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Oct 4 , 2025

Central Bank Loosens Credit Reins But Stops Short of Bold Overhaul

Eyob Tekalegn (PhD) had been in the Governor's chair for only weeks when, on September 29, 2025, the Monetary Policy Committee chairs loosened the banking industry's credit-growth ceiling. From the new fiscal year, banks may expand loans by up to 24pc, six percentage points more than before. The...

Sep 27 , 2025

Exam Policy Fails the Test of Justice, Deepening Inequality, Disillusion

Four years into an experiment with “shock therapy” in education, the national mood has shifted from hope to a more sobering reckoning. The administration's radical new approach to secondary-school exams, conceived as a cure for systemic rot, has laid bare the depth of the crisis. Education authorities have adopted a drastic measure to address cheating in the school system. Since 2021, every secondary-school candidate has been transported to a university campus, sometimes kilometres from home, to sit national exams watched by unfamiliar invigilators and unblinking cameras. The scheme, dr...


Sep 20 , 2025

Addis Abeba's Setback Rules Leave Homes Flattened, Voices Silenced

Getachew Reda's return to the national stage was always going to stir attention. Once at the helm of Tigray's post-wartime interim administration, his presence at Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's (PhD) book launch last week was packed, for many, with a welter of evocative claims in a speech of barely 34 minutes. But his barbed remark, preferring “to die in a clean house than a filthy one”, did more than raise eyebrows. It sharpened a debate already simmering in Addis Abeba of whether the drive for urban renewal is, in fact, a quiet war on the city's long-time residents. He faulted, rather un...


Sep 13 , 2025

In Climate Talks, Africa Mortgages Tomorrow Simply to Survive Today

At its launch in Nairobi two years ago, the Africa Climate Summit was billed as the forum that would at last give the continent a commanding voice in global climate talks. Last week, the second edition convened in Addis Abeba under the African Union's (AU) auspices. The speeches were longer and the guest list grander, yet the impression that the gathering was sliding into ritual rather than reform was hard to miss. Even seasoned delegates and veterans of countless communiqués muttered that the carnival of panels and photo-ops felt eerily familiar. It is stating the obvious that Africa e...

Editorials

Sep 6 , 2025

Ethiopians Celebrate Big Dreams, While Everyday Realities Cast Shadow

The dawn of a new year is more than a simple turning of the calendar. It is a moment heavy with national pride, buoyed this time by the long-awaited completion of the Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam ...

Aug 30 , 2025

Will Community Health Insurance Falter Under Its Ambitious Weight?

For Germans, Otto von Bismarck is first remembered as the architect of a unified nation. However, his lesser-known stroke of statecraft continues to have a lasting impact on the world. In 1883, he int...

Aug 23 , 2025

The Capital Market May Be Too Shallow to Swim In. Beware.

Banks have a new obsession. After decades chasing deposits and, more recently, digital banking, they are scrambling to attach investment-banking arms to their franchises. The state-owned colossus, Com...

Aug 16 , 2025

Capital Market Ambitions Face Credibility Test Over Conflicted Oversight

A decade ago, a case in the United States (US) jolted Wall Street. An ambulance operator in the State of Arizona had, in 2011, accepted a buy-out that valued it below earlier indications. Shareholders...

Aug 9 , 2025

Squeesing Stones for Silver, the State Pulls While Taxpayers May Duck

In the 14th Century, the Egyptian scholar Ibn Khaldun drew a neat curve in the sand. Young dynasties, he observed, can fill their coffers with modest taxes, but ageing ones squeeze ever harder for dim...

Aug 2 , 2025

Saplings Should Not Be Rushed Like Election Rallies

At daybreak on Thursday last week, July 31, 2025, hundreds of thousands of Ethiopians fanned out across parks, highways, and riverbanks, seedlings in hand, driven to smash what organisers say was...

Jul 26 , 2025

Teaching Hospitals Shoulder the Burden While Administrators Count the Beans

Teaching hospitals everywhere juggle three jobs at once: teaching, curing, and discovering. But, few do so on a tighter rope than those in Ethiopia. Around the world, these institutions shape medic...

Jul 19 , 2025

In Taxing Aggressively, Fed's Fiscal Reckoning Arrives

Parliament is no stranger to frantic bursts of productivity. Even so, the vote last week on a new income tax law was dizzyingly swift. Only five legislators dissented before the bill was rubber-stampe...

Jul 12 , 2025

Legal, Policy Volatility Turns Promises into Headwinds

Political leaders and their policy advisors often promise great leaps forward, yet they frequently fall short, landing with a thud. In July 2024, Mamo Mehiretu, governor of the Central Bank, declar...

Jul 5 , 2025

Civil Society Feels the Squeeze as Reform Era Unravels

Six years ago, Ethiopia was the darling of international liberal commentators. A year earlier, crowds filled Mesqel Square, chanting slogans celebrating the dawning of an era away from what was an aut...

Jun 28 , 2025

Soaring Taxes Fail to Plug Holes as Audit Reveals Enduring Waste

Meseret Damtie, the assertive auditor general, has never been shy about naming names, and with a reputation for her clear voice and sharper pencil. Last week, she published her latest verdict on the f...

Jun 21 , 2025

Expanding Federal Budget Tests Limits of Fiscal Discipline

A well-worn adage says, “Budget is not destiny, but it is direction.” Examining the budget bill for 2025/26 now before Parliament, the federal government's compass appears to be drifting. The b...

Jun 14 , 2025

Desire to March to the Sea Should Spill Reason on the Way

Yet again, the Horn of Africa is bracing for trouble. A region already frayed by wars almost every other decade in nearly 70 years, now hears a rising chorus of turmoil. Ethiopia's leaders have bec...

Jun 7 , 2025

Where the Roof Overhead Comes with a Ceiling on Hope

Few promises shine brighter in Addis Abeba than the pledge of a roof for every family. Gleaming office blocks now punctuate horizons once defined by tin-roof shacks, yet the capital's housing gap keep...

May 31 , 2025

Courting Foreign Buyers of Properties While Land Remains State-Owned

It is seldom flattering to be bracketed with North Korea and Myanmar. Ironically, Ethiopia has long shared their company on one narrow but emotive list. They are countries that forbid foreign national...

May 24 , 2025

A Country on Life Support Must Not Neglect Its Healers

Public hospitals have fallen eerily quiet lately. Corridors once crowded with patients' relatives now echo, wards lie half-empty, and family members milled outside in anxious knots. The silence was no...


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What's Next for Multilateralism?

Sunday with Eden | Oct 04,2025

Arrivals, Departures, and the Human Heart

Agenda |

Textbook Shortages Mount as School Year Advances

Editorial | Oct 04,2025

Central Bank Loosens Credit Reins But Stops Short of Bold Overhaul


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Central Bank Loosens Credit Reins But Stops Short of Bold Overhaul

Eyob Tekalegn (PhD) had been in the Governor's chair for only weeks when, on September 29...

Editorial | Oct 4 , 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

Textbook Shortages Mount as School Year Advances

The school year in Addis Abeba began almost a month ago, yet across the capital, thousands...

Agenda |

Mesfin Rebrands to Overcome Wartime Shadow

In Meqelle, a name long associated with industrial grit and regional pride is undergoing a...

Fortune News | Oct 5 , 2025 . By NAHOM AYELE