When Bread Becomes Too Costly for Breakfast

Posted on May 24, 2026May 26, 2026 by Digital Editor

For Helen Mekonnen, 45, bread has become the measure of how far a household income can stretch in Addis Abeba. In the neighbourhood near Bulgaria St. Michael, on Tanzania St., a loaf that once was a routine purchase now requires a daily calculation before breakfast.

Bread was not a luxury in her home. Her 15-year-old son, Elfaz Tadesse, does not have much appetite for injera. Instead, he insists on having bread with every meal. She spends at least 75 Br a day on bread, making it nearly impossible to cover the rest of our daily groceries. Helen blames herself with a mother’s regret.

“I raised him that way,” she told Fortune. “It’s very difficult to force him to switch to injera overnight.”

To keep him fed, she buys five loaves every morning. The loaves have grown smaller as prices have climbed.

“The bread I’m buying is so small I don’t think a toddler can be full with only one bread for a meal,” said Helen.

Her husband earns 9,000 Br a month, but that income is absorbed by teff flour, electricity, water and rent. Helen covers the daily groceries with her earnings from her work as a neighbourhood janitor, earning 2,100 Br a month.

“Groceries are my responsibility,” she said. “I work around the neighbourhood to fulfil my obligation as a mother and as a wife.”

However, her work is not steady relief. It fills only part of the gap left after rent and utilities. Bread, teff flour and cooking supplies compete for the same notes in her purse, turning each purchase into a choice about what can wait. Helen does not see her family’s stress as exceptional.

“Everyone in my community is struggling,” she said. “We’re all trying to find a way to put food on the table for our families.”

In Tulu Dimtu, under the Sheger City Administration, Etsegenet Teklu faces the same squeeze from another side of the city. A stay-at-home mother of two daughters, ages 12 and eight, she found that bakery bread has become too costly for a household living on a monthly salary paid to a nurse working at a public health facility.

“Why would I buy bread that costs the equivalent of a whole day’s worth of groceries?” she quipped.

Rather than mask the pressure, Etsegenet explained it to her daughters. She sits with her daughters and explains the situation.

“They’re young, but they’re incredibly understanding,” Etsegenet told Fortune. “They know exactly why we simply can’t afford it right now.”

The lesson has not erased their longing. When a guest recently asked the girls what treat they wanted, they did not ask for sweets but bread from the Bakery. It was a small request, but it captured how a basic food has slipped into the category of a guest’s present.

The pressure felt in many households starts farther up the chain, in bakeries where managers now price every gram. On Gabon Street in Mesqel Flower, Patina Bakery’s ovens still run in the morning, but Muluken Hailu, its general manager, observed the economy changing. A standard loaf now sells for 15 Br, up 50pc from 10 Br a month ago. He attributed the sudden spike to the recent surge in gas prices.

Higher fuel prices have increased transport costs at every stage of the supply chain. The Bakery has adjusted both price and weight. The loaves from Patina Bakery, even after the price increase, weigh between 75Gm and 80Gm.

The wholesale market has moved sharply, too. A quintal of all-purpose flour now sells for 12,000 Br, up by 3,000 Br in a matter of weeks. Retail flour has followed. A kilo that sold for 100 Br a month ago went up by 50pc last week. The result is a cautious trade in which bakeries keep selling, but customers and producers weigh each Birr and gram more carefully. For bakers, the choice is uncomfortable as passing the full increase to customers risks losing them and holding prices steady means selling smaller loaves or accepting margins that cannot cover labour, fuel and inputs.

The smell of fresh bread remains, but the business behind it has become more delicate. When the prices of staple grains, flour-based foods, and bread change even moderately, the effect ripples through household budgets like those of Helen and Estegenet.

Within the food basket of prices, bread and cereals jumped by a more modest 5.1pc. Their significance lies less in the pace of the increase than in their weight, accounting for 17.1pc of the total CPI basket, the largest share among major food items listed in the CPI. That makes bread and cereals quite an inflation heavyweight.

Official data may reveal a cooling inflation rate, but the country’s breadbasket is still sending a warning. The Ethiopian Statistical Service’s latest consumer price bulletin shows headline inflation at 11.7pc in April this year, down from 14.4pc a year earlier. However, food inflation climbed faster, reaching 13.5pc year-on-year (YoY).

On a monthly rate, bread and cereals increased 1.7pc between March and April, against a 2.4pc increase for food and non-alcoholic beverages as a whole. The increase was smaller than the month-on-month rise in meat, at 3.4pc, and oils and fats, at four percent. But bread is different, for it is not a discretionary purchase. It sits in the daily diet, in school lunches, in urban kiosks, in roadside eateries and in the wage earner’s breakfast. A mild rise, repeated often enough, becomes a squeeze.

Abdulhakim Redi, deputy chief executive of Hanan Plc in Furi District, Sheger City Administration, blamed the rise in flour prices on recent fuel increases and the Minimum Alternative Tax (MAT).

“The market moved with steady momentum until fuel hikes began two months ago,” he said.

Since then, logistics and transport costs have risen by over 200pc, adding pressure on manufacturing and supply operations.

At Enbut Bakery, near Fikremariam Aba Techan St. in Piassa St. George Church, the first constraint came from diesel, on which the Bakery’s machines depend to operate.

“The first problem we faced was diesel,” said Salim Hamza, the general manager.

A shutdown was only avoided after officials at the Arada District Trade Bureau granted the District Trade Bureau direct access to fuel allocations to protect the area’s bread supply. Fuel access, however, did not solve the larger problem of cost. Enbut buys wheat flour at 11,000 Br a quintal. Transport costs have fallen by half to 200 Br a quintal, but the relief is not enough under fixed retail expectations. The Bakery sells a 70Gg loaf for 10 Br and a 90Gg loaf for 15 Br.

“This is not profitable at all,” Salim said.

Management plans to raise the 70Gg loaf by three Birr and reduce the weight of the 15 Br loaf. The decision embodies a trade-off spreading through the market, in which bakeries can raise prices, shrink loaves, or absorb losses. Few can do the last for long. The squeeze is especially sharp for bakeries that serve crowded neighbourhoods, where consumers are price-sensitive and buy bread in small daily quantities. In such markets, a price change depresses demand, while a few grams less a loaf can prompt complaints to regulators from households already cutting other expenses.

Those in the flour industry trace pricing issues to volatile logistics. Umer K. Flour Factory has seen domestic freight charges swing sharply in recent weeks. A month ago, the company paid 1,000 Br a quintal to transport grain from local smallholders to its plant in Gedeb Asasa, Oromia Regional State, a grain-producing corridor. Farm-gate logistics have eased to 500 Br a quintal, but overhead costs remain high.

The movement of wheat from farmers to mills and of flour from mills to bakeries has become the decisive cost in a chain that once operated with more predictable costs. The Factory processes flour at 11,000 Br a quintal, which its Management says reflected transport volatility rather than discretionary pricing. Millers are also dealing with Value-Added Tax (VAT) administration and transport costs, which are made worse by inefficient logistics infrastructure.

