Mr Abdisa Yilma has been appointed as the Director of the Space Science and Geospatial Institute. The institute is a result of the amalgamation of the Ethiopian Space Science and Technology Institute (ESSTI) and the Ethiopian Geospatial Information Institute (EGII). The amalgamation represents the implementation of a 10-year strategic plan by the Ethiopian government to operate a competitive space and geospatial program under a central Space Technology and Geospatial Institute (STGI).

The amalgamation was made into law via an enactment by the Ethiopian House of People’s Representatives of proclamation 1263/2021 to re-establish a new institutional arrangement for the Federal Democratic Republic Government of Ethiopia. As a result, the STGI will become operational this year with core technical centres and technical directorates that will align with national priorities and global trends in the geospatial and space industries.

While the importance and value of the geospatial information and space program have been well recognised by the Government of Ethiopia since the early 1950s. In 1954, the Ethiopian Mapping and Geography Institute was established under the Ministry of Education and Arts to produce fundamental geospatial datasets to support national development agendas. The institute has gone through several restructuring and was renamed several times. In 1998 it was renamed the Ethiopian Mapping Agency (EMA) and migrated to the Ministry of Finance and Cooperation to manage cartographic and digital mapping and remote sensing in the country. In 2018, the agency was renamed the Ethiopian Geospatial Information Institute (EGII) as a way of restructuring. With about 400 employees, EGII engages in aerial photography, photogrammetry, geodetic surveying, and spatial data infrastructure, among other things for planning, infrastructure monitoring, irrigation, elevation maps, urban planning, and structural and regional planning.