The Challenges and Prospects of Electricity Access in Ethiopia
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Date
2018-02
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Eventhough Ethiopia is investing a lot in electricity generation and infrastructure, the
electricity access rate in the country is one of the lowest in Africa mainly due to inadequate
expansion of electricity connection in rural areas. The purpose of this study was to assess the
key challenges and the prospect of electricity access in the country and to recommend the way
forward to address the electricity access gap. This study mainly used secondary data collected
from extensively reviewed documents and also interviews with purposely selected experts and
officials to substantiate the findings. According to the findings of this research, the electricity
access programs of the country were not effective to meet the electricity access gap. The
institutional instability of the sector, less attention to decentralized or off-grid electricity
access programs ,lack of financing and private sector engagement have been some of the
challenges hindering the enhancement of electricity access in the country. Therefore,
establishing a long term and stable institutional structure in the electricity sector,
strengthening and expanding decentralized (off-grid) electrification programs, setting a cost
reflective electricity tariff (both for local and export) for the sector’s sustainability and
enhancing the private sector engagement are some of the recommendations of this study to
reach the universal electricity access targets of the country
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Keywords
Electricity access in ethiopia