Leaders of the Ethiopian Millers Association, a national lobby with more than 200 members, warn that regulatory and logistical pressures are pushing up prices for flour, pasta and other staples. According to Dereje Zeleke (PhD), president of the Association, the Minimum Alternative Tax could erode narrower margins.

“A one-size-fits-all regulatory framework can’t address agribusiness conditions,” he told Fortune. “Taxes are necessary, but they should be regulated accordingly.”

Without adjustment, the Association’s leaders cautioned that financial pressure could encourage contraband trade, disrupt formal production, and weaken “Ethiopia Tamrit” (Let Ethiopia Produce), the national manufacturing initiative.

Global and domestic pressures have raised costs, but the city has provided cheaper alternatives. City officials, such as Habiba Siraj, head of the Addis Abeba Trade Bureau, defend retail prices at commercial bakeries as “reasonable,” attributing this to subsidised bread schemes meant to protect low-income consumers.

“Even though coverage gaps exist, viable alternatives have been established across the capital,” said Habiba.

For many consumers, the subsidies provide relief but not a full answer. Distribution depends on timing, location and availability, while families with children or workers who need bread early in the day cannot always wait for subsidised supply. Coverage gaps leave households such as Helen’s exposed to commercial prices, while bakeries argue that administrative controls cannot offset rising costs of flour, fuel and taxes.

The national bread market revenue is estimated at 3.29 billion dollars in 2025. Addis Abeba’s bread market, a daily lifeline for millions, has a network of 379 bakeries that receive 102,000Qtl of wheat flour a month, and 1,334 outlets that meet only 61.2pc of demand.

Production is clearer for one dominant player than for the market as a whole. Sheger Bread Factory has a stated capacity of 1.8 million to two million loaves a day, dispatching 70Gg loaves through an early-morning logistics network to distribution centres across districts. The bread retails for five Birr.

The city also supports 26 bakeries, subsidising bread at 1.20 Br to 1.50 Br for every 100Gm to keep prices stable. These outlets, along with the Birhan Bread initiative, sell 70Gm loaves for eight Birr.

For households already living on the edge, the distinction between subsidised and commercial bread is not merely technical. It decides whether breakfast remains a daily routine or becomes another negotiation over scarcity.

According to Teka Gebreyesus (PhD), graduate of PhD in Economics from Peking University, China and the former state minister of Trade & Industry, treating inflation only as a consumer-price issue misses the production realities behind it. He sees supply and demand as symptoms of deeper gaps in logistics infrastructure, fragmented supply chains and speculative hoarding. He argued that the state should work with manufacturers to map production costs against logistics margins, rather than rely on reactive administrative policing.

He also warns against treating public-sector wage increases as true cost-of-living adjustments.

“Adding cash to a supply-constrained market without fixing infrastructure risks a wage-price spiral that further weakens household purchasing power,” he told Fortune.

That is the macroeconomic version of Helen’s daily problem. Each morning, she buys five small loaves and measures what remains for everything else. For her son, bread is still food. For his mother, it has become a chronicle of wages, fuel, flour, taxes and the limits of endurance.

Tax Push Tests How Much Pain Taxpayers Can Bear

Posted on May 24, 2026May 26, 2026 by Digital Editor

An International Monetary Fund (IMF) team has spent weeks in Addis Abeba conducting the fifth review of the macroeconomic reform programme it backs in Ethiopia. Its checklist would be familiar and hard.

Its experts demand to see a fuller floating of the Birr in the foreign-exchange market, a phased withdrawal of direct state subsidies and much stronger efforts to raise domestic taxes. In Ethiopia, as elsewhere, such prescriptions mean weaker currencies, faster inflation and a higher cost of living. Kenya’s experience, where anger over tax measures helped ignite an urban insurrection, warns governments trying to extract more revenue from weary households.

Particularly in a country where society is polarised, the political order fragmented, and the incumbents’ legitimacy always contested, Ethiopia is a difficult place for such prescriptions. Pushing painful measures on an aggravated public could carry consequences beyond the budget. Yet policymakers face fiscal ambition and economic reality.

The closest dollar-denominated benchmark for real GDP in 2024 was about 120 billion dollars, in constant 2015 prices. Nonetheless, the tax take remains among the weakest in Africa. This is a background to a proposed amendment to the tax administration proclamation, almost a decade after the current law came into force. However, the bill is not an overhaul as it only adds provisions, clarifies ambiguities, and codifies practices already applied through directives, internal instructions, and administrative practices.

Its timing is deliberate as Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s administration wants higher domestic revenue. Expanding the tax base, introducing new taxes, and raising the tax-to-GDP ratio have become the main drivers as financing pressures tighten.

According to data from the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE), the tax-revenue-to-GDP ratio fell to 7.1pc in 2023/24, from 7.9pc a year earlier and 8.8pc in 2021/22. An IMF-linked estimate put income-tax revenue at only 2.9pc of GDP in 2024. With external borrowing constrained, subsidies costly and debt obligations heavy, tax revenue is the state’s main fiscal prop.

The federal government collected about 720 billion Br in taxes in 2024/25, a “record” increase in nominal terms. But the figure says less than it seems. Inflation, exchange-rate movements and customs-linked receipts can inflate Birr collections. The burden remains in the high single digits of GDP, while federal receipts have expanded faster than the economy’s capacity.

On paper, the strategy appears to have logic. Ethiopia needs more domestic revenue to finance services and borrow less. It has produced gains. Federal tax mobilisation increased sharply in 2024/25, with federal and regional collections exceeding one trillion Birr. The full-year target was 1.5 trillion Br, split between 900 billion Br for the federal government and 600 billion Br for regional administrations.

The first half of 2024/25 gives the clearest picture. The Ministry of Revenues reported collecting more than 451 billion Br, including 247.7 billion Br from domestic taxes and 203.8 billion Br from export trade duties and taxes. Federal tax officials claimed this was 110pc higher than a year earlier.

In the first quarter of 2024/25, revenue and grants reached 177.2 billion Br. Domestic revenue was 165.4 billion Br, and tax revenue was 153.7 billion Br, accounting for 93pc of domestic revenue. Indirect taxes contributed 118.4 billion Br, foreign-trade taxes 83 billion Br, domestic taxes 35.4 billion Br and direct taxes 35.3 billion Br. Within direct taxes, personal income tax brought in 11.8 billion Br and business income tax 19.3 billion Br. Revenue and grants execution reached 31pc of the annual plan, while budget execution was 22.7pc, uncovering that spending lagged mobilisation. Collections then increased from 153.7 billion Br in the first quarter to more than 451 billion Br by midyear.

The system still relies heavily on indirect and trade-related taxes rather than direct taxation. At midyear, domestic taxes of 247.7 billion Br were only modestly above the 203.8 billion Br collected from export trade duties and taxes. That leaves the Treasury exposed to import cycles, customs performance and macroeconomic shocks.

Are rising nominal collections evidence of reform, or mostly the outcomes of inflation and exchange-rate change?

The federal government acknowledged this in October 2024, publishing its first strategy for National Medium-Term Revenue through to 2027/28. The plan seeks to reverse the tax-to-GDP decline and lift revenue by a cumulative 6.9 percentage points of GDP. Of that, three percentage points would come from tax policy measures, 2.9 percentage points from administrative improvements and one percentage point from macroeconomic reforms.

