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Oct 5 , 2025 . By REDIET YARED

TRADITION THRIVES AS COSTS CLIMB

As dawn broke over Addis Abeba last week, the city's arteries pulsed not with the usual weekday urgency but with a slower and surer rhythm. A tide of people draped in black, red, and white shawls converged on a site near Mesqel Square with reverent precision. The capital bore witness once again to ...

Sep 27 , 2025 . By SURAFEL MULUGETA

THE PRICE OF PLAY Football, privatisation, and the battle for turf in Addis Abeba

On a crisp weekday morning at Friendship Park, nestled along Taitu Street, Awel Hamza stood hunched over, hands resting on his knees after a spirited two-hour football match. A school-bus driver by profession, Awel has been lacing up his boots at this riverside venue twice a week for the past year, part of a 20-strong team that traded the city's dusty lots for synthetic turf installed under a government-led “castle” park project. “This field is nice and comfortable,” he said, still catching his breath. “But it's not perfect.” Comfort, it turns out, comes at a cost, one that d...


Sep 27 , 2025 . By YITBAREK GETACHEW

Knives Out in Markets as Ritual Meets Retail

On the eve of the Ethiopian New Year, Shola Market in Addis Abeba turns into a vortex of commerce and tradition. The pungent mix of hay, eucalyptus smoke, and blood signals not only the season's frenzy but also an economic shift reshaping how urban households handle ritual poultry slaughter. The once-private act of killing and dressing a chicken has moved decisively into public markets, creating both a livelihood for butchers and a public-health dilemma for regulators. At the centre of this transformation are men like Yohannes Misganaw, 27, who now processes up to 200 chickens a day at 100...


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 shift has transformed a culture as old as hospitality itself. At the Radisson Blu Hotel, on Marshal Tito Road, Lidya Solomon, 24, has felt the change more than most. Nearly two years into her job, she recalled a time when guests would regularly pay their bills in cash and often leave a folded not...

Feature

Sep 7 , 2025

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...

Sep 7 , 2025

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...

Sep 7 , 2025

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 h...

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...


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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