The organization was established in 1954 under the reign of Emperor Haile Selassie I as a department in the Imperial Ethiopian Ministry of Education.

The Institute was transferred to the Ministry of Interior in 1960 and expanded its operations to include some basic cartographic activities and extended research.

The organisation had benefited from the United States Point Four Programme of financial aid until it was discontinued in 1962,[2] at which time the country entered into an agreement with the United States for the U.S. Army Map Service, later known as Topographic Command (Topocom), to produce base maps of the country.

[2] As of 2017, the EMA employs about 350 people, engaged in aerial photography, geodetic surveying, photogrammetric, cartographic and photo lab activities to support and maintain its 1:250,000; 1:50,000; 1:1,000,000; 1:2,000,000; National Atlas of Ethiopia and 1:15,000-scale map of Addis Ababa.

[5] The motivation for this change was to modernize the aims of the organization as well as to differentiate themselves from the Information Network Security Agency (INSA) and the Ministry of Urban Development and Housing.