Dozens of public projects that have been without funding have now been tabled to private investors, whom the government hopes will develop and operate the projects for as long as 30 years before eventually handing them back over to the state.
An investment deal book published this week by the Ministry of Finance, Investment Commission, and European Union Chamber of Commerce proposes to open dozens of public projects across nearly all economic sectors to private investment.
Officials envision investors developing and operating the projects until they recoup their investment, as well as an unspecified amount of profit, before ceding them to state ownership.
Chief among the sectors in the document is housing, where officials foresee private investors stepping in to fill a massive gap in supply. Housing demand is estimated at close to half a million units annually, but developers have thus far been only able to offer 165,000 a year to the market, according to official data.
On the prospectus is the Chaka Housing Project, which is reportedly suffering from a 51 billion Birr financing gap.
In April 2025, private and state-owned developers signed contracts valued at 67 billion Birr for the construction of more than 4,100 housing units under the project located in Addis Ababa’s Yeka hills.
At the time, officials stated the project would be carried out through a 70/30 financing arrangement, which would grant private developers the right to sell off 70 percent of housing units to recoup investment, while 30 percent would be retained under state ownership.
The Chaka project involves several developers, including ICE Housing Development Consortium PLC, Ovid Real Estate, the state-owned Ethiopian Construction Works Corporation (ECWC), and other private businesses, but the investment deal book did not specify any updates about the status of the agreements or project progress.
Other projects named in the document include housing for employees of the Ethiopian Broadcast Corporation, estimated to cost USD 120 million, a USD 100 million scheme under the Federal Housing Corporation, and 4.3 billion Birr for developing the Tiyit Bet housing project near Arat Kilo.
In energy, the government is seeking to mobilize more than three billion dollars in private capital to back solar projects in Afar and Somali, as well as wind farms in the Amhara and Somali regions, among others.
In transportation, the document estimates two billion dollars for a railway station and dry port facility in Indode, near Addis Ababa. A new expressway linking the capital to Jimma is also on the table for private investors, with the cost of the first phase of construction forecast at just over USD 200 million.
The document outlines other opportunities in mining (gold, potash, and lithium), transport and logistics, manufacturing, and other industries.
The two-dozen projects named in the document hold a combined value of USD 7.3 billion.
