As bitcoin mining grows, 57 million Ethiopian remain in the dark star-news.press/wp
Feature writer
Jeffrey Jojo
Feature writer
Jeffrey Jojo
Involve
Reality examined by
Elena Bozkova
Lead features
Elena Bozkova
Main meals:
- Ethiopia has stopped issuing new electrical supplies permits for Bitcoin mining companies because the demand cannot be met.
- 57 million Ethiopian still lacks electricity, raising concerns about national priorities.
- The Ethiopian government energy company has reached $ 220 million of bitcoin mining revenues during the past year.
Ethiopia has stopped issuing new electricity supplies to Bitcoin mining companies because it can no longer meet the new demand, according to ASHEBIR Balcha, CEO of State Power Utility Ethiopian Electric Power (EEP).
It comes amid fears that the Ethiopian government determines the priority of profit for the welfare of its citizens. There are still fifty-seven million people-nearly half of the population-they live without electricity due to the lack of transmission infrastructure.
Meanwhile, Ethiopia has allocated 600 MW of electricity to bitcoin mining – about 11 % of the country generation capacity of 5,631 megawatts, for each EEP. Website. It is enough energy to operate half of Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, according to the new BBC Africa a report.
“From our current evaluation, it seems that arrival at his energy,” said Balha. I mentioned Written by the Ethiopian news port. He was speaking during an EEP annual performance in Addis Ababa last week.
Bitcoin mining boom in Ethiopia
Bitcoin mining flourishes in Ethiopia, and is the second most populated country in Africa after Nigeria. Since 2023, about 27 puzzle operations have been licensed in Ethiopia, according to a report By Bitcoin Bear.
Nearly 20 other foreign companies are currently on a waiting list. Miners are attracted to the cheap hydroelectric force in Ethiopia, which mainly produces the Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), one of the largest energy projects in Africa.
The report says that miners pay $ 3.60 per kilowatt hour (kilowatt hour) of electricity after taxes, which makes the cost of electricity for mines in East African country much lower than average in other markets.
On average, every Bitcoin mining machine in Ethiopia generates $ 5.71 a day, making it a profitable work. Some mines installed up to a number 5000 Bitcoin miners in their facilities.
Cal Masa, founder of Bitcoin Bear, says that Ethiopia now represents 5 % of the total computing power in Bitcoin, or Hazarat, up from about 2.5 % in January. Increased milestones indicating that miners are optimistic about achieving profits.
For Ethiopian electric power, the decision to sell electricity to Bitcoin miners was equally profitable. The benefit of the power run by the state It is said More than 200 million dollars in mining revenues in 2025 achieved alone.
Some analysts initially opposed revenue numbers. “This was an early estimate,” he told Masa Cryptonews. “The real number ranges between 25 and 28 million dollars per month by EEP from Bitcoin (SIC).”
send In X, Daniel Pitco Daniel Batten analyst said that EEP needs a 1.2 Gigawatts mining average at any time between January to June 2025 to achieve these revenues at $ 31-35 per MWH watch.
“Given that there were only 600 megawatts in October 2024,” 200 million dollars) appears on the high side, “he said.
However, the latest Ethiopian electric power numbers show that the tool has received revenue of $ 338 million from the sale of electricity to neighboring countries and bitcoin miners. Revenue is the fiscal year 2024/2025.
About 35 %, or 118 million dollars, out of the total amount came from power exports to Djibouti, Kenya and Sudan, the Ethiopian Press Agency Reports. The rest, 220 million dollars, came from data extraction, including encryption mining.
Ethiopian regulations classify bitcoin mining under data extraction.
Ethiopia plans to add 5,000 megawatts of electricity to the national network from the esophageal reflux project in the next few months. The country aims to increase its revenues from regional exports and mining in Bitcoin to $ 427 million by 2026.
This means that the suspension of energy purchase agreements is likely to be raised.
Critics question the wisdom of allocating part of Ethiopia’s limited energy to make short -term gains while millions still lack basic electricity services.
More than 45 % of Ethiopia’s population, estimated at 120 million, live without authority, and even in major cities, the power outages are repeated.
“I think the issue of bitcoin mining is a source of concern,” David Getonga, the founder of the Kenya -based Checks platform in Kenya, He said CNBC Africa.
“It is a report from the government of Ethiopia already this concern because … a large part of the population, 50 %, still has access to electricity,” said Getonga. “He added, adding:
“The real anxiety is the priorities: Should (Ethiopia) extract bitcoin and achieve $ 400 million every year, or should we put priority to give electricity to citizens? There must be a balance (between the two).”
Gitonga fears that mining profits may not lead to improvements in energy access to the poor at the necessary speed. He says that Ethiopia must implement policies that force miners to determine the priorities of society’s needs, as in other countries.
However, Bitcoin Birr Massa founder says that there is a logical basis affiliated with Ethiopia sales in Ethiopia to coded currency miners, and they tell Cryptonews:
“It is a technical strategy. They were cut off from half a third to half of our energy (Ethiopia). This extra energy can be sold instead of wasting it to the air.”
The powerful energy that is created but unused, is often due to the inability to transfer it to the areas of demand.
Ethiopia has the surplus of energy in some areas, but the lack of transport lines and sub -stations means that many of them cannot reach cities or rural societies.
Experts say bitcoin miners provide a ready -made energy market because they can work almost anywhere with a reliable energy source.
‘Jumpstarts’ mining
Despite new plants such as the Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, Ethiopia has less than 200 sub -stations, which is a small part of what is actually required to provide power for millions of people who still live in the dark.
“The country will need at least 10 times of this amount with the large population joining the middle class and buying more people water heaters and electrical stoves,” said Masa.
“Bitcoin miners help start this investment, which will benefit the commercial sectors and residential buyers of energy.”
He referred to ERCOT in Texas, the United States, where the flexible demand from databases helps to “balance the network” by matching the offer and demand 24 hours. In response to a question about who benefits more than mining in Ethiopia, Massa said, “Everyone is benefiting.”
“There are dozens of bitcoin mines in different areas throughout Ethiopia that buy wasted energy otherwise, the development of the tax base and hundreds of employment, if not thousands of network engineers, electrical engineers, and relevant professions of value chain.”
Mikes Mekonnen, EEP, did not respond to a request for comment. However, Balcha Bbc Africa told that the money collected from Bitcoin mining will be used to expand the electricity network in Ethiopia.
“We can expand our network through the revenues we obtain from this data extraction (SIC),” said our network of Ethiopian Electric Power. “We will expand our transportation and distribution network.”
Over the past year, Eep was said to have built 28,571 km of new transport lines, and is partially funded by Bitco Mining. More than 8,700 local bays were also installed during the year, Birr measures Reports.
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2025-08-18 08:58:00