The direction could be defensible, but the method remains contested. Citizens and financial experts criticise aggressive taxation on households squeezed by inflation and living costs. Recent fiscal laws lean on new collection mechanisms and tougher penalties. The danger is that enforcement looks less like compliance and more like revenue hunting.

One controversial provision in the bill tabled now bars taxpayers from submitting new evidence during complaints, appeals or tax revisions if documents were not presented during the initial assessment. If late evidence materially changes the liability, taxpayers could face a penalty equal to one-fifth of the revised obligation. Officials at the Ministry of Finance argue that late documents prolong disputes and delay proceedings. The purpose seems to be to bring administrative certainty, while the problem remains with procedural fairness.

Valid documents should be reviewed because they are valid, not rejected for being late. Taxpayers may miss deadlines without negligence. Records can be delayed, institutions slow, and assessments complicated. If legitimate evidence changes an assessment, the tax authority should reassess the liability rather than dismiss the material or punish the taxpayer. The penalty tilts the system toward the state, limiting safeguards and widening official leverage. At a minimum, it should be reduced to reflect taxpayers’ practical difficulties.

The bill also creates a mediation system before disputes reach the Tax Appeal Commission. In principle, mediation could settle cases faster. In practice, crucial questions remain unanswered, including a lack of clarity about who qualifies as a mediator. The Ministry of Finance states institutions may serve, but the bill leaves appointments to the tax authority. A mediator chosen by one disputing party would no doubt struggle to appear neutral.

Costs are also shifted to taxpayers, without being shared. If mediation is independent, its financing should show it.

Why is mediation needed if the tax authority is applying the law correctly?

Another provision targets businesses that fail to issue receipts, nearly doubling existing fines. Granted, compliance is necessary so long as enforcement is legitimate. But excessive fines can produce perverse incentives. When punishment is too severe, businesses and tax officers may engage in informal bargaining, with bribes used to avoid penalties. A system built on fear can weaken compliance and encourage corruption.

Collections are rising, but legal and administrative burdens are increasingly falling on ordinary firms and consumers. Improving compliance, aligning disputes with international standards, and modernising tax administration remain sound. But laws that look efficient in statute books can become arbitrary at the counter, on the shop floor, or at the tax office.

Undoubtedly, Ethiopia needs a larger, fairer and more reliable tax base. It also needs public trust, in which citizens pay more willingly when revenue is used for services and procedures that treat them as taxpayers, not targets. A reform built mainly on restrictions, penalties and state discretion may lift collections for a time. It is less likely to build the voluntary compliance that the Treasury will need long after the IMF team leaves Addis Abeba.

Ethiopian Looks South as Namibia Tries to Rebuild a National Carrier

Posted on May 24, 2026May 28, 2026 by Digital Editor

The Ethiopian Airlines Group (EAG) is weighing a deeper role in Southern Africa’s fragmented aviation market after Namibia formally asked the carrier to help re-establish a national airline, a move that could extend Addis Abeba’s influence beyond its hub-and-spoke network while testing how far Africa’s largest airline can stretch its management capacity.

Mesfin Tasew, the chief executive officer (CEO), confirmed to Fortune that the Group has begun technical feasibility studies following the request from Windhoek.

“We’ve agreed to assist in principle, but our final decision will depend on the outcome of the ongoing studies,” Mesfin said.

According to the CEO, several partnership models are under review, though no preferred structure has been identified. The Group is also assessing acquisition requests from two other countries, which he declined to name because the reviews are still in progress.

The request arrives as Ethiopian Airlines is strengthening its balance sheet through state-approved capital increases. The capital buildup is intended to protect the Group against an operating environment shaped by currency pressures, fuel costs and sharper regional competition. A Namibian arrangement, if it proceeds, would fit Ethiopian Airlines’ strategy of using alliances and minority stakes to expand across African markets too small or financially fragile to support large national carriers on their own.

However, the engagement is limited for now to Namibia’s approach, as separate discussions between Botswana and Namibia over a possible joint regional airline are not part of Ethiopian Airlines’ current mandate.

Namibia has been without a national flag carrier since Air Namibia was liquidated in 2021. Its latest plan is to launch Namibia Air before the end of 2026, presenting it as a clean-slate venture rather than a revival. A technical committee is reviewing operating models, including possible public-private partnership arrangements, before final Cabinet approval.

The shadow over that process is Air Namibia’s long failure. Founded in 1946 as South West Air Transport (SWAT), and rebranded after independence in 1991, the Airline operated for more than seven decades as the country’s flag carrier. It used Windhoek Hosea Kutako International Airport as its main hub, with secondary operations at Windhoek Eros Airport. Its network once connected Namibia with Johannesburg, Cape Town, Harare, Lusaka, Luanda and Gaborone. Long-haul flights at different times reached Frankfurt and London.

The network gave Namibia visibility but not financial endurance. Air Namibia accumulated losses over decades and relied on state bailouts estimated at around 467 million dollars. In February 2021, after prolonged financial stress and regulatory concerns, the Namibian government approved voluntary liquidation, grounded the fleet and ended operations.

Since then, policymakers in Windhoek have debated how to return to the aviation market without reproducing the old liabilities and habits. Early proposals included relaunching a carrier under a public-private partnership. The more recent direction is to establish Namibia Air as a new entity, with its governance and operating model still under review.

Botswana’s position adds another layer to the regional discussion. Air Botswana remains small by regional standards, operating three to four aircraft, with some reports putting active capacity at only three. It serves about eight destinations across roughly a dozen routes, focusing on domestic links and selected regional services. Staffing is estimated at between 201 and 500 employees. That scale makes it a limited national carrier rather than a full regional competitor. It helps explain why governments have returned to joint-venture options in search of economies of scale.

Such a scale could come from Ethiopian Airlines, a continental bellwether that few African companies can match. Its revenue of 7.6 billion dollars for 2024/25, about 19 million passengers carried during the year (including 15.2 million international passengers), and the acquisition of 13 new aircraft, signalled an expansion that has continued even as much of the global aviation industry remains exposed to volatile fuel costs, currency pressures, financing constraints, and shifting passenger demand.

The Group’s paid-up capital reached 263 billion Br, with more than 145 aircraft, flying to 127 destinations across Africa, the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. Its freighter destinations include Accra, Johannesburg, Miami, São Paulo, Zurich, Dubai, Mumbai, Shanghai, and many others.

An aviation expert and pilot, Yonathan Menkir, believes that a Namibia-Botswana aviation arrangement offers a “significant strategic opportunity” for Ethiopian Airlines to deepen its role in African aviation integration following Air Namibia’s collapse, and given Air Botswana’s structural limits.

“Ethiopian Airlines should proceed gradually, starting with advisory work and codeshare agreements similar to its partnerships with ASKY Airlines and Malawi Airlines before considering equity participation,” said Yonathan.

