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Central Bank Writes Rulebooks for Billion-Birr Market Already Exists

Central Bank Writes Rulebooks for Billion-Birr Market Already Exists

The forthcoming strategy for interest-free finance will place Sharia-compliant financing on the same tax footing as conventional lending, create a “Sukuk,” and establish national Sharia oversight. In doing so, the industry anticipates that the la...

Aug 22 , 2026

Fortune News

Wegagen Capital Cuts Reserve as It Reaches for More Capital

Wegagen Capital Investment Bank (WCIB) has completed its first full year in profit and used its second shareholders' meeting to reduce the cushion it maintains against bad times. The Investment Ban...

Aug 22 , 2026

News Analysis

Central Bank Reforms Under Pressure as Import Bills Climb

Ethiopia's external accounts are under renewed pressure as the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) moves to unwind its premium-based role in the artisanal gold market. It has also locked in an interest-ra...

Jul 19 , 2026

Money Market Watch

Forex Scarcity Eases, But the Birr Still Brews from the Centre

The most revealing number in the foreign-exchange market last week was not 160.21 Br, the rate at which the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) sold dollars on Thursday. It was 710.14 million dollars, the...

Aug 22 , 2026

Latest Updates

Ethiopia May Not Be Ready to Catch Coffee Price Spike

A sudden squeeze in Arabica supplies has pushed coffee prices to a half-year high, handing exporters...

Aug 22 , 2026

Prosecutors Charge Seven Alleging Amhara Bank's Credit Controls Bend for One Borrower

Federal prosecutors have charged seven defendants over a set of foreign-trade deals they allege drai...

Aug 15 , 2026

Ethio-post Turns Branches into Banks as Banks Close Theirs

Ethio-post is preparing to turn its thousands of branches into banking agents, allowing customers to...

Aug 15 , 2026

Minister Threatens to Blacklist Traders Who Break Export Deals

Kassahun Gofe (PhD), minister of Trade & Regional Integration (MoTRI), is preparing his toughest...

Aug 18 , 2026

Agenda

The City Wants to Widen Its Tax Net. Shops Feel It Tighten

The tax bill that reached Ferdos Debebe this year left little room in the tight finances of her small flour-and-oil shop near the Summit neighbourhood. Last year she paid 1,700 Br. The latest assessment came to 7,250 Br. She had been settling her...

Aug 22 , 2026

Addis Abeba Builds Over Its Waterways. Now the Floods Find a Way Back

Floodwater had erased the edges of the road when Simon Nahom left Sunday school in the Jemo 3 neighbourhood. The 11-year-old was walking home from St. Gabriel C...

Aug 15 , 2026

The Storm Passed, the Freight Bill Did Not

A year after a violent storm tore through one of Ethiopia's major flower-growing clusters, Vegpro Flower Farm Plc has clawed its way back from the wreckage, onl...

Aug 9 , 2026

OPEN FOR AD

OPEN FOR AD

OPEN FOR AD

Editorial

Exports Record Worth Having. They Worth More as a Beginning

A record is a strange thing to worry about. Federal trade officials have booked the best export year, 11.3 billion dollars in 2025/26, up from 8.35 billion the year before. They now want to reach 13.4 billion this year. The temptation could be to...

Aug 22 , 2026

Listen to the Poets Before Bulldozers Narrow Addis Abeba's Memory

Aschalew Fetene, known as “Ardi” and admired for his poetic depth, has built a time capsule for a rapidly changing Addis Abeba. The song “Woyzero Tesseru,” a standout on his album “Aschale,” released two years ago, is an elegy for the quarters l...

Aug 14 , 2026

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Exclusive Interview

Africa's Open Skies Fail If Governments Keep Taxing Travellers Off the Runway

Fortune: The African Union has made SAATM a priority for next year. Are you happy with the way the project is being handled by the AU and AFCAC? Kamil Al-Awadhi: The AU is talking about SAATM as a priority, but I do not think it will work the way it is being handled now. The AU nominated the proj...

Jun 7 , 2026

Britain Wants Ethiopia to Stop Being an Aid Case and Become a Climate Power

Fortune: Given the United Kingdom's long history with Ethiopia, is there a change of view about its role in East Africa's economic and climate future? McLoughlin: We are recalibrating our approach in recognition of Ethiopia's increased importance, particula...

May 3 , 2026

EZEMA'S New Leader on Elections, Youth Apathy and the Constitution

Fortune: Have you voted before? Eyob Mesafint: Yes. I have voted since I was 18. Q: How does the current electoral climate compared with the past? Under the EPRDF, except in 2005, elections were largely nominal and predictable. Opposition leaders expe...

