Ethiopia is ranked among the top 10 recipients of European financing for energy projects under the sustainable development goals (SDGs) between 2014 and 2024, according to a new report published by the European Union and the African Union.
Ethiopia received 2.2 billion euros in energy finance from the EU over the period, making it the eight largest recipient on the continent. Other African countries received considerably more, according to the European Financial Flows to SDG 7 in Africa report.
Egypt leads with 6.3 billion euros, followed by Nigeria at 5.1 billion euros, South Africa (4.9 billion), Morocco (4.1 billion), and Kenya (3.9 billion).
The report also highlights finance from China and government budgets for the energy sector.
From The Reporter Magazine
Over the same period, Beijing poured over 15 billion euros into Angolan energy infrastructure, another 5.4 billion in South Africa, and 2.3 billion each to Zambia and Nigeria. Chinese energy financing in Ethiopia amounted to 0.8 billion euros in the decade leading up to 2023, according to the report.
Meanwhile, the Ethiopian government spent 2.1 billion euros on the energy sector, trailing far behind the likes of South Africa and Egypt, which both saw spending of over 25 billion euros during the reporting period.
However, energy spending by more than 40 African governments fell below the one-billion-euro mark.
From The Reporter Magazine
As a result, while around 35 million people gained access to electricity, fast population growth meant the net access gap closed by just five million—from 570 million in 2022 to 565 million. As a consequence, while other regions of the world have significantly reduced their access gaps, Sub-Saharan Africa accounts today for 85 percent of the world’s population without electricity access.
In 2023, 18 of the top 20 countries with the largest access deficits were in Sub-Saharan Africa. The access deficits in Nigeria (86.6 million), Democratic Republic of Congo (79.6 million) and Ethiopia (56.4 million) accounted for more than one-third of the global population without electricity.
Rural areas remain the most underserved, with an average rate of electricity reaching only 31.6 percent in Sub-Saharan Africa compared to 82 percent for urban areas.
In response to this persistent shortfall, electrification strategies are evolving. While investments in large-scale power plants and national grid expansion are still an important approach to electrification, decentralised and smaller scale solutions are becoming increasingly important tools in closing the access gap.
The report observes that in 2020-22 decentralised energy solutions provided 55 percent of new connections in Sub-Saharan Africa, “proving resilient to macroeconomic challenges, as more than 50 million off-grid solar products were sold in both 2022 and 2023”.
The report stresses that several energy projects are underway in African countries but most of them do not qualify as SDG7 because the projects are fuel-based.
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