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Sep 14 , 2025 . By NAHOM AYELE

Digital Payments Reshape Economy While Service Workers Lose Out

The way the Birr moves is changing, and with it, habits that have shaped daily life for generations. Digital payments are sweeping across the country, reaching millions of people and reshaping how they spend, save, and borrow. But for workers who once relied on small cash gestures of gratitude, the...

Sep 7 , 2025 . By AMANUEL BEKELE

Holiday Bazzars Reveal a City Split by Price, Policy, and Public Mood

At the heart of the city, the Zemen Gebeya New Year bazaar inside the Exhibition Hall behind Meskel Square was ready for the season. From the outside, strings of bright lights wrapped the venue, music spilt onto the street, and eager shoppers shuffled toward the gates, each paying a 200 Br entrance fee before stepping into the bustle within. On first glance, the bazaar had all the trappings of a holiday fair. There were food stalls, colourful booths stacked with perfume, jewellery, electronics and clothes. Children tugged at their parents' sleeves, stalls sizzled with the scent of roasted m...

Sep 7 , 2025 . By AMANUEL BEKELE

In the High-Octane Racing Scene, Passion Outpaces Policy, Investment

The sharp shriek of a well-timed gear change slices through the calm outskirts of Addis Abeba, followed by the low, but urgent growl of an engine pushed to its limits. For 23-year-old Ezra Eshetu, it was the sound of home. His earliest memory of racing is still fresh, with a circuit near Mexico Square, the thunder of engines and the cheers of a crowd turning the city into something completely different. “It was like stepping into another world,” he recalled, still wide-eyed at the thought. Ezra's love of racing started in his family's garage, surrounded by vintage cars his parents ca...

Sep 7 , 2025 . By RUTH BERHANU

HOLIDAY MAKEOVERS Bring Little Cheer as Prices Soar

In her tiny one-bedroom condominium flat in the Qilinto neighbourhood, on the southern fringes of Addis Abeba, Mimi Alemu was listening to the far-off sound of construction work, thinking of her husband's return. Elias Girma, a 40-year-old truck driver, spends most of his year hauling cargo across the harsh, sunburnt roads of Afar, coming home only for the major holidays. For Mimi, this year's New Year was special. She wanted their home to feel new, warm, and festive, something to make her husband smile when he finally walked through the door. She started with what felt like the easiest...

Feature

Sep 7 , 2025

TWO WORLDS OF DOGS From Streets to Luxury Grooming in Addis

On the rain-soaked streets of Addis Abeba, packs of stray dogs weave through alleys and puddles, their paws worn down on uneven stones. They cluster beneath tin awnings or the shade of parked cars, ke...

Aug 23 , 2025

Ashenda Grows Louder

The late-season drizzle that falls on Addis Abeba each August does little to dampen the mood that builds around Ashenda, a spirited festival rooted in the Orthodox tradition yet increasingly shaped by...

Aug 10 , 2025

CAPITAL MARKET OPENS SHARIA-COMPLIANT BANKS WATCH FROM THE SIDELINES

Salhadin Khalifa knows that every shareholder wants to see rewarding returns. As a founding shareholder in ZamZam Bank since 2021, the country's pioneering fully fledged interest-free bank, he sees th...

Jul 27 , 2025

New Homes Bring Promises as Uprooted Lives Struggle to Rebuild

On the south-eastern edge of Addis Abeba, Gelan Gura woke up slowly last week. The dawn silence lingers, broken only by children scuffing gravel, a clang from a workshop, and the hush of voices seepin...

Jul 20 , 2025

A Season of Their Own

In the sharp and high-altitude chill of Addis Abeba's winter, daylight lingers over eucalyptus-lined streets long after classrooms have emptied. What was once a season of barefoot village adventures h...

Jul 6 , 2025

Apparel Market Struggles Beneath a Second-Hand Deluge

Each June, Addis Abeba's high-altitude chill arrives with afternoon downpours, soaking school commutes and unraveling family budgets. For many, clothing the household for the season feels less like sh...

