Harvesting Finance


Harvesting Finance

From left: Agriculture Minister Girma Amente (PhD), Finance Minister Ahmed Shide, and National Bank Governor Mamo Mihretu during the second Ethiopia Finance Forum on July 22, 2025, at Commercial Bank of Ethiopia’s HQ located around Ras Abebe Aregay St. Officials unpacked the National Agri-Finance Implementation Roadmap (NAFIR), a push to widen credit access for inputs like irrigation, livestock, and mechanisation. Despite making up 32pc of GDP and 64pc of employment, agriculture secured just 8pc of total bank loans in 2023/24, falling well short by 2pc of demand.

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In-Picture

WAITING HOOVES

A donkey “parking lot” along Dejazmach Mekonin Demisaw Street in Sebategna, Mercato, hosts a patient line of beasts ready for their next load. Each animal seems to carry more than goods, they bear memories of an era when hooves, not wheels, ruled the streets. Passersby rush past in the busy market, half-smiling, half-reflecting, as the scene whispers stories of grit, patience, and the slow rhythm of life that machines have since hurried past. Somewhere between nostalgia and necessity, these...


In-Picture

CROOKED PASSAGE

A once newly structured railway fence leans over to the side to let passersby have a way to cross the street rather than walking to a Zebra crossing, hinting at urban ingenuity, or stubborn shortcuts, where everyday life finds its own paths, no matter how crooked. In its sagging frame, the fence tells a story of compromise between order and habit, of city planning meeting human impatience. It is a small rebellion against rigid design, a reminder that the pulse of the city often beats in the spac...


In-Picture

CONTROLLED RUIN

A construction worker, headset firmly in place, pushes a concrete cutter along Ras Desta Damtew Street near Addis Abeba Stadium, carving a trench for new underground cables. The machine tears into otherwise smooth asphalt, leaving a temporary scar on a well-served road. Pedestrians flinch at the grinding noise, drivers sigh, yet beneath the disruption, silent wires quietly stitch the city's connectivity together also hinting the unpredictable plan changes of the city design...