Apr 10 , 2026

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OPEN FOR AD

Viewpoint

Build Addis Abeba with Its People. Not Over Them

Addis Abeba is not just Ethiopia's capital. Beyond serving as the administrative centre of a sovereign state, it holds a singular place in the history of African liberation, diplomacy, continental unity and Pan-Africanism. To reduce the question of the city to municipal administration, boundaries or a short-term political dispute is to underestimate what is really at stake. Addis Abeba's histor...

Aug 23 , 2026

Beyond the Factories, Ethiopia's Growth Now Rides on the Corridors

Ethiopia's economic future will depend not only on what it produces, but on how efficiently it reaches global markets. As one of Africa's largest and fastest-growing economies continues to industrialise, the competitiveness of its logistics will matter as much...

Aug 22 , 2026

Price Belongs to the Present, Value to Posterity

Nothing is more characteristic of markets than their power to persuade that what is traded is, therefore, what it is worth. Few propositions are more seductive, or more deceptive. As Ethiopia's Securities Exchange (ESX) begins its journey, public attention...

Aug 14 , 2026

My Opinion

Telebirr Builds the Infrastructure. CBE Drives the Traffic

Technology pioneers often carry a burden that later entrants never face. They invest heavily in experiments, absorb public scepticism, teach users, build infrastructure and endure years of doubt. Yet once a market matures, followers often arrive with lower risk and capture a larger share of the rewards. Economists call this the first-mover disadvantage, or the pioneer's penalty. Ethiopia's digi...

Aug 22 , 2026

Ethiopia Digitises Its Money, Not Its Factories

For the fast-growing digital audience in Ethiopia, the promise of a “digital economy” tends to conjure images of fintech apps, mobile connectivity and platform-based services. Beneath that visible layer, though, lies a quieter and more consequential fronti...

Aug 14 , 2026

The Hidden Dollar Bill Behind Every App

Digital transformation is gaining pace here. New startups are emerging, public services are moving online, and businesses are reaching for technology-driven tools. Yet beneath the excitement over innovation sits a structural problem that draws little attent...

Aug 8 , 2026

Featured

SMALL-NOTES SQUEEZE WORN, TORN, NEVER RETURNED

For Hirut Ayalew, a small shop owner around Ferensay Legasiyon, the shortage of usable small-denomination notes has become a daily headache. She sometimes turns customers away, or lets them take goods on informal credit, simply because she cannot make change. The torn and faded 10 Br notes moving through shops, taxis, bars and street markets are more than a sign of careless handling. They are inflation made physical, the residue of money that changes hands far too fast, and of a banking syste...

Aug 1 , 2026

Commentaries

Exports Need One Owner, Not a Dozen

For years, Ethiopia took a different path from its African peers when it comes to managing its export business. Where Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and South Africa each wrote single standalone national export strategies, Ethiopia folded its export vision into broader umbrella frameworks. The Homegrown Economic Reform Agenda (HGER), successive development plans in 10-year editions, trade policy, and the series of growth and transformation plans leaned on targeted sector roadmaps. Among them are devel...

Aug 22 , 2026

News Analysis

Central Bank Reforms Under Pressure as Import Bills Climb

Ethiopia's external accounts are under renewed pressure as the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) moves to unwind its premium-based role in the artisanal gold market. It has also locked in an interest-rate-anchored monetary regime, even as the war in the Middle East lifts fuel and fertiliser import bills and keeps foreign-exchange backlogs high. The balance-of-payments position weakened throughout the 2025/26 fiscal year, and policymakers are now leaning on tighter monetary policy, gold-market r...

Jul 19 , 2026

Delicate Number

166

The value of loans and advances, in Birr, to agriculture at the end of June 2025. For every 100 Br of outstanding bank credit, the agriculture sector received only 8.60 Br, despite producing about 32 Br of every 100 Br of GDP.

Aug 22 , 2026

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

We're in the midst of a significant drought with devastating consequences.

Ozonnia Ojielo (PhD), the United Nations' top official in Ethiopia, appealed last week in a video message to warring parties in the Tigray Regional States and other areas to find "common ground," de-escalate the conflict, and allow the U.N. to deliver humanitarian aid.

View From Arada

Roasted Corner's Long Memory Lane Beginning from Five Ears for a Birr

When the first summer rains reach the ground, a familiar figure returns to the corners of Addis Abeba. A mother crouches beside the road behind a charcoal chimney starter...

