Ethiopia Undertaking Exemplary Endeavors that Realize Seamless Integration of Electricity in Africa

Addis Ababa, July 1, 2025 (ENA) - Ethiopia is carrying out exemplary endeavors to realize a seamless integration of electricity grids along the continent, African Union Commission Infrastructure and Energy Director Kamugisha Kazaura said.

The director told ENA that realization of the Africa Single Electricity Market (AfSEM),  one of the interventions aimed to facilitate sustainable development of the African electricity sector through the integrated continental electricity market based on the 2019 AfCFTA Agreement, is to give African households, businesses and industries more secure, sustainable, reliable, competitive, and affordable energy.

Commending initiatives of some of the African countries in terms of interconnecting with their neighboring countries, he cited Ethiopia’s connection with Sudan and Djibouti as an example of the implementation of the overall AfSEM.

“Ethiopia is part of the East African Power Pool, which currently has a number of countries  interconnected.”

Going further, he said “we are going to connect the East Africa Power Pool with the South African Power Pool, and there are ongoing projects where we know Ethiopia is already connected with Kenya.”

Kenya is interconnecting with Tanzania, which is part of the South African Power Pool, which eventually will connect with Zambia, he elaborated.

According to him, Africa is going to have a seamless integration of electricity grids along the continent, where the member states can trade and have a single market for electricity.

For the director, the Africa Single Electricity Market (AfSEM) considers all the electricity generation sources, whether it is hydro, geothermal, solar, wind, and renewable sources as well as generation from gas and oil.

“We are looking at the various energy generating sources which will form part of the continental power system master plan, which is the key component in attaining the Africa Single Electricity Market for many countries to come together.”

The AUC, together with the African Development Bank and the World Bank, launched an initiative called Mission 300 this year, with the sole objective of accelerating electricity access to African citizens.

The objective of the initiative is to bring electricity connectivity to 300 million African citizens by the year 2030, the director affirmed.

Kazaura commended a number of partners and donors supporting the initiative, including the Africa Development Bank, European Union as well as the German government.

AfSEM is designed to bring greater energy security, sustainability, and competitiveness to  Africa Union Member States.