"Taxi?" asks Abdulmunin Mohammed, peeking his head out from his grey Toyota Vitz at passersby he thinks look like they are waiting for a ride. He is on the lookout for his next potential customer.

This is one of the methods he has turned to for finding customers after the country-wide internet shutdown came into effect since Tuesday, June 30, 2020. The company he used to work for, Ride, a major taxi-hailing company, has stopped operations due to the shutdown.

"We tried to contact the call centre to see what options there were," he said, "but we couldn't get through."

Abdulmunin, 25, used to make close to 1,600 Br a day before the onset of the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) and 1,000 Br after March. Now with the internet shutdown, he makes around 400 Br a day. This is if he gets a call directly from clients who already know him.

Adapting and improvising when internet shutoffs happen in the country is something most businesses and entrepreneurs have accustomed themselves to. In the past four years, internet has been shut off 13 times in the country, varying from just specific regions to countrywide events and from mobile networks to total closure, according to a compiled report by Access Now, a digital rights advocacy organisation.

It is not just the drivers but the taxi hailing companies, like ZayRide, who have started using alternatives. The company is now using direct calls to reach clients.

This was done primarily to continue providing services to clients, according to Habtamu Tadesse, CEO of the company.

“We've waived the 10pc commission fees we take from drivers,” he said. "A lot of the drivers used to work for other companies, so we understood they needed this support."

The company, with over 8,000 drivers, now employs 15 call centre operators tasked with connecting drivers with customers. The application, however, was the basis for 45pc of their business.

“In this past two weeks, we've lost half a million Birr in revenues,” said Habtamu. “We'd done aggressive marketing through television and radio, and we were just seeing the returns when this occurred.”

The waived commission fees, however, cannot be a long-term strategy as it is the revenue stream of the taxi hailing company.

“We're doing this in the hope that internet will be back tomorrow,” he said. “And if not tomorrow, then the day after.”

ZayRide has put in its request to get internet connectivity back from Ethio telecom, the sole telecom operator in the country. Ethio telecom has been giving select businesses and financial institutions internet service on a case by case basis. Financial institutions, businesses involved in import and export, and specifically the horticulture and coffee industries are some examples.

The process requires only a letter of request to Ethio telecom, stating the reasons why the business deems it essential to have internet service back along with the company's IP address.

ZayRide's application, submitted on Tuesday, July 7, 2020 , is pending approval.

Businesses engaged in e-commerce have also been directly affected. Online delivery businesses, which had shown growth as more users and clients flock online due to COVID-19, are now faced with the latest challenge.

A good example is Deliver Addis. The online food delivery and e-commerce company’s daily deliveries grew by 630pc since April.

The company received its third round of capital injection from investors two months ago, and it has been growing steadily over the past three years, according to Feleg Tsegaye, the founder.

“Internet connectivity is fairly essential for an e-commerce business like ours,” Feleg said. “Initially, there was also the security issue since Tuesday as people weren't moving around, with or without the internet.”

But even after things calmed down, the internet shutdown has forced the business to look for alternative solutions.

“We started using SMS (Short Message System) texts as an alternative as of July 6,” he said, “but it’s not easy working with mechanisms that are hard to scale.”

However, even SMS texts are not reliable, and presenting over 100 restaurants and various other businesses over text is next to impossible, Feleg said. Customers have to already know what they want and from which business before they order.

"There've been hiccups like this in the past, and it's an uphill battle," he said. "The internet shutdown will impact businesses that are digital and otherwise, in terms of attracting investors."

"We sit in between the traditional and modern economy, and so it'll have a domino effect on everyone," he said.

The accompanying effect is undisputed as businesses using Deliver Addis's platform have also been indirectly struck.

“We can't support them like we used to, even though they are not specifically e-commerce,” said Feleg.

La Morena, a Mexican taqueria, dove straight into the pick-up and delivery model and listed itself on Deliver Addis's platform when COVID-19 forced customers to stay home, according to its owner, Selamawit Paulos.

“The business was going really well when it first opened in October 2019,” she said. ”A big share of the restaurant was focused on catering and events.”

But that all changed when safety measures for the pandemic were put in place and its business dropped by 90pc, according to the owner.

“Deliver Addis was our lifeline,” she said.

Now, with Deliver Addis offline, Selamawit's hope is that that clients will remember La Morena and order from her via SMS.

On a larger scale, the internet shutdown is the antithesis of advancing the digital economy, the main aspiration of the recently approved national digital strategy dubbed "The Digital Strategy for Inclusive Prosperity 2025".