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Monday, Apr 14, 2025

MERCATO TAXED TO SILENCE

MERCATO TAXED TO SILENCE

Some parts of Merkato have fallen uncharacteristically silent, contrary to its typical bustle of traders, shoppers, and hawkers vying for business across its sprawling two-square-kilometre expanse. Foot traffic was sparse, with merchants left idly wo...

Apr 13 , 2025

Fortune News

A Tax Shock Jolts Edible Oil Industry as Retroactive Levies Stir Confusion

Takeaways: Retroactive VAT enforcement on soybean cake has become a tax flashpoint, with liabilities rising to tens of millions of Birr for some manufacturers. The distinction between soybe...

Apr 13 , 2025

Money Market Watch

Diverging Forex Rates Expose Liquidity Strains, Policy Inertia

The financial sector is experiencing sharp divisions among commercial banks as the Birr continues to depreciate rapidly against the U.S. Dollar. This widening gap reveals sharp differences between cau...

Apr 13 , 2025

News Analysis

CBE's Profit Soars as Costs Climb, Capital Cushion Thins

KEY TAKEAWAYS CBE posted a substantial profit increase of 26.2pc to 22.02 billion Br in its 2023/24 financial year operation. CBE's operational costs increased enormously, with wages and...

Apr 6 , 2025

Latest Updates

Property Owners on Bole Road Face Uncertainty Amid Oromia Gov't Office Expansion

A redevelopment initiative along Africa Avenue (Bole Road) has set off alarm bells for property owne...

Apr 13 , 2025

Labour Ministry Ambitions Stumble as Overseas Jobs Cause Costly Traps

Key Takeaways Federal legislators called for reforms and increased enforcement to protect Ethio...

Apr 13 , 2025

Signature Fraud Claims, Alleged Political Pressure Reignite Battle for BGI Ethiopia Stake

Key Takeaways: Zewdinesh's legal battle alleged misuse of political power in corporate affairs...

Apr 13 , 2025

Agenda

Trenches of Tax Turmoil

Key Takeaways: Merkato's bustling trade shows signs of a slowdown, manifesting deeper economic anxieties affecting merchants and shoppers alike. Traders face increased VAT burdens, with steep financial demands compounding the market's chall...

Apr 13 , 2025

FLUSHED WITH TROUBLE

Key Takeaways Addis Abeba residents face sudden and severe fines for waste disposal violations, demonstrating the gap between rapid urban expansion and inf...

Apr 6 , 2025

CHASED FOR A LIVING

At dusk, Haile Garment Square in the southern outskirts of Addis Abeba transforms from a quiet street into a lively market. Vendors quickly spread their merchan...

Mar 30 , 2025

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Editorial

Officials Bank on Student Service to Patch a Fractured Country

The federal government will soon require one year of national service from university students, which education officials have dubbed "Ethiopia University Service." Four-year students will serve after their third year, and five-year students after th...

Apr 13 , 2025

Cheap Power Lures Bitcoin Miners. But Millions Wait for a Lightbulb Moment

Last week, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), part of the World Bank Group, announced a 100-million-dollar debt financing package for Raxio Group, a major data-centre operator in sub-Saharan Africa. Over the next three years, Raxio plans to use these...

Apr 6 , 2025

Media Council's Edging to Accreditation a Deceitful Drift

When the private satellite channel, Ethiopian Broadcasting Service (EBS), aired an emotional interview last week featuring a young woman's allegations of sexual assault, it inadvertently sparked a political firestorm. Rather than encouraging meaningful discuss...

Mar 30 , 2025

Exclusive Interview

State Enterprises from Oracles to Apprentices

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

Dec 22 , 2024

State Enterprises from Oracles to Apprentices

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

Dec 22 , 2024

Patience - Consistency - Respect

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

Aug 4 , 2024

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Viewpoint

Trump, Tariffs, and the Dollar's Fate

With the Trump Administration imposing "insane" tariffs on the rest of the world, many commentators are worried about the problem of “sane-washing”: imputing cogent rationales to policies that have none. Such naive punditry, they argue, distracts from the grift that is unfolding before our eyes. The Trump family's moves into the crypto sphere, where its meme coins serve as an open invitation f...