According to Yonathan, the commercial case lies in network efficiency. A new regional carrier could feed passengers into Ethiopian Airlines’ Addis Abeba hub while drawing on safari tourism and cargo flows. Such a model would use the Group’s existing hub-and-spoke system without requiring immediate large-scale investment in Windhoek or Gaborone.

But the opportunity carries familiar risks, Yonathan warned. Success would depend on disciplined governance and financial sustainability.

“Political ambitions should not run ahead of commercial realities that have weakened similar state-led ventures across Africa,” he said.

Fed Courts Big Investors with a Promise to Pay If Things Go Wrong

Posted on May 24, 2026May 26, 2026 by Digital Editor

The federal government has moved to put its balance sheet behind a select group of investments, approving a regulation that gives strategic investors a path to compensation if state action strips them of assets, rights or expected returns.

Cleared by the Council of Ministers, the regulation turns what has been a political assurance into a legally enforceable instrument for investors and their financiers. It creates compensation commitments and structured off-taker arrangements for projects judged vital to national development, infrastructure expansion, connectivity, competitiveness or technology transfer. It authorises the Minister of Finance to negotiate, sign and execute instruments on behalf of the federal government, placing the Ministry at the centre of a new risk-sharing regime for high-capital projects.

The regulation is designed to improve the bankability of investments in sectors where financing needs are large and operational and political risks are hard to price.

The law approved by the council moves the federal government’s commitment from broad reform language to a binding process that investors and lenders can rely on. Those close to the evolution of the regulation say it converts political risk into a contingent fiscal obligation.

According to Wasihun Abate, a tax adviser at the Ministry of Finance, the regulation is designed “to attract more investments, especially strategic investments, and to give confidence to investors.”

Compensation may be triggered when strategic investments are expropriated, nationalised, compulsorily transferred, or disrupted by state action that fully or partially deprives investors of their holdings, income streams, or contractual rights.

The protection applies to foreign and domestic investors whose projects are designated strategic by the Council of Ministers or the Ethiopian Investment Board, both chaired by the Prime Minister. According to experts following the case, the Administration of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (PhD) is trying to make large projects easier to finance by lowering risk premiums on long-term commitments in sectors where returns depend heavily on public policy and state conduct.

“It reflects strong government commitment to boosting foreign direct investment (FDI) and could provide the comfort and certainty needed for large-scale strategic projects,” said Shehir Shemolo, managing partner at RSM Consulting Plc and a certified accountant and investment adviser, depicting the regulation as a clear policy signal.

The policy falls within a broader overhaul of Ethiopia’s investment regime. The country has revised its legal architecture, incentives and facilitation mechanisms to ease investor entry and project execution. Recent shifts have opened immovable property, including residential real estate, to foreign nationals, introduced high-value investment thresholds exceeding five billion dollars and created a “golden visa” pathway linked to capital. Tax and customs changes have been presented as part of the same effort to reduce entry barriers and operational burden.

The new regulation goes further by placing investor protection inside a state liability framework. Official figures show Ethiopia attracted more than 3.19 billion dollars in FDI over the past nine months, revealing momentum but also uncovering the pressure to sustain inflows in a competitive global market.

Under the framework, the Ministry of Finance, led by Ahmed Shide, becomes the negotiating authority for government-approved strategic projects. Compensation Commitments would be set out in legally binding documents that define the scope of liability, the valuation method and the conditions under which the federal government would pay. If triggered, compensation may cover the “fair market value” of the investment before the loss, agreed contractual payments, and direct costs incurred by the investor. Each commitment document is expected to establish in advance how valuation will be calculated, reducing ambiguity once a dispute arises.

The guarantees are paired with fiscal safeguards. The Minister of Finance may set caps, conditions and exposure limits on government liability, while risk assessments are required before any commitment is made. It also requires a dedicated, non-lapsing contingency fund or an equivalent budget allocation to cover potential liabilities from outstanding commitments. According to officials from the Ministry, the policy is meant to expand investor guarantees while keeping exposure within predefined limits and budgetary buffers.

The second pillar is the off-taker arrangement, a mechanism intended to secure demand for strategic projects. An off-taker, defined as a public entity, state-owned enterprise or government-designated body, may sign long-term purchase agreements with investors. These contracts oblige the off-taker to buy specified quantities of goods, works, or services under pre-agreed quality standards, pricing structures, and delivery timelines.

However, compensation is not automatic, as it applies only when the “failure” is not caused by the investor, not the result of force majeure, and not permitted under the commitment document, off-take arrangement, or applicable law. The Minister may also suspend or cancel commitments if investors are found to have engaged in fraud or gross negligence, failed to secure financing within the required timelines, or breached project agreements.

One likely test will be joint ventures linked to Ethiopian Investment Holdings (EIH). Among them is EIH’s 40pc equity stake in Dangote Group’s fertiliser project in Gode, Somali Regional State. It is projected to cost up to 2.5 billion dollars and was initially slated for completion within 40 months. After a site visit with the Prime Minister last week, Aliko Dangote, president of the Group, pledged to cut back completion of the fertiliser plant by 10 months, producing three million tonnes of urea under a broader four-billion-dollar investment plan.

Experts noted that the framework could allow the government, through EIH, to enter into structured off-take arrangements with investors such as Dangote, thereby providing strategic output with long-term procurement guarantees. EIH, Ethiopia’s first sovereign investment fund, whose subsidiary companies command a combined equity of 1.2 trillion Br and assets of 3.5 trillion Br, is expected to play a role in applying the regulation. The federal government’s sovereign investment arm, led by Brook Taye (PhD), manages 36 active investments through joint ventures with 19 investors across nine sectors, ranging from security printing and tablet assembly to hospitality, agriculture, and animal feed production.

According to Dagmawi Zeleke, EIH’s communications director, the new regulation addresses “important policy, legal, and institutional considerations” connected to investor confidence and Ethiopia’s wider reform agenda. He disclosed to Fortune that EIH is still reviewing the framework and has not taken an official position.

“EIH is assessing the regulation’s implications for ongoing economic reforms and changing investment governance structures,” said the company in a written response to Fortune, declining further comment until consultations are complete.

The regulation includes reporting obligations, mandating that the Finance Ministry submit annual reports to the Council of Ministers that list issued compensation commitments, potential and realised fiscal liabilities, and payments made. These reports should also be incorporated into submissions to federal lawmakers, bringing the framework within federal legislative oversight. Each commitment document would be signed by the Finance Minister, creating a legally binding obligation of the federal government and specifying governing law and dispute-resolution mechanisms.

Experts see this as granting investors a formal state counterparty while leaving the Ministry responsible for monitoring exposure. The regulation has drawn cautious support from observers who see the value of investor certainty but warn against uneven treatment.

According to Shehir, Ethiopia’s expanding guarantees should remain consistent with international trade frameworks as the country advances toward accession to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and deeper integration with the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). He called for non-discriminatory treatment of investors and stronger harmonisation with WTO principles.

“Targeted incentives may be needed to attract capital,” he said. “But, they should not conflict with global trade rules.”

He also urged a wider recalibration of the investment climate, arguing that reform should extend beyond strategic investors and help build a more predictable and balanced environment across all investment categories.

