Eventhough Ethiopia is investing a lot in electricity generation and infrastructure, thernelectricity access rate in the country is one of the lowest in Africa mainly due to inadequaternexpansion of electricity connection in rural areas. The purpose of this study was to assess thernkey challenges and the prospect of electricity access in the country and to recommend the wayrnforward to address the electricity access gap. This study mainly used secondary data collectedrnfrom extensively reviewed documents and also interviews with purposely selected experts andrnofficials to substantiate the findings. According to the findings of this research, the electricityrnaccess programs of the country were not effective to meet the electricity access gap. Therninstitutional instability of the sector, less attention to decentralized or off-grid electricityrnaccess programs ,lack of financing and private sector engagement have been some of thernchallenges hindering the enhancement of electricity access in the country. Therefore,rnestablishing a long term and stable institutional structure in the electricity sector,rnstrengthening and expanding decentralized (off-grid) electrification programs, setting a costrnreflective electricity tariff (both for local and export) for the sectorâ€™s sustainability andrnenhancing the private sector engagement are some of the recommendations of this study tornreach the universal electricity access targets of the country