Jun 29 , 2025

Addis Abeba's Street Photographers Craft Futures Through the Lens

On a luminous Sunday afternoon at Mesqel Square, the chatter of conversation merges with the squeals of children who dart after pigeons, couples pose under sculpted arches, and the smell of chips, sam...

Jun 15 , 2025

Digital Credit Surges as Mobile Lending Bakes Opportunity, Brews Risk

Hana Surafel spent years behind the counter of her uncle's traditional cloth stall in Merkato, listening to customers haggle over fabric patterns. The 29-year-old mother of three earned a "respectable...

May 24 , 2025

E-Commerce May Never Be the Same Again

Zemen Gebeya, the digital marketplace that Ethio telecom switched on only two weeks ago, is already reshaping the fragile e-commerce scene. In a country where online retail remains a novelty, the plat...

May 4 , 2025

Curtain Falls on a Capital Stage as Theatre Fights for Its Life

The balcony at the National Theatre, on Churchill Avenue, used to fill up days in advance on a Friday night. Last week, only about 50 patrons clustered in the front rows while dozens of empty seats ec...

Apr 19 , 2025

From Cassette, CD Dreams to Cloud Streams

Seven years in the making, Kuku Sebsibie's unmistakably husky alto, “Dejazmach” (love wears a general's crown) is to hit the airwaves. Cueing up as a cavernous Chik Chika beat, the record will arr...

Apr 19 , 2025

Butchers Bet on Easter Boom as Costs Cut Deep Into Profit

The Easter holiday is around teh corner, and Addis Abeba already gleams with fresh paint. Across the capital, butcher shops that stayed dark during the two-month fasting season lift their shutters, wa...

Apr 19 , 2025

When Injera Met Sushi & Mandi Displaced Tibs

A narrow alleyway off a dusty road in the Bole Rwanda quarter used to be an afterthought for passersby rushing to the airport. Now, the same passage hums with the clink of cutlery and the chatter of d...

Apr 19 , 2025

Easter Crowds Flock to Flashy Bazaars as Costs Climb With the Hype

A lively Easter bazaar at Meskel Square is the holiday highlight of Addis Abeba's growing appetite for brand-driven events. The scene was energetic, with a DJ blasting music, while families snapped ph...

Apr 6 , 2025

When the Lift Lets Users Down

Late one evening, Hiwot Muluken, 25, stepped unknowingly into an open elevator shaft on the second floor of a condominium in the Bole Arabsa neighborhood. She earned 7,000 Br a month as an office a...

Mar 16 , 2025

Trapped Between Sunlight, Soaring Costs, Farmers Struggle to Ditch Diesel

Fenta Atele gazes at the shrinking shores of Lake Abaya, in Southern Regional State, worry etched on his face. Until recently, the lake's plentiful water allowed him and his fellow farmers to irrigate...

Columns

Commentaries | 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...

Editorial | Sep 13 , 2025

Digital Payments Reshape Economy While Service Workers Lose Out

The way the Birr moves is changing, and with it, habits that have shaped daily life for ge...

Featured | Sep 14 , 2025 . By NAHOM AYELE

Student Tax ID Push Triggers Logjam

The yellow flush of Aday Abeba flowers has returned to Addis Abeba, heralding the arrival...

Agenda | Sep 13 , 2025 . By NAHOM AYELE and YITBAREK GETACHEW

Monument to National Ambition, Geopolitical Agency

The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), Africa's largest hydroelectric power project,...

Fortune News | Sep 15 , 2025 . By AMANUEL BEKELE

Digital Payments Reshape Economy While Service Workers Lose Out

Holiday Bazzars Reveal a City Split by Price, Policy, and Public Mood

In the High-Octane Racing Scene, Passion Outpaces Policy, Investment

HOLIDAY MAKEOVERS Bring Little Cheer as Prices Soar