New Capital Market Pledges Power to the People But Finds Few Ready to Trade

Posted on May 24, 2026May 26, 2026 by Digital Editor

The test arrived not in the trading hall, but at the regulator’s desk. The young capital market found itself sapped by paperwork.

Of the 71 registration statements submitted to the Ethiopian Capital Market Authority (ECMA), 66 reached the Authority either on deadline day or during the preceding 24 hours. The pileup pushed the regulator into overdrive, forcing it to reorganise operations, pull reviewers from across departments and deploy specialised teams to accelerate the examination of prospectuses.

The administrative rush has exposed a larger imbalance. The pressure point is no longer theoretical for regulators or issuers either. The country’s financial ambitions have outpaced the institutions being assembled to support them. The Ethiopian Securities Exchange (ESX) opened with the promise of remaking domestic finance, broadening ownership and redirecting idle savings into productive investment. Newly issued shares have failed to meet subscription targets without extensions. Trading has begun, but the market is still searching for a habit of participation.

The pattern is not unfamiliar. Ethiopia has mobilised citizens around large financial projects before, most visibly with the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD). Over 14 years of construction, more than 20 billion Br was mobilised for the four-billion-dollar project, yet the bulk of financing came through loans. Bond sales and public contributions accounted for all but two billion Birr, while diaspora contributions and overseas bond purchases brought in more than one billion Birr.

The same tension is now visible in the capital-market era.

Ethio telecom, the flagship state-owned company expected to draw retail investors, sold only three percent of the shares it offered, reaching about 43,000 shareholders. Treasury bills are publicly marketed, but the best returns remain concentrated among financial institutions, where shareholders earn profits above inflation. The public is being invited into investment, but the financial system still favours large capital over ordinary savers.

The scale of what could emerge remains large, with the 32 commercial banks having a combined paid-up capital of nearly 422.5 billion Br, and 3.2 trillion Br in assets. However, only three banks are listed and Dashen Bank, which has 14 million shares registered, with another 2.2 million newly registered shares entering the market. For now, its tradable universe is narrow, its shares traded at 2,900 Br last week.

Market data tells the story of a platform with uneven traffic. In the second week of May, transactions climbed to 54 million Br after an erratic opening phase in which weekly sales swung between five million Birr and 118 million Br. A week later, activity fell to 15.8 million Br, with 5,300 trades executed by 85 traders. Awash Bank (traded at 2,999 Br) dominated the early cycle, accounting for nearly 90pc of all shares traded. Wegagen was trading at 1,191 Br last week, while Gaddaa Bank was at 1,160 Br.

Zemedeneh Negatu, chief executive of CBE Investment Bank, one of the three investment banks affiliated with commercial banks, has sought to temper the public conversation. His focus is on the gap between passive savings and active investment. Bank deposits still pay close to seven percent, while investment-oriented sectors deliver returns of about 19.4pc. Profitability, in this reading, is increasingly tied to where capital is deployed, not merely where deposits are held.

For the architects of this market, the objective is not only to create a venue for trading but also to democratise investment. Entry levels for shares such as Dashen Bank’s have been set at 5,000 Br to prevent the Exchange from becoming a preserve of wealthy investors. Zemedeneh argued that without heavyweight institutions such as Awash Bank, the market could have remained “solo,” deprived of the early trading momentum needed to build confidence.

The ambition is codified in the Exchange’s roadmap to 2029. Insiders describe its targets of 50 listed companies, one trillion Birr in equity market capitalisation and cumulative transactions of 5.7 trillion Br, as “delicate numbers”. The plan assumes liquidity will rise to 15pc, and investor accounts will reach three million. Regulators and market operators are trying to move awareness campaigns beyond LinkedIn posts and English-language financial messaging to citizens with little exposure to capital markets.

According to Mekdes Tesfaye, chief of staff at the ECMA, the surge in filings shows the Authority is carrying out its mandate without distraction.

“The review of prospectuses and documents submitted as part of licensing applications is a core mandate and legal responsibility of the Authority,” she told Fortune.

To reduce delays, the Authority directed by Hana Tehelku, has begun working more directly with transaction advisers, seeking to avoid repeated exchanges and documentation gaps. This approach has not satisfied all market participants, however. Some found the oversight as detailed and restrictive, while criticising the Authority “for showing little appetite for easing standards.”

Mekdes insisted that the Authority benchmarked “international standards and the regulatory frameworks of other jurisdictions, particularly peer jurisdictions,” when designing directives. She argued the rules are not unusually rigid but protective safeguards for prospective investors and financial stability in a market still forming its habits.

The regulator also wants more products. Beyond Ethio telecom and early bank listings, nearly 50 companies are preparing to enter the market, supported by initiatives such as the IPO Clinic, which helps private firms go public. The Authority is exploring sustainable finance instruments, including Green Bonds, Gender Bonds, and Islamic finance products, as part of a broader effort to diversify the range of instruments available to investors.

For Mekdes, durability depends on ordinary people becoming participants rather than spectators.

“Increased retail investor participation is essential for the growth of the capital market and for promoting financial inclusion,” she said.

The Authority’s Investor Awareness Strategy includes roadshows, financial literacy campaigns and training programmes designed to explain the shift from a bank-dominated system to a risk-bearing investment culture.

Adualem Hailu (PhD), chief executive of Awash Capital Investment Bank, sees education as a limitation. He wants to reach out to three categories of people.

“Shareholders should come first because they already know investment products,” Andualem told Fortune. “Bank account holders form the next layer. The largest opportunity may be among people who keep money informally in safes or trunks.”

The Ethiopian Deposit Insurance Fund (EDIF) showing that about 97pc of accounts hold less than 100,000 Br, revealing the narrow base of savers from which the market hoped to draw. One expected catalyst is the planned listing of major state-owned enterprises, including Ethio telecom, which is scheduled to enter the secondary market on Tuesday.

High-value depositors are few, but he believes a larger pool of liquidity lies outside banks and can be inferred from data on broad money circulation.

“Bringing money outside the banking system into this investment space is the way forward,” he said, calling “money in the cushion” a future source of market depth. He also pointed to the Ministry of Finance data showing private savings as a share of GDP on a gradual upward trend.

“Redirecting even a small part of those savings could expand liquidity and strengthen private investment,” said Andualem.

The ESX presents the slow start less as failure than institution-building. It is engaging private firms and state-owned enterprises preparing to list, while government-linked companies are moving in line with privatisation plans and policy approvals. Its five-year roadmap is less a near-term forecast than a structural guide.

According to Wongel Tamene, a senior figure at the Exchange, the market is in its “early stages,” where credibility, governance and infrastructure matter more than rapid expansion. Newly listed companies are confronting formal listing standards, audited reporting requirements and governance obligations, including an operating Exchange, a regulatory framework, licensed intermediaries, and trading and settlement systems.

But liquidity is constrained by the limited number of securities. The same data that showed 54 million Br in trades in the second week of May showed 15.8 million Br the following week. Awash Bank’s dominance reveals both demand and narrow choice.

Wongel hopes that ongoing investor education at universities, media platforms, and public outreach initiatives would help citizens understand the shift from a bank-centric system to a diversified capital market. The Exchange is also working to improve listing readiness, expand the broker network and strengthen digital access. She called this the “long game.”

