Agenda

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Aug 9 , 2026 . By NAHOM AYELE

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, only to face a fresh pressure point. Soaring freight costs are now squeezing exporters who were already working on narrow margins. The Farm...

Aug 1 , 2026 . By BEZAWIT HULUAGER

Tax Bills Outrun the Metre, Stalling Taxi-hailing Drivers

Elbeletel Tilahun was among the ride-hailing drivers startled by this year's tax assessment. Behind the wheel of a Vitz, he was told to settle 93,000 Br in income tax, more than double the 37,000 Br he paid the year before. The bill arrived without much explanation. But it has a “warning” that more would follow. “They told me to pay this, and expenses will be deducted in the future,” he told Fortune. "I know that will not work.” A 26-year-old friend of his, who doesn't want to be named, also received similar or heavier assessments. He has a background in finance. He enter...

Jul 25 , 2026 . By NAHOM AYELE

Shematera Weavers' Chain Meets the VAT Line

The footsteps, bargaining voices and rustle of cotton cloth that once filled Shematera in Mercato have faded. The narrow passages that used to carry customers searching for handwoven fabrics feel unusually quiet, rows of locked doors standing where one of Addis Abeba's oldest trading areas kept its daily rhythm. For more than 15 years, Getahun Demissie arrived at his shop every Tuesday morning expecting another ordinary day. His business depended on a network that stretched far beyond his storefront, from weavers who travelled to the market after producing handwoven cloth to traders like...

Jul 19 , 2026 . By FITSUM TADESSE

A Sack of Cement, with the Chain No One Can See

In the Jemo area of Addis Abeba, Fikremariam Wondimu no longer trades cement so much as gambles on it. Prices move almost by the hour, and the small retailer, who, like most of his size, depends entirely on intermediaries for supply, rarely knows what a sack would cost by the time it reaches a customer. "We face shortages regularly, and prices change almost every day," he said. Some days, the price of a quintal jumps by as much as 150 Br between morning and evening. The volatility has turned trading into a speculative business, retailers say, in which buying is little more than a calc...

Agenda

Jul 12 , 2026

Production Soars While the Feed Sellers Go Under

At his stall around Ferensay Legasion, Mastewal Tekuye has decided to leave a business he has worked for years. He sells animal feed, or did, until demand collapsed and his costs climbed beyond what b...

Jul 4 , 2026

A City Between the Market and the Rules

July has arrived with the heaviest rains of the winter, dark clouds and mist blanketing Addis Abeba each morning. This year, the weather is not the only thing hanging over the capital. Property own...

Jun 27 , 2026

Soaring Fares Strand Families on Highways

At the sprawling Lamberet Long-Distance Bus Station near Asmara Road, the usual din of engines and shouting conductors has given way to an eerie and sluggish rhythm. Clusters of medium-sized Tata b...

Jun 21 , 2026

For Consumers in Addis Abeba, Even Thrift Becomes Expensive

For Senayit Bekele, the day's rhythm begins at a vegetable stall. The lunchtime crowd spills through the narrow corridors of Sengatera Building, in Addis Abeba's commercial district, between clothing...

Jun 14 , 2026

THE PRICE OF MISTRUSTING THE TAP

Bottled water, once a symbol of convenience and safety for most residents, has become a small but telling measure of economic stress. Inflation and supply shocks have driven up the retail price of bot...

Jun 7 , 2026

THE GOLD RUSH RUNS OUT OF FUEL

Zenebe Girja used to sit close to the centre of the formal gold trade, where sacks of raw ore, small-scale miners and state policy converged into one of the country's most important sources of foreign...

May 31 , 2026

Ethiopians to Vote Under the Shadow of a Foregone Outcome

Kassahun Follo's plan to keep an eye on the national polls set for Monday, June 1, 2026, ended before the vote began. The Confederation of Ethiopian Trade Unions (CETU), which he leads as the count...

May 23 , 2026

When Bread Becomes Too Costly for Breakfast

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 r...

May 17 , 2026

Quiet Campaigns Speak Loudly

Genene Gedebu reached Kucha after the campaign season for the upcoming national elections opened, expecting to do what candidates do. The President of the Kucha People's Democratic Party (KPDP), estab...

May 9 , 2026

Period Poverty Crisis Forces Women to Pay For Dignity

Luladay Abraham treats the arrival of her menstrual cycle less as a private inconvenience than as a monthly test of endurance. The 32-year-old accountant, who works for a construction firm on Gabon St...

The Building Boom That Rans Out of Fuel

Two unfinished buildings owned by Roman Tahir on Omedla Street near a roundabout in the Ferensay Legasion in the Gurara neighbourhood have become a quiet measure of stress in Addis Abeba's constructio...

Apr 25 , 2026

Transport Squeeze Leaves Commuters Paying the Price

Before sunrise reached the outskirts of Addis Abeba, Demelash Assefa was already on the road, measuring the city's transport crisis in minutes, fares and absences. At quarter to six early in the mo...

Apr 18 , 2026

Addis Abeba's Makeover Leaves Cooperative Workers Counting the Cost

Awoke Tezera remembered how abruptly his life turned at the end of last year. A former manager of consumer cooperatives in around Sidist Kilo, he had spent years in a job that allowed him to support h...

Apr 10 , 2026

Rising Costs, Falling Purchases Shape a Quiet Easter Season Across Addis Markets

The gloomy Thursday of April 9th carries the same mood as the community itself, gloomy. Although only a few days remain until the Easter holiday, the Qera area, widely known for the sale of oxen, shee...

Apr 5 , 2026

War Engulfs the Gulf, Locals Gasp at the Pump

Biniyam Teklay has built his life around the rhythm of seasons, the beat of trade, and the delicate trust of clients spread across continents. As the founder and CEO of Bazen Plc, a small import-expor...

Mar 28 , 2026

Budget Freeze Leaves a Region Paying for Political Deadlock

Felege Asmelash, 53, has spent nearly 26 years as a public service employee in Meqelle, the seat of Tigray Regional State. For much of this time, a government paycheck covered rent, school costs and b...

Columns

Commentaries | Aug 08,2026

In Going Digital, the State Designs for the Citizen It Wants to Have

The World Bank asks readers to picture a mother in rural Ethiopia who has never held a ban...

Editorial | Aug 8 , 2026

SMALL-NOTES SQUEEZE WORN, TORN, NEVER RETURNED

For Hirut Ayalew, a small shop owner around Ferensay Legasiyon, the shortage of usable sma...

Featured | Aug 1 , 2026 . By BIZUAYEHU ABIY

The Storm Passed, the Freight Bill Did Not

A year after a violent storm tore through one of Ethiopia's major flower-growing clusters...

Agenda | Aug 9 , 2026 . By NAHOM AYELE

National Bank Forces Anbesa Bank Board Re-run, All Incumbents Out

Anbesa Bank has elected an entirely new board of directors, nine months after the Board it...

Fortune News | Aug 9 , 2026 . By NAHOM AYELE

The Storm Passed, the Freight Bill Did Not

Tax Bills Outrun the Metre, Stalling Taxi-hailing Drivers

Shematera Weavers' Chain Meets the VAT Line

A Sack of Cement, with the Chain No One Can See