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U.S. AID FREEZES, LEAVING RECIPIENTS COUNTING


The abrupt funding pause of American aid has left the humanitarian world reeling, sparking immediate and profound uncertainty among those dependent on USAID-financed works. One consultant described the decision as “unexpected and shocking,” disru...

Feb 9 , 2025


Fortune News

Oversight Failures Ignite Parliamentary Wrath as Investment Audit Reveals Deep Flaws

The Ethiopian Investment Commission is under intense scrutiny after the Federal Auditor General's findings revealed years of alleged oversight failures. The report shows that, over the past 26 year...

Feb 9 , 2025

Money Market Watch

Hijira's Premium, Zemen's Bold Bet Enticing Forex Market

Last week, Hijira Bank posted a buying rate of 126.5 Br to the dollar, marking what industry observers described as a historic milestone. In an even more striking move, the Bank also offered the most...

Feb 9 , 2025

News Analysis

Hibret Exhibits Growing Balance Sheet, Thinner Margins, a Precarious Credit Surge

Hibret Bank ended its 2023/24 financial year with a strong performance, reporting total assets of 96.58 billion Br, an increase of 16.95pc from the previous year. However, for analysts following the i...

Feb 9 , 2025


Latest Updates

Oromia Bank Installs New Chair in Governance Overhaul, Profit Slump

Oromia Bank has elected a new board chairperson following the resignation of Assefa Sime (MD), after...

Road Projects in Crisis as Compensation Disputes, Budget Shortfalls, Incompetence Stall Construction

The Ethiopian Roads Administration (ERA) has suspended 27 road projects due to security concerns, co...

Feb 9 , 2025


Authority Introduces Education Quality Audit System as Sector Faces Crisis

The Education & Training Authority (ETA) is set to implement a standardised quality audit system...

Feb 9 , 2025








Agenda

USAID Funding Suspension Triggers Crises, Hits Health Sector, Leaves Thousands Jobless

Demelash Tekesete, a consultant for an NGO, was stunned by the sudden halt of US Agency for International Development (USAID) funding. “It was unexpected and shocking,” he said. His work, focused on equipping youth with job skills, internsh...

Feb 9 , 2025


Economic Slowdown, Instability, Tax Burden Bang Small Businesses

Tesfaye Hora, a former Bajaj (three-wheeled vehicle) driver from Gebre Guracha in Oromia Regional State, once led a stable life. Earning between 700 Br and 900...

Feb 2 , 2025


New Traffic Rules Add Financial Strain on Addis Abeba Drivers

Binyam Tesfaye, a 31-year-old father of two, is struggling under the weight of Addis Abeba's new traffic regulations. Earning 7,000 Br a month, he spends 5,000...

Jan 25 , 2025







Editorial

The Race to the AUC Follows Mahamat's Grand Entrances, Quiet Exits Legacy

This week, the African Union's (AU) annual summit in Addis Abeba is set to be more than a routine exercise of convention by heads of states. The continent is beset by increasingly intricate conflicts and a leadership vacuum left by outgoing Chairpers...

Feb 9 , 2025


Addis Abeba's Costly Pursuit of Prosperity Bulldozes Dreams on Bargain Prices

Urban renewal is seldom gentle to those on the receiving end of redevelopment. Take several neighbourhoods of Addis Abeba where bustling life once thrived. Silence now reigns on them, bar the bulldozers flattening not only the land tens of thousands once lived...

Feb 1 , 2025

Birr in Tumble, Reform Rhetoric Meets Bitter Economic Realities

Grand ambitions have long driven Ethiopia's successive leaders, but they remain weighed down by deep structural vulnerabilities. But, nowhere is this more evident than in the monetary policy front, where policymakers let market forces guide Birr's value agains...

Jan 25 , 2025







Exclusive Interview

State Enterprises from Oracles to Apprentices

Charged with transforming colossal state-owned enterprises into modern and competitive powerhouses, the sovereign wealth manager, Ethiopian Investment Holdings (EIH), is at a defining moment. At the helm is Brook Taye (PhD), its third CEO since its founding in 2020, whose vision departs from convent...

Dec 22 , 2024


State Enterprises from Oracles to Apprentices

Charged with transforming colossal state-owned enterprises into modern and competitive powerhouses, the sovereign wealth manager, Ethiopian Investment Holdings (EIH), is at a defining moment. At the helm is Brook Taye (PhD), its third CEO since its founding in...