For Dashen Bank’s President, Asfaw Alemu, the transition is “pioneering but difficult,” as all participants are on a learning curve with a new operating system. Under the previous and less regulated environment, share sales would have moved faster. The current framework is demanding, but he sees it as necessary for long-term development.

“It’s a process,” he said, likening the work to implementing a new policy across a 900-branch network.

Asfaw defended the scrutiny applied to Dashen’s prospectus, calling a “correct and straight” regulatory approach necessary to protect the public and strengthen confidence, especially after past cases in other sectors in which investors were misled during share sales. However, his larger concern is market readiness. Brokers and investment banks have obtained licences, but many are “not yet fully prepared” to guide share buyers.

Public understanding of the capital market is grossly inadequate. Some prospective investors remain unsure whether banks are issuing capital or selling ownership stakes. Even so, Asfaw credited the ECMA for adjusting deadlines to operational realities and was convinced that the market is “on the right track.”

Gemechu Berhanu, a capital-market expert and former business lecturer at Haramaya University, is more cautious. He called the current phase a “normalisation stage,” marked by structural bottlenecks and weak investor awareness. Targets of 15pc liquidity, 50 listed companies, and three million brokerage accounts look ambitious for him in early trading, pointing to a fall from 54 million Br to 15 million Br in a week as evidence of “shallow depth.”

His sharper criticism is of service providers.

“Investment banks remain trapped in a ‘high-end’ communication space dominated by English-language messaging and social media updates, leaving the wider public behind,” he told Fortune. “Some shareholders are still unaware they can trade their holdings, while many retail participants place orders without understanding mechanisms such as bid-ask spreads.”

Gemechu argued that lasting liquidity will depend more on institutional investors, such as pension and mutual funds, than retail buyers. These create a “daily chain of transactions” through portfolio rebalancing. He urged the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) to finalise policies that allow such institutions to reallocate part of their allocations from Treasury bills (T-bills) to risk-based assets, such as equities. He also sees Collective Investment Schemes and Real Estate Investment Trusts as possible turning points.

Forex Auction Uncovers a Market Under Pressure

Posted on May 24, 2026May 26, 2026 by Digital Editor

Last week, the Birr – Brewed Buck – crossed a line the foreign-exchange market had long treated as a warning, not a price. Commercial banks’ cash rates reorganised around a reference point of 160 Br threshold, which was crossed in auction bidding and breached in some posted rates.

The trigger was the Central Bank’s auction on May 19, 2026, the largest since April 2025. The Central Bank allotted half a billion dollars, accepted bids as high as 160.9 Br, although settled at a weighted average of 159.9 Br, and recorded a lowest successful bid of 157.3 Br.

Demand was roughly twice the supply. Thirty of the 32 banks submitted bids, but fewer than half received allocations. The shortage remains structural, tied to obligations banks struggle to clear, especially import-financing commitments and fuel purchases through the Ethiopian Petroleum Supply Enterprise (EPSE). Although the auctioned currency was unrestricted, arrears kept demand elevated while importers pressed banks for allocations.

When the Central Bank opened its auction window in April 2025, then Governor Mamo Mehiretu called it a way to “ensure stability of the exchange rate, maintain external stability and provide part of the Central Bank’s foreign exchange accumulation to the private sector”. The first auction offered 50 million dollars, when the official exchange rate was around 55 Br. Later sales ranged from 70 million dollars to 80 million dollars. The previous auction, on February 21, reportedly offered 70 million dollars, drew demand three times the supply, and cleared at 153.25 Br. Successful bids ranged from 154.5 Br to 158.5 Br.

Last week’s sale was more than six times larger, yet confirmed a move toward 160 Br.

The cash-rate data between May 18 and May 23 showed an uneven pass-through. Excluding the Central Bank’s reference quote, the average commercial-bank buying rate increased from 154.51 Br on May 18 to 155 Br on May 23. The average selling rate increased from 157.6 Br to 158.26 Br, a change of 0.57 Br on the buying side and 0.65 Br on the selling side. The median buying rate moved from 154.48 Br to 154.55 Br, and the average selling rate from 157.57 Br to 157.64 Br. Most banks barely shifted, while the outliers lifted the average.

Oromia Bank has established its place as the undisputed price leader. It began above the market, posting a buying rate of 157.6 Br and a selling rate of 160.75 Br on May 18. By May 21, buying was 161 Br. By May 22 and May 23, it quoted 161.88 Br for buying and 165.12 Br for selling, the week’s highest quote. Its buying rate jumped by 4.27 Br, above the industry average and the Central Bank’s May 23 reference of 158.17 Br.

Wegagen Bank moved abruptly, buying dollars at 154.59 Br on May 18 and May 19, then jumped to 160.75 Br on May 20, up more than six Birr. It later settled at 159.62 Br from May 21 to May 23. Its 5.02 Br six-day rise was the largest. Its selling rate jumped from 157.68 Br to 163.97 Br on May 20, then eased to 162.81 Br for the final three days. Wegagen Bank’s forex managers behaved as if the auction had revealed a new clearing reality.

At the lower end, Hijira Bank posted the lowest daily buying and selling rates, unchanged at 153.82 Br for buying and 156.89 Br for selling. By May 23, the gap between Oromia Bank’s buying rate and Hijira Bank’s had widened to a little over eight Birr. The selling-rate gap was 8.22 Br, a spread that revealed banks priced foreign exchange based on liquidity, client pressure, risk appetite, and expectations.

The state-owned Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE) was cautious. Its buying rate increased from 154.01 Br on May 18 to 154.17 Br on May 23, a gain of 0.16 Br. Its selling rate moved from 157.1 Br to 157.26 Br. CBE stayed below the commercial-bank average and far below Oromia and Wegagen. The comparison could be incomplete because CBE, like some of its competitors, offers top-up incentives outside posted cash rates.

Other large private banks, such as Awash, Abyssinia, Zemen and Dashen, crawled in controlled moves, rather than resets.

Awash Bank lifted its buying rate from 154.21 Br to 154.87 Br, up 0.65 Br. Bank of Abyssinia moved from 154.9 Br to 155.35 Br, up 0.45 Br, while Dashen Bank jumped up by 0.12 to 154.11 Br. Zemen Bank, which started at 155.57 Br, edged up to 155.7 Br.

A second group moved visibly but stayed below the outlier zone. Hibret Bank increased its buying rate from 155.63 Br to 156.94 Br, while its selling rate jumped from 158.74 Br to 160.08 Br. Addis Bank raised its buying rate from 154.54 Br to 155.85 Br, while Sidama Bank raised its buying rate from 154.04 Br to 154.84 Br. None crossed the psychological threshold of 160 Br.

A third group remained sticky, including Amhara Bank, Global Bank, Anbessa Bank and Hijira Bank. Their stability may reflect limited appetite for cash foreign exchange, liquidity constraints, non-posted incentives, or a wait-and-see attitude, pointing to administrative pricing, balance-sheet rationing and client-specific allocation practices.

