Reaching Universal Energy Access by 2025
By assisting the Government of Ethiopia in incorporating gender-focused solutions, bolstering markets for off-grid products, and scaling up private sector participation in the country’s vast renewable energy resources, ESMAP has facilitated new investments, strategies, and approaches to help reach the goal of universal electricity access.
Over the past decade, the Government of Ethiopia has launched one of the most successful electrification programs in Sub-Saharan Africa, expanding the electricity grid to nearly 60 percent of the country—from only 667 towns and villages to approximately 6,000.
However, the household electrification rate remained stubbornly low, at only 20 percent in 2015. With more than 60 million people without access to electricity, Ethiopia still had the second largest energy access deficit in Africa. Understanding that affordable and reliable access to electricity was essential to reducing poverty and shifting toward higher rates of productivity and industrialization, the Government of Ethiopia committed to reaching universal energy access by 2025.