Dec 22 , 2024

Patience - Consistency - Respect

France's Ambassador to Ethiopia up until last week, Remi Marechaux, arrived in Addis Abeba four years ago with a dual mandate of representing his country and engaging with the African Union (AU). He dove into familiar waters from his previous role as Director...

Aug 4 , 2024







Viewpoint

Banks Face a Gen Z Reckoning as Digital-First Finance Redraws the Rules

Traditional banks are facing mounting pressure to reinvent themselves in a rapidly changing financial sector. The twin forces of technological advancements and the rise of agile neo-banks have disrupted traditional business models, while the emergence of Generation Z as a major consumer group is further accelerating the need for change. Zoomers — those born between 1997 and 2012 — are redef...

Feb 9 , 2025


Does Globalization Have a Future?

As wildfires raged through Los Angeles in January, the infamous American conspiracy theorist Alex Jones posted on X (formerly Twitter) that they were “part of a larger globalist plot to wage economic warfare & deindustrialise the [United] States.” W...

Feb 9 , 2025

Ethiopia's Closed Financial System Can't Open the Door to Innovation

For one-and-a-half decades, Ethiopia's state-led economic growth model generated impressive expansion in gross domestic product (GDP) but left behind a series of financial and structural complications. The grand vision of transforming the economy's fundamental...

Feb 1 , 2025


My Opinion

Developing Countries Need a New Approach to Long-Term Financing

The world is in the midst of a financing crisis. As world leaders work to mobilise trillions of dollars to meet climate and development goals, expensive public debt is limiting governments' ability to make long-term investments. A long-term framework for low-interest financing of global public goods is urgently needed. While debt burdens have increased dramatically almost everywhere, the danger...

Feb 9 , 2025


What AI Means for Growth, Jobs

Some prominent economists argue that the revolution in artificial intelligence (AI), particularly the rapid development of generative AI, will have only moderate effects on productivity growth but unambiguously negative effects on employment, owing to the auto...

Feb 1 , 2025

In Green Energy Gridlock, Markets Alone Can't Power the Transition

The international community has long recognized the urgent need to reduce dependence on fossil fuels and shift to renewable energy, and in recent years many governments have pledged to reach net-zero greenhouse-gas emissions, albeit over extremely long timefra...

Jan 25 , 2025






Featured

Publishing Industry Contends with Soaring Costs, Shifts Digital

Walelgn Ayele, an aspiring young author, faced a harsh reality when he attempted to publish his first book. Printing 1,000 copies of a 450-page book would cost nearly half a million Birr. He quickly realised that paper size and weight were just the beginning of a complex and costly process. "To publish a book nowadays, you either have to be a government official or extremely rich," he said. "It's impossible at these prices." The publishing industry is struggling with soaring paper costs, c...

Feb 9 , 2025


Commentaries

The Fight Against Digital Feudalism to Break the AI Chains

This month's AI Action Summit in Paris comes at a critical juncture in the development of artificial intelligence (AI). The issue is not whether Europe can compete with China and the United States (US) in an AI arms race; it is whether Europeans can pioneer a different approach that puts public value at the centre of technological development and governance. The task is to move away from digital feudalism, the term I coined back in 2019 to describe the dominant digital platforms' model of rent e...

Feb 9 , 2025


News Analysis

Hibret Exhibits Growing Balance Sheet, Thinner Margins, a Precarious Credit Surge

Hibret Bank ended its 2023/24 financial year with a strong performance, reporting total assets of 96.58 billion Br, an increase of 16.95pc from the previous year. However, for analysts following the industry, this pace fell below the private banking industry's average growth of around 28pc, a gap that displayed the Bank's stable position and the intense competition shaping the expanding industry. Lenders across the board have been racing to expand through new branches, digital innovations, an...

Feb 9 , 2025


Delicate Number

45

The daily passangers count for the Addis Abeba Light Rail Transport (AALRT) in 2023, dropped by 61pc from the highest recorded daily passenger count in 2017. A public transit system experiencing such a sharp ridership decline in a growing city is unusual. Major operational inefficiencies or external factors, such as frequent train cancellations, shortages of spare parts, security concerns and power outages, are affecting train operations.

