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Apr 20 , 2025

Overseas Job Push Evokes Hopes at Home, Hardship Abroad

Mufariat Kamil, the minister of Labour & Skills, recently told Parliament that her Ministry had created 3.4 million new domestic jobs in nine months of the current fiscal year. She also touted an annual target of sending 833,333 workers overseas. Official figures, however, reveal that less than...

Apr 13 , 2025

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 their fourth. Officials hope the service will boost community engagement, address teacher shortages, and help young people mature through lived experiences. The scheme may begin next year, provided security and institutional readiness improve. Berhanu Nega (Prof.), the education minister, compared it to a pre-1970s program in which students spe...


Apr 6 , 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 funds to expand its carrier-neutral data facilities, meeting rising demand for digital infrastructure in underserved markets. Undoubtedly, Ethiopia, one of the Group's operational hubs, would be an attractive destination for the company to consolidate. It can use these centres for artificial intelligence (AI), cloud services, and digi...


Mar 30 , 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 discussion around sexual violence, a persistently recurring incident, the broadcast drew swift condemnation from government officials, accusations of "misinformation," and, chillingly, the arrest of EBS staff and two of its managers. The authorities' swift response brought back memories of Ethiopia's longstanding tradition of treating media d...

Editorials

Mar 23 , 2025

Preventing War Far Cheaper Than Paying Its Deadly Price

Getachew Redda, head of the Tigray Interim Regional Administration (TIRA), at least up until last week, is no ordinary politician. Witty, articulate, and boldly confrontational, he seldom hesitates...

Mar 16 , 2025

A Country Governed by Guesswork, While Millions Lost in the Shadows

Ask anyone about the population of Addis Abeba, and a straightforward answer proves elusive. Wikipedia claims the city's population reached 5.7 million this year. Worldpopulationreview.com, however, p...

Mar 9 , 2025

The GMO Experiment Can Be Harvest of Hope, Not Seed of Trouble

Five years ago, 11 non-governmental organisations (NGOs), together with 40 allies across Africa, demanded a five-year moratorium on Ethiopia's use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). They wanted...

Mar 2 , 2025

Mismanaged, Trade Liberalisation Could Pour Cold Water on Local Hopes

The domestic economy has endured a punishing half-decade. A global pandemic throttled trade, a civil war inflicted grave damage to livelihoods and external financing, and persistent unrest in two of i...

Feb 23 , 2025

Africa Wants to Mark Own Homework with Homegrown Credit Agency

Africa is a place where the frustrations of its elites run high due to what they feel are external yardsticks distorting the continental potential. Ironically, successive generations of leaders have l...

Feb 16 , 2025

IMF Tells Ethiopia to Stay the Course, with Leap of Faith on the Market

Madame Kristalina Georgieva, managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), recently became the third IMF chief to set foot in Addis Abeba in over 30 years. Her arrival showed Ethiopia's...

Feb 9 , 2025

The Race to the AUC Follows Mahamat's Grand Entrances, Quiet Exits Legacy

This week, the African Union's (AU) annual summit in Addis Abeba is set to be more than a routine exercise of convention by heads of states. The continent is beset by increasingly intricate conflicts...

Feb 1 , 2025

Addis Abeba's Costly Pursuit of Prosperity Bulldozes Dreams on Bargain Prices

Urban renewal is seldom gentle to those on the receiving end of redevelopment. Take several neighbourhoods of Addis Abeba where bustling life once thrived. Silence now reigns on them, bar the bulldoze...

Jan 25 , 2025

Birr in Tumble, Reform Rhetoric Meets Bitter Economic Realities

Grand ambitions have long driven Ethiopia's successive leaders, but they remain weighed down by deep structural vulnerabilities. But, nowhere is this more evident than in the monetary policy front, wh...

Jan 18 , 2025

Breaking the Chains to Protect the Vulnerable During Painful Reforms

Adanech Abebie, the mayor of Addis Abeba, addressed last week a warm-up session for her party's upcoming convention, urging cadres of the Prosperity Party - Prosperitians - to embrace what she describ...

Banks Struggle to Lend as Branches Bloom, Coffers Wither

A severe cash shortage squeezes the economy, and the deposit-to-loan ratio has slumped below 80pc, hitting its lowest point in decades. The scarcity of credit, often termed a credit crunch, has a stra...

Jan 4 , 2025

The Year That Falls Short in Lofty Ambitions, Brittle Realities

Time seldom passes without prompting reflection, and the dawn of 2025 should nudge Ethiopians into contemplating their trajectory as the first quarter of the 21st Century closes. This vast country...

Dec 28 , 2024

The Bureaucrats Turn to Masters of Misrule, Architects of Uncertainty

On a flight between Juba and Addis Abeba, Stefan Dercon, a professor of economic policy and former chief economist at Britain's Department for International Development (DfID), penned a forward to a b...

Dec 21 , 2024

Addis Abeba's Gleaming Facade Masks a Parched Metropolis

The main avenues and thoroughfares of Addis Abeba have undergone an impressive facelift that is a source of marvel to visitors more so than its residents. Adopting a greyish colour — a bizarre choic...

Dec 14 , 2024

When More of Everything Leaves Less in the Bank

Ethiopia's monetary policy has shifted conspicuously in recent years. Gone is the era of demand-side tinkering; under Governor Mamo Mihretu, the central bank is now guided by supply-side doctrines and...

Dec 7 , 2024

Fueling Reform, the Petroleum Sector Caught Between Monopoly Missteps, Market Liberalisation

For decades the Ethiopian Petroleum Supply Enterprise (EPSE), a state-owned giant entrusted with importing and distributing fuel, dominated the energy sector. It administered 13 reserve depots spread...


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Overseas Job Push Evokes Hopes at Home, Hardship Abroad


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Overseas Job Push Evokes Hopes at Home, Hardship Abroad

Mufariat Kamil, the minister of Labour & Skills, recently told Parliament that her Min...

Editorial | Apr 20 , 2025

From Cassette, CD Dreams to Cloud Streams

Key Takeaways Kuku Sebsibie's transition to digital singles represents a shift in the...

Featured | Apr 19 , 2025 . By BEZAWIT HULUAGER

A Holiday of Uneasy Choices

Takeaways: The Addis Abeba market faces logistical challenges with fewer livestock...

Agenda | Apr 19 , 2025 . By RUTH BERHANU

LEGACY Businesses in a Liminal Space

At first light in Addis Abeba's Qality District, the smell of freshly roasted Yirgacheffe...

Fortune News | Apr 19 , 2025 . By AKSAH ITALO