Apr 13 , 2025

Green Fatigue Sets In as Climate Rhetoric Meets a Hard Reset

Over the past decade, corporate and international organisation leaders have become used to being lauded for making grand but ultimately empty green promises on stages in Davos and climate summits. How quickly things have changed. Fear of being called out by th...

Apr 13 , 2025

Will AI Close or Widen the Development Gap?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is often presented as the next peak of human innovation, owing to its potential to revolutionise industries, transform economies, and improve lives. But will AI truly benefit everyone, or will it deepen existing divides? The...

Apr 6 , 2025

My Opinion

Classrooms Shouldn't Become Coffins for Dreams

A country where over one third of its population is under the age of 30, Ethiopia faces a quiet crisis in education, threatening the future of millions. Schools, intended as places of growth, are increasingly becoming necropoleis of potential. Measures taken to address the crisis are paradoxically deepening it. Calling the statistics alarming should be an understatement. Last year, over 684,00...

Apr 13 , 2025

The Youth Chase Riches That Never Come

It starts innocently enough, usually with a message from an old classmate: “Hey, I've an exciting opportunity for you! Financial freedom, passive income, entrepreneurship. DM me for details.” Soon, we could find ourselves in a crowded conference hall, l...

Apr 6 , 2025

Addis Abeba Restores Fountains as Residents Queue for Water

A decade after Ethiopia's socialist revolution, the military regime unveiled Dilachin — "Our Victory" in 1984, a towering monument erected on Churchill Avenue, near Ambassador Theater. Set in a park of 30,000Sqm, the memorial celebrated the revolution itself...

Mar 30 , 2025

Featured

When the Lift Lets Users Down

Key Takeaways: Human stories, like Hiwot's and Mekdes', reveal dire safety lapses in Addis Abeba's rapidly constructing high-rises, and elevators' functions. Systemic issues arise from insufficiently skilled technicians and inconsistent safety checks across the city's infrastructure. The city's enforcement efforts include 263 unannounced inspections, revealing widespread regulatory violations. Addis Abeba's expansive vertical development demands a comprehensive safety and mainten...

Apr 6 , 2025

Commentaries

A Trade War Hits the Flower Aisle. Ethiopia Feels the Thorns

President Donald Trump's decision to impose new tariffs has prompted U.S. customs agents to begin collecting duties on goods from dozens of major trading partners, with a baseline rate of 10pc and higher levies on certain products. Among the industries feeling the effects is floriculture, a global business known for time-sensitive supply chains. While the measure targets a wide swath of imports, it places a particular spotlight on the Ethiopian flower industry, which has spent years expanding it...

Apr 13 , 2025

News Analysis

CBE's Profit Soars as Costs Climb, Capital Cushion Thins

KEY TAKEAWAYS CBE posted a substantial profit increase of 26.2pc to 22.02 billion Br in its 2023/24 financial year operation. CBE's operational costs increased enormously, with wages and benefits rising by 17pc. A drop by one-third in forex gains signals shifts in revenue sources. Structural and economic challenges position CBE as a bellwether for the economy's financial health. The performance of the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE) in the 2023/24 financial year was on...

Apr 6 , 2025

Delicate Number

400

The value in dollars remittance providers made in 2024 from transfers to Ethiopia. Sending remittances from the United States, the United Kingdom, and Saudi Arabia to Ethiopia costs on average 6.7pc of the transfer amount.

Apr 13 , 2025

Fineline

Leaders of the National . . .

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

Oct 3 , 2020

Verbatim

"I refuse to take orders from them."

Getachew Reda, the ousted head of the Tigray Interim Regional Administration (TRIA), told an online publication, bird.africaofilter.org, about the "real reason" why he relinquished office after two years since the Pretoria Accord.