Feb 9 , 2025


Fineline

Leaders of the National . . .

Leaders of the National Election Board are in a charm offensive mood, of a sort. Last week, they organised a rare tour for members of the media, showcasing what polling stations will look like during the upcoming national elections; and they took the...

Oct 3 , 2020


Verbatim

"It's a destruction."

Atul Gawande (PhD), the former head of global health at USAID, described the unfolding of the United States Agency for International Trade (USAID) following President Donald Trump's decision to close it.  



View From Arada

A Rebirth of a Royal Gem in Addis Abeba

My first visit to a palace was Ankober Palace, in the North Shoa Zone of Amhara Regional State about a decade ago. A relatively small, two-story medieval structure, it sits atop a hill, buil...

Feb 9 , 2025




Fortune Video




Sunday With Eden

A Wake-Up Call, the Need for Self-Reliance

For decades, African countries, including Ethiopia, have heavily relied on financial aid and humanitarian assistance from developed nations, particularly the United States and European states. America's recent decision to withdraw support from key international organisations, including the World Health Organization (WHO) and major aid programs, has triggered a crisis affecting healthcare, food...

Feb 9 , 2025


The Vanishing Reverence for Marriage

Marriage is meant to be a lifelong bond, built on love, trust, and commitment. It is a promise to stand together through life's challenges. Yet, divorce rates in Addis Abeba are soaring, raising concerns about how this sacred institution is being tested in...

Feb 1 , 2025

Wash Hands, Save Lives

In a world scarred by health crises like COVID-19, one might expect handwashing to be a universal habit. Yet, many still neglect this simple, life-saving act, spreading diseases in the process. Hand hygiene is a basis of public health. It is a simple yet po...

Jan 25 , 2025


Life Matters

The Art of Self-Promotion, Balancing Humility, Visibility

I will be honest; self-promotion is not my strong suit. A complex mix of self-doubt, perfectionism, and perhaps even self-sabotage often holds me back. It is a strange paradox. If everything were easy and effortless, what would I have to strive for? But I have watched others, people who seize opportunities with hunger and confidence, climbing the ladder of success. They do not necessarily wo...

Feb 9 , 2025


When Taxi Rides Become Unexpected Fare Collection Hassles

There was a time when taxi rides were moments of peaceful relaxation. I would lean back, sometimes fall asleep, and admire the passing scenery. I would observe people, listen to music, or watch videos. That is a far cry from my current commutes. Around 70pc of...

Feb 1 , 2025

Breaking Stereotypes, Redefining Masculinity for a Just Society

A recent altercation in my neighbourhood has made me reflect on the complexities of conflict, especially among women. While I have never been involved in a physical fight, I have often vented my anger through shouting rather than aggression. This incident, ho...

Jan 25 , 2025





Radar

Manufacturing Forex Allocations Surge, Ministry Reports

Minister of Industry, Melaku Alebel, reported that 369.11 million dollars in foreign exchange were availed to manufacturers by Ethiopian banks, achieving 79pc of the planned 468.42 million dollars. Last year, 274.1 million dollars was provisioned to the sector. During the Ministry's six-month report to Parliament, Melaku also revealed that 24.87 billion Br in loans were made available to large...

Jan 25 , 2025


Parliament Overhauls Three Key Sectors

Parliament approved two key proclamations last week seeking to strengthen the justice system and civil registration processes. The first re-establishes the Federal Justice & Legal Institute under the Federal Supreme Court. The Institute will provide mandatory training for law graduates and professional development for judges, aiming to improve the competence and efficiency of legal professiona...

Feb 10 , 2025

In Picture

PEACE PRAYERS

The Ethiopian Civil & Professional Association Congress, declaring 51.3 million members, gathered religious leaders and influential public figures for a national prayer and peace ceremony at Adwa Victory Memorial Museum. The Congress aimed to support the promotion of peace and development in the country. In light of ongoing conflicts, land disputes, landslides, flood disasters, and other chall...

Feb 11 , 2025


PARKED SHELTER

A silver car is partially covered by a makeshift setup around Gofa, reflecting the growing parking challenges in Addis Abeba. The city administration has introduced a new regulation aimed at addressing the shortage of parking spaces which requires buildings in the city to open their underutilized parking spaces to the public while the city's master plan includes a target of constructing 60 new par...

Feb 11 , 2025