Several anomalies sharpened the picture. Berhan Bank’s buying rate stayed fixed at 154.87 Br throughout the week, while its selling rate increased to 159.96 Br on May 23. The one-sided adjustment may be compelled by defensive pricing on dollar sales. The Central Bank’s posted rate also sent mixed signals. The domestic monetary effect was substantial. At a weighted average of 159.9 Br, a half-billion-dollar auction implies nearly 79.5 billion Br collected from banks.

The dollars relieve foreign-currency obligations, while the Brewed Buck paid to the Central Bank removes local liquidity. The auction eased one shortage while tightening another, although a larger supply has not neutralised pressure.

The average rate changed only moderately because most banks remained near the mid-154 Br level, while the frontier shifted sharply. Oromia and Wegagen banks priced closer to the auction’s clearing rate, while the lower half remained sticky. The market is split between banks treating 160 Br as reality and others anchoring published rates around the older band.

The Birr has not collapsed in the posted cash market. Most banks remain clustered around 154 Br to 155 Br for buying. Yet the most aggressive participants have entered another zone. The auction crossed 160 Br. Oromia Bank posted above 161 Br. Wegagen hovered close to 160 Br. The banking industry should decide whether to follow, resist, or disguise the adjustment. The next auction will likely be less of a routine liquidity operation than a test of supply and the exchange-rate anchor.

Ethiopia, Djibouti Explore New Petroleum, Gas Pipeline Network

Posted on May 24, 2026May 25, 2026 by Digital Editor

Djibouti President Ismail Omar Guelleh held talks with Brook Taye, head of Ethiopian Investment Holdings (EIH), over planned cross-border energy infrastructure projects linking the two countries.

During a meeting held in Djibouti on Wednesday, Brook said Ethiopia and the Dangote Group are preparing to jointly implement a two-phase energy corridor project with Djibouti.

The first phase focuses on constructing a pipeline that would transport refined petroleum products from the Port of Djibouti to Dawaleh town in Ethiopia, strengthening fuel logistics between the two countries.

The second phase centres on the development of oil and gas pipelines designed to transport crude oil and natural gas from Somali Regional State to international export markets through Djibouti.

Representatives from the Dangote Group joined the Ethiopian delegation during the discussions, alongside Ethiopian Ambassador Legesse Tulu. Senior Djiboutian officials, including Energy Minister Djama Mohamed Hassan, also attended the meeting.

Addis Abeba Relaxes Procurement Restrictions to Prevent Health Crisis

Posted on May 24, 2026May 25, 2026 by Digital Editor

The Addis Abeba Finance Bureau has partially lifted its city-wide procurement freeze, exempting life-saving medical supplies from a fourth-quarter spending ban.

The bureau had earlier imposed a sweeping restriction on municipal expenditure to enforce fiscal discipline and curb end-of-year budget pressures across public institutions. However, the blanket freeze raised concerns within the health sector, with hospitals warning of shortages in essential supplies.

Officials acknowledged that restricting procurement of medicines, laboratory chemicals, and reagents could pose risks to public health, prompting a policy adjustment.

Under the revised directive, public hospitals and health centres are now allowed to resume procurement of critical supplies through open and competitive bidding, provided funds are already allocated within approved budgets.

Lawmakers Warn Contractors Over Cost Overruns, Project Delays

Posted on May 24, 2026May 25, 2026 by Digital Editor

The Standing Committee for Urban, Infrastructure & Transport Affairs of the parliament has urged stricter enforcement of timelines, budgets, and quality standards in public construction projects across the country.

The recommendation followed field inspections conducted by the committee at several sites overseen by the Ethiopian Construction Authority(ECA), including developments at the Federal Supreme Court, the Federal Documents Authentication and Registration Service (DARS), the Ethiopian Civil Aviation Authority(ECAA), and Kotebe University.

Committee Chair Mohamed Abdo said government focus on the construction sector has delivered visible improvements, but stressed that stronger oversight is still required to ensure projects are completed as planned.

He warned that contractors or stakeholders responsible for unjustified delays or malpractice in the sector should be held accountable.

Committee members also called on the Ethiopian Construction Authority to strengthen quality control surveys and accelerate ongoing digitalisation efforts.

Director General of the Authority Mesfin Negewo said the authority is working to ensure projects are delivered within required timelines and standards.

Ethiopia, Dubai Record Sharp Rise in Non-Oil Trade

Posted on May 24, 2026May 25, 2026 by Digital Editor

Non-oil trade between Ethiopia and Dubai reached 22.3 billion UAE dirhams in 2025, marking a sharp year-on-year increase of 236.6pc.

The figures were announced following a trade mission to Addis Abeba that brought together Ethiopian and Dubai-based companies for bilateral meetings aimed at expanding investment and commercial partnerships across multiple sectors.

The “Dubai–Ethiopia Business Connect” forum was organised in collaboration with the Ethiopian Investment Commission(EIC), the Ethiopian Chamber of Commerce and Sectoral Associations, (ECCSA) the Addis Abeba Chamber of Commerce, and the UAE Embassy in Ethiopia.

Mohammad Ali Rashed Lootah said the mission aims to deepen economic ties and unlock new private-sector opportunities between the two markets.

The delegation included 21 Dubai-based companies operating in construction materials, engineering, electronics, food and beverages, pharmaceuticals, mining, oil and gas, textiles, and garments, while 91 Ethiopian firms joined the Dubai Chamber in the first quarter of 2026, bringing total Ethiopian membership to 1,676.

Global Water Cycle Critical Shared Infrastructure

Posted on May 24, 2026May 23, 2026 by Digital Editor

The global water cycle is our planet’s life-support system. It is a powerful environmental pump, with forests transpiring moisture and replenishing giant atmospheric rivers of freshwater.

It is also a global thermostat, regulating the climate through evaporation and cloud formation. And it is a giant filter, purifying water as it percolates through the soils and wetlands.

But while all life depends on the water cycle, it is coming under increasing strain and losing its ability to perform these essential functions, leading the United Nations (UN) to declare a new era of “global water bankruptcy.” Rising temperatures, ecosystem degradation, and shifting rainfall patterns are weakening the natural systems that regulate water flows and quality, while conventional infrastructure, designed for historical hydrological conditions, is increasingly exposed to variability, sedimentation, and shock.

To protect the water cycle from these competing pressures, we have to adopt a holistic, systemic perspective. That means treating the water cycle itself as shared infrastructure, and reshaping investments and governance accordingly.

As a first step toward protecting the natural infrastructure that has served us for centuries, governments, investors, and multilateral development banks should emphasise retaining water in its natural environment wherever possible. Efforts to protect forests, wetlands, river basins, and soil cover are key to mitigating disruptions to the water cycle and adapting to shocks.

To be fully effective, such interventions should be conceived at the level of total ecosystems.

For example, the Delta Blue Carbon project, the world’s largest mangrove restoration initiative, has facilitated the planting of tens of millions of mangrove seedlings on the southeast coast of the province of Sindh, Pakistan, restoring more than 75,000hct of degraded mangrove forests and tidal wetlands. Such efforts are projected to sequester 142 million tons of carbon dioxide over the next five decades, as well as protect against storm surges and provide nurseries for marine biodiversity.