Aug 22 , 2026

Films Review

Nope

Few would have imagined that the Peele in Key & Peele, a show on MTV's Comedy Central, would become a world-class director reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock and David Fincher. There is a sketch from Key & Peele, titled Town Hall Audience Member, one of the funniest outputs of the show, where Jordan Peele shows some promise as he acts entirely with his eyes to peak comedic effect. Other than that, at least to this author's eyes, there is nothing to indicate cinematic genius or even a great...

Sep 17 , 2022

RRR: PEAK OF BOLLYWOOD, FOR BETTER OR WORSE

Bollywood has finally peaked. The sentimentalism, chirpy musical numbers, physics-defying fight scenes and aggressively cheesy romantic plots have all come into their own in RRR, one of the biggest Bollywood hits in recent memory to gain an international audience. I would normally object to individual elements of the movie, including its ludicrous storyline and plot holes. But the way they have come together is strangely fascinating. RRR, which is short for “Rise, Roar, Revolt" and must be...

Sep 10 , 2022

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Sunday With Eden

Get Good First, Let the Passion Follow

Over coffee not long ago, a conversation about youth employment took an unexpected turn. My cousin, back from a conference where she had spoken, was describing the theme that ran through it. Passion. Speaker after speaker urged the young audience to discover and follow their passion, and build a career around what they love. One went further, telling an attendee to quit his job and go looking f...

Aug 22 , 2026

The Plate on the Screen Isn't the Plate on the Table

Last week, I listened to Dr Berry Dubiso, a podcast named after an Ethiopian doctor and nutrition consultant whose health writings I have found useful on social media. However, a few minutes into the podcast, he made an admission that caught me off guard. T...

Aug 14 , 2026

Ten Years at the Gate, a Dream That Never Stood Still

Last Sunday, my family gathered for what was meant to be a simple farewell. There was food on the table, laughter filling the room, and a decorated cake waiting to be cut. But this was no ordinary goodbye. We were celebrating Saber Adem, a man who had spent...

Aug 8 , 2026

Life Matters

Hyper-Connected. Rarely Together

A few days ago, a quiet realisation stopped me in my tracks. I had not seen one of my closest friends in nearly a year. It sounds absurd, because we speak on the phone almost every day. Our chat on the Telegram platform is a steady stream of audio notes, photos of food and the children, shared jokes and rapid updates about our lives. By every modern measure of keeping in touch, we are hyper-con...

Aug 22 , 2026

A Body Learns Itself from the Inside

Some experiences resist explanation. One can read volumes, hear them described, or watch them on screen, and still hold only a shadow of the truth until living the moment. Pregnancy sits squarely there. It is one thing to understand the biology of human cre...

Aug 14 , 2026

Children Fall. Some Parents Detonate

As an overprotective mother, I know that sudden and cold knot in the stomach all too well. It is the feeling that hits the second I realise a child is hurt, when I hear the sharp cry. My mind races through every worst case. Worse still is the waiting when t...

Aug 8 , 2026

Radar

Creditors Open Way for Ethiopia's Eurobond Restructuring

Ethiopia has cleared a key hurdle in restructuring its one billion dollar Eurobond after the Official Creditor Committee (OCC) approved the latest agreement with private bondholders. The OCC said the deal meets its “comparability of treatment” principle, allowing the government to proceed with restructuring the bond, which matured in 2024. The approval follows renewed negotiations after off...

Aug 22 , 2026

Creditors Open Way for Ethiopia's Eurobond Restructuring

Ethiopia has cleared a key hurdle in restructuring its one billion dollar Eurobond after the Official Creditor Committee (OCC) approved the latest agreement with private bondholders. The OCC said the deal meets its “comparability of treatment” principle, allowing the government to proceed with restructuring the bond, which matured in 2024. The approval follows renewed negotiations after off...

Aug 22 , 2026

In Picture

HALTED CHIVALRY

Two traditional horse-drawn carriages sit neatly parked side by side in the Jemo Three Condominium area, while one horse refuels with a delicate meal of leaves and the other patiently waits for its coachman. The drivers appear to have stepped away for a game of pool after a long day on the road, leaving their horses and carriages to take a well-earned pause of their own. In an age when chivalry is...

Aug 22 , 2026

COLD FASHION

Mannequins draped in clear ponchos stand outside a clothing store beside KKare Building on Mozambique Street, leaving passersby to wonder whether the plastic coverings are a summer fashion statement or simply a careful shopkeeper's attempt to protect the clothes from the pouring rain. Either way, the chilly weather seems to have convinced even these inanimate models to bundle up, whether for warmt...

Aug 22 , 2026