In April 2019, Ethiopia’s Council of Ministers was weighing a bill meant to pull private capital into geothermal power, a long-promised piece of the country’s energy mix that had stayed mostly on paper.
The AFRIK 21 report said the proposal targeted independent power producers, trying to clear rules and incentives so developers would put money into steam fields rather than wait on state utilities alone. For a grid short of reliable baseload and heavy on hydropower risk in dry years, geothermal was sold as diversification.
That reform language sat inside the wider opening narrative of Abiy Ahmed’s first year: invite investors, rewrite sector laws, talk about private participation. Whether the bill unlocked projects or simply joined a stack of energy roadmaps is the lasting question for Horn readers tracking power shortages and forex constraints.
Kept as reference, the geothermal file shows how early the regime in Addis Ababa tried to brand energy liberalization while still needing state institutions to deliver permits, land access, and bankable offtake.
Sources: AFRIK 21