Beyond restoring the natural (green) infrastructure that we already rely on, we should also pursue traditional (gray) infrastructure investments to build water-system resilience against higher temperatures, glacial melts, and more volatile climate conditions. For example, the Indonesia Dam project, co-financed by the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), the World Bank, and the government of Indonesia, aims to strengthen flood buffers and preserve key water sources. It combines engineering measures, such as dredging and structural rehabilitation, with ecosystem restoration to address sediment accumulation and its consequences.

This combination of green and gray infrastructure has the potential to support mitigation and adaptation efforts to protect the water cycle against climate change. But bringing them together requires alignment on governance, data, and finance.

From a governance standpoint, water is too often treated as a local commodity rather than the shared, transboundary resource it is. As the AIIB shows in a recent report, “Where the Water Flows”, the celebrated Ramsar Convention, an intergovernmental treaty to conserve wetlands signed in Ramsar, Iran, in 1971, has worked well in the world’s advanced economies, particularly for smaller wetlands. But it has been much less effective in countries with weak institutional capacity and limited resources.

Fortunately, emerging science and technology could transform water governance by enabling the tracking of individual water drops. Satellite data, remote sensing, and improved modelling already allow for real-time monitoring of water flows, infrastructure performance, and environmental conditions. And now, AI and machine learning can improve flood forecasting, optimise irrigation scheduling, and support predictive maintenance.

Leveraging these technologies to improve water governance will lay the groundwork for scaling up investment in the hydrological cycle, and not a moment too soon. As matters stand, an estimated seven trillion dollars is needed to close the global financing gap for investment in water infrastructure by 2030.

Multilateral development banks have an important role to play in mobilising finance toward water-cycle preservation. The AIIB finds that water-related projects account for a decreasing share (around 14pc) of dwindling overall official development assistance. It is, therefore, imperative that development banks boost their investments across the water cycle to integrate natural, engineered, and digital infrastructure; promote economic reforms to align fiscal policies across borders; and mobilise private finance for water-focused interventions.

As we look toward a more uncertain, less secure water future, it is incumbent on governments and financial institutions to ensure that restoring and maintaining our water cycle remains a key development priority. We have to come together to harness recent advances in science, monitoring technologies, and data availability to improve governance and scale up financing. Water is the foundation that connects every aspect of human life. There can be no higher priority than protecting the water cycle.

Writers Step Into the Frame, Out of the Shadows

Posted on May 24, 2026May 28, 2026 by Digital Editor

There is a particular intimacy in seeing the face of someone whose words have already lived in us. A voice first heard through pages, a grief or joke carried by language, suddenly has eyes, hands, and posture.

That small shock of recognition gave “Vision of Words” its charge when Ethiopia’s first photographic exhibition devoted to its literary community opened at Goethe-Institut on Tuesday, May 12, 2026.

Curated by Feben Fancho (PhD) and organised by Asayehegn Asfaw, the Exhibition brings together portraits of 36 authors, poets, playwrights, translators, performers, screenwriters, and literary critics. It places older literary figures, including Ayalneh Mulatu and Asaf Damte, alongside younger artists such as Natnael Tadelle (Don) and Zerihun Taye (Mallo), whose work spans slam poetry, digital performance, and experimental forms. The result is an argument about continuity. Ethiopian literature is changing, but it is not severed from the forms that shaped it.

The opening drew writers, readers, artists, musicians, relatives, and literature lovers into a room thick with talk about books, poetry, language, and memory. Formal remarks gave way to music by Moseb Band and an acoustic guitar performance by Carlo Ertola. Between the portraits, guests moved with food and drinks, stopping to recognise a face, ask after a book, or talk about the absence of writers in visual archives.

Senegni Creative, the writers who agreed to sit for the portraits, Moseb Band, and Carlo Ertola helped bring the evening together. Yet the Exhibition’s larger point went beyond an opening night. It asked what it means to preserve a literary culture beyond the printed book, and what is lost when the makers of language are remembered only by name. The idea is tied to Feben’s own path.

Before curating the Exhibition, she worked as the general manager of “Gitim Sitim”, an open-mic platform that created space for poets and performers. She helped make her one of the recognisable voices in the spoken-word community. In 2024, she represented Ethiopia at the International Youth Poetry Festival organised by the China Writers Association, an experience that brought international recognition and exposed her to literary preservation projects abroad.

While in China, she visited archives devoted to well-known writers from earlier decades. There she saw how literary figures could be documented, remembered, and visually preserved. That encounter helped shape the idea that became “Vision of Words.” Dirk Skiba, a German photographer behind the project, has a website that mainly features portraits, but Feben hopes her Exhibition can mark the beginning of a broader platform, one that archives local writers, their works, histories, and contributions to culture.

At the Exhibition, established names appear beside younger poets and performers who are testing new forms of expression through spoken word and digital platforms. The arrangement shows not a hierarchy but a conversation across time. Literature, in this telling, is not fixed in bookshelves or classrooms. It moves from stage to screen, from page to microphone, and from memory to image.

Skiba has spent more than a decade photographing authors around the world. His method differs from commercial portrait work. He looks for images that feel personal and artistic, and he prefers to meet writers where they feel at ease rather than in studios. What began in Ghana has grown into an international series covering 102 countries, with nearly 1,700 portraits forming one of the world’s largest archives of author photography.

Ethiopia is one of the newest stops in his journey. Skiba spent 11 days and gave about three hours to each author. The time mattered because he had a conversation before composition, patience before the shutter. He does not want to take a picture simply. He wants them in their element, being themselves.

Among the featured writers is Zerihun Taye, widely known by his stage name Mallo. He spoke about the emotional link between his portrait and poetry. Mallo is especially known for his poem “Mallo,” an Afaan Oromo word that translates roughly to “Please.” The poem draws on his experience of being bullied as a child. To him, the portrait seemed to hold that feeling of vulnerability, exposure, and the dignity of someone who has turned pain into art.

That anecdote captured what many visitors felt as they passed through the hall. The photographs did not simply make writers visible. They invited viewers to think about the work behind the face and the life behind the work. For some visitors, it was rare to see Ethiopian writers documented this way. Others noted the need to preserve literary memory before it fades, especially where archives often depend on private commitment rather than durable institutions.

The Exhibition also raised harder questions. Several writers and literature enthusiasts saw it as an opportunity to introduce Ethiopian literature to international audiences and stir curiosity about local writers abroad. Others wondered whether Ethiopian literature has been fully valued at home. Some worry that international recognition can pressure artists to shape their work to meet expectations abroad, making literature less authentic and more performative.

Even with those concerns, the sight of writers being celebrated carried force. By joining photography and literature, “Vision of Words” creates a visual memory and asks audiences to look at the works behind the portraits. In a digital culture that moves quickly and rewards short attention, the Exhibition compels visitors to slow down. Younger guests took photographs beside writers they admired, while older visitors paused before figures whose works shaped generations.

In the meeting of past and present, print and digital culture, local memory and international visibility, the show opened a conversation likely to continue after its closing day.

Month: May 2026