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Oct 26 , 2025 . By NAHOM AYELE

Pay Penalty, Convert Lease Hold, or Cease Business

The clang of metal shutters has gone silent on Addis Abeba's commercial corridors across Bethel, Alem Bank, Salite Mihiret, Ayat, and Qality neighbourhoods for a few weeks now. Storefronts that once overflowed with produce and merchandise displayed notices stamped by each District's Land Development...

Oct 18 , 2025 . By YITBAREK GETACHEW

Traders Count the Cost as Officials Sweep Through Mercato

Last Tuesday, long before dawn, Mercato was awake but not to haggle. Around Mierab Hotel, traders pulled down stalls, stacked timber on Isuzu trucks and pickups, while sawdust and sweat hung in the air. Uniformed police and municipal officers barked a single order, "leave immediately." For decades, this part of the largest open-air market has sold clothes, pots, pans and almost everything in between. By noon, the chatter had been replaced by a stunned quiet. Shoppers watched as traders, tax receipts clutched in their hands, asked local officials the same question. “Where are we suppose...

Oct 12 , 2025

TOMATOES TASTE OF INFLATION

Tomato prices in Addis Abeba have surged to unprecedented levels, with retail stands charging between 85 Br and 140 Br a kilo, nearly triple last year's rates. Premium varieties such as Gelila fetch 90 Br a kilo, driven upward by escalating input costs, currency depreciation, and persistent supply chain disruptions. The Birr's sharp decline against the dollar has more than doubled the cost of imported fertilisers, pesticides, and seeds, most of which originate from the Netherlands and Israel. These increased expenses ripple through every stage of the value chain, squeezing producers and consum...

Oct 12 , 2025 . By REDIET YARED and SURAFEL MULUGETA

Tomato Squeeze Guts Kitchens

The sun rose unsteadily over Addis Abeba last week, its pale light muted by dust and exhaust, flickering off tomato crates stacked on narrow streets in the Haile Garment neighbourhood. For 32-year-old Semira Adem, the amber flash of ripening skins was a taunt. In better days, she took home five, even seven, kilograms at a time, simmering a weekly supply of sauce for Macaroni and Spaghetti. Now she can barely pay for two. Two weeks earlier, she bought them for 25 Br. “Which comfortable life allows us to buy ingredients now?" she said, exhaling through clenched teeth. "It's impossible to...

Agenda

Oct 13 , 2025

Textbook Shortages Mount as School Year Advances

The school year in Addis Abeba began almost a month ago, yet across the capital, thousands of students still turn up to class without a single textbook. A four-year curriculum overhaul launched by the...

Sep 27 , 2025

Addis Abeba's Transport Gridlock Wears Commuters Thin

Crowds swell before dawn at some of Addis Abeba's busiest intersections, and the tension hangs in the cool air long before the sun has fully risen. Around Haile Garment Roundabout, Saris Abo, and A...

Sep 21 , 2025

After the Exam Shake-Up, a Generation Left Behind

Haimanot Yonas discovered her exam result at dawn last week, squinting at a flickering phone outside the chemistry lab of Bisrate Gebriel International School, off South Africa St., near the church be...

Sep 13 , 2025

Student Tax ID Push Triggers Logjam

The yellow flush of Aday Abeba flowers has returned to Addis Abeba, heralding the arrival of the Ethiopian New Year. In streets criss-crossed by horse-drawn carriages and honking minibuses, the famili...

Sep 7 , 2025

As Holidays Near, Addis Abeba's Markets Thrum with Hope, Hardship

As the holiday nears, the markets of Addis Abeba thrum with anticipation and anxiety. In the capital's crowded stalls, tradition collides with economic reality as families brace for another festive se...

Aug 30 , 2025

School Bells Ring as Wallets Snap Shut

The rainy season was losing its grip on Addis Abeba. Patches of pale sky opened between bruised clouds, and streets that had been rivers only days earlier now carried the damp smell of wet soil. Child...

Aug 23 , 2025

Torn Tarps, Fractured Hope

Around dusk during the first week of August this year, dark clouds blew over the craggy ridges of North Wollo, in Amhara Regional State, where more than 8,500 people squeezed into the makeshift Jara c...

Aug 17 , 2025

Slow Connectivity Undermines Freelance Boom, Outsourcing Ambitions

On a weekday afternoon in Addis Abeba, when remote workers were buried in trans-Atlantic calls and racing to meet deadlines, software developer Oliyad Takele sat in front of a frozen screen. For four...

Aug 10 , 2025

Floated Currency Promise Meets Hard Reality

The hum of Addis Abeba's import hubs was muted by frustration as Sultan Yusuf found out last week. He has spent more than five years importing cars and chemicals. He pulled back in his chair mid...

Aug 9 , 2025

FOREX MARKET SQUEEZES TEST REFORM NERVE

The hum of Addis Abeba's import hubs has faded to a fretful murmur as importers claim their banks demand to know how long their cash would idle before signing off on letters of credit. The message, th...

Aug 3 , 2025

Deluge Defies Drainage, Devours Addis Abeba

getachew Shiferaw felt the danger before he saw it. On July 24, 2025, the midday sky above Addis Abeba darkened, and rain began to hammer the capital in sheets. A manager of the OLA gas station café...

Jul 27 , 2025

Burned by a Backdoor Tax Shock

The haze that lingers over Addis Abeba at dawn did little to hide the worry on AlemDemeke's face when she left the Ethiopian Electric Utility (EEU) branch in the Haile Garment neighbourhood. The 4...

Jul 20 , 2025

New Tax Code Draws Cheers from Officials, Cries from the Streets

During a soft and steady rain that soaked the narrow lanes around Ghana Street, near St. Uriel Church on the edge of the Uriel School campus, pedestrians shuffled along under umbrellas, hoods, or bare...

Jul 13 , 2025

Brewing Trouble as Tella Bars Go Dry

The sweet-sour scent of "tella" still lingered in the cramped compound off Tunisia Street, close to Addisu Gebeya, even though the drink itself is gone. Days ago, 200Lts of the home-brewed beer were p...

Jul 6 , 2025

When Pepper Burns the Purse

The late-morning sun cuts through Addis Abeba's usual haze and lands on Haile Garment, an industrious pocket of the capital's Nifas Silk-Lafto District where sewing workshops crowd narrow lanes. Fr...

Jun 29 , 2025

As School Fees Soar in Addis, Families Choose Between Education, Survival

Late June in Addis Abeba brings its first curtain of rain, a grey veil that slows the minibuses and muffles the usual din of the capital. It is the season when schools close, children tumble into the...

Columns

Commentaries | Oct 25,2025

The Rules Multiply. So Does the Confusion, and Uncertainty

The regulatory machinery is on overdrive. In only two years, no fewer than 35 new proclama...

Editorial | Oct 25 , 2025

TRADITION THRIVES AS COSTS CLIMB

As dawn broke over Addis Abeba last week, the city's arteries pulsed not with the usual we...

Featured | Oct 5 , 2025 . By REDIET YARED

Pay Penalty, Convert Lease Hold, or Cease Business

The clang of metal shutters has gone silent on Addis Abeba's commercial corridors across B...

Agenda | Oct 26 , 2025 . By NAHOM AYELE

Addis Abeba Education Bureau Rolls Out Cluster Classes

Officials of the Addis Abeba's Education Bureau have embarked on an ambitious experiment t...

Fortune News | Oct 25 , 2025 . By YITBAREK GETACHEW

Pay Penalty, Convert Lease Hold, or Cease Business

Traders Count the Cost as Officials Sweep Through Mercato