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Unity at the Budget Vote Tensions at Question Time


The federal legislature gave Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (PhD) what he wanted: a 1.9 