View From Arada

Fast and Furious on a Bumpy Road

Once in a while, even the most efficient services falter. That's what happened the day my host in the small German city of Heilbronn accompanied me to the train station for my trip to Frankf...

Apr 13 , 2025

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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Fortune Video

Sunday With Eden

Grace Over Grind

Over the weekend, I attended a women's gathering that quietly reshaped how I think about balance, ambition, motherhood, and the kind of life I want to build. The speaker did not deliver a typical keynote. She simply told her story – and in doing so, taught more than any manual ever could. Her lessons were not laid out in bullet points. They were embedded in how she lives: intentionally, stead...

Apr 13 , 2025

Breaking Bread, Sharing Hearts

Almost a year ago, my husband and I sat in the living room of a dear friend who had just suffered an unimaginable loss. She had lost a very young loved one, and the weight of her grief was overwhelming. In her mourning, she sought solace in the presence of fri...

Apr 6 , 2025

The Cycle of Generosity Coming Full Circle

In a world that often prioritizes individual success, it's easy to overlook the profound impact of generosity. Yet, time and again, acts of kindness create lasting effects; not just for those who receive them but also for those who give. The simple act of givi...

Mar 30 , 2025

Life Matters

The Awkward Art of Saying Hello

Living side by side with others – sharing walls, staircases, even the same unreliable electricity – should make greetings feel natural. A simple “hello” seems like the least we could offer one another. And yet, I often find myself hesitating. Despite my best intentions, I struggle to consistently greet my neighbours. It's a habit I've tried to cultivate, but a strange cocktail of fear –...

Apr 13 , 2025

Showers Are Optional, Guilt Is Not

It's funny how life throws your pre-baby notions right out the window. I vividly remember joking with a friend, back in my carefree days, about how toddlers don't need a huge wardrobe for those first three years. We reasoned, rather naively, that mothers deser...

Apr 6 , 2025

Natural, Enhanced, or Just Exhausted?

As a woman, navigating the world of beauty and attraction often feels like confronting a maze of contradictions. My personal experiences and observations have led me to wonder how men perceive these complexities; particularly the gap between what they claim to...

Mar 30 , 2025

Radar

Tripartite Sign Deals to Expand Soybean Value Chain

Ethiopian Trading & Business Corporation (ETBC), Soy Afric Ltd., and Kazana Group have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to improve soybean production, processing, and export from Ethiopia. The three partners are actively involved in agriculture and soybean production. The Corporation is known for its work with smallholder farmers, while Soy Afric Ltd has been producing soybeans fo...

Apr 13 , 2025

Ethiopia Buys Time, Not Relief as Creditors Stall on Debt Write-Off

Ethiopia's official creditors expect to finalise a draft restructuring of the country's debt in the coming months, granting the government more time to repay its obligations while avoiding a direct reduction to the initial debt amount. Ethiopia defaulted on its external debt in December 2023, before its leaders announced a preliminary deal in March with its Official Creditor Committee to reorga...

Apr 13 , 2025

In Picture

SLOW FLAKES

A fractured 'Only Bus' transit to enable city buses for quick passenger transportation now stands abandoned as its fine space has been torn off by the ongoing corridor development project, to provide expanse for a cycle lane around Arat-kilo. Its fading paint and narrow-spaced highway now serve for walking, becoming a dangerous risk for pedestrian accidents. There are 650 Anbessa buses and over 8...

Apr 13 , 2025

ROLLER POSTER

A theatrical spectacle unfolds as retired tyre is cleverly placed outside of a repair shop, serving as a sign for road travellers around German Adebabay. The dismantled rubber cushion that once served as an important layer for vehicle wheels stands on the side-road, rotting away the scorching sun. In line with a citywide campaign to upgrade Addis Abeba's aesthetics and control illegal advertisem...

Apr 13 , 2025