ADDIS ABABA - Ethiopia has signed an agreement with United Arab Emirates' AMEA Power for the construction of a 300 megawatt wind farm at a cost of $600 million, its finance ministry said on Sunday.

The Horn-of-Africa nation is turning to renewable energy to boost electricity coverage, which stood at 50% of the population in 2020 according to the World Bank, leaving 60 million people outside of the grid.

The Aysha wind farm will be located on 18,000 acres of land, the ministry said in a statement, and it will create 2,000 jobs during the construction and operational phases.

Dubai-based AMEA Power focuses on renewable energy projects across Africa, the Middle East and other emerging markets.

Ethiopia already hosts two smaller wind power projects in its Oromiya and Tigray regions. The Aysha project will be Ethiopia's biggest wind power generation plant when it is completed, the finance ministry said.

(Reporting by Dawit Endeshwa; Writing by Duncan Miriri; Editing by Sharon Singleton)