Countries / Africa
Ethiopia
Ethiopia sells cheap hydropower to crypto-mining data centres and moved data centre licensing to the communications regulator.
Bitcoin mining was authorised in 2022 and eleven crypto-mining data centres are reported operating or under development in the Addis Ababa ICT park. Three colocation providers, Wingu Africa, Redfox and Raxio, have started operating. Licensing oversight moved from the innovation ministry to the Communications Authority, and a Personal Data Protection law was ratified in April 2024. For someone seeking compute, power is cheap but about 40 percent of the population lacks electricity, so mining and data centres compete with household demand.
AI policy and activity
No national AI strategy was evidenced in the sources read.
Power and grid
Installed generation is about 5,200 MW, around 90 percent hydropower, with the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam adding 5,150 MW. About 40 percent of the 120 million population lacks electricity access.
Data centres and compute
| Site | Where | Status | Notes and source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Raxio Ethiopia Raxio Group | Addis Ababa | Operating | Raxio reports Tier III facilities in six countries including Ethiopia and says it signed six times more power contracts in H1 2026 than a year earlier. (source) |
| Wingu Africa and Redfox Wingu Africa; Redfox | Addis Ababa | Operating | Named as providers that have begun operations. Capacity not given. (source) |
Rules and programmes
| Instrument | Kind | Status | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| Data centre licensing moved to the Communications Authority | Policy | In force | Undated trade article. Also reports the Personal Data Protection bill ratified in April 2024, overseen by the ECA. |
| 80 MW power purchase agreement with Phoenix Group | Grid | In force | Reported PPA for cryptocurrency operations. Date not given. |
Checked on 2 October 2026 and due for review by 1 January 2027. Many sources are trade press or law-firm summaries rather than official texts, and statuses such as reported or unconfirmed are shown as the source gives them. This is a summary, not legal advice. If something is wrong or out of date, tell us.