agreement in November 2015 for Russia to finance building and operating the plant, reported Wam, the Emirates official news agency.

Official reports last year affirmed that the loan was worth $25 billion and would finance 85 per cent of the value of each work contract, services and equipment shipping. Egypt would fund the remaining 15 per cent.

The plant will be built in Dabaa, a site in the north of the country that Egypt has been considering for a nuclear plant on and off since the 1980s. The first of four planned reactors is expected to begin producing power in 2024, the Ahram Online reported.

Egypt, with a population of nearly 95 million and vast energy needs, seeks to diversify its energy sources.

As well as building a nuclear plant, Egypt said last year it was expand its solar and wind power capacity over three years to add 4,300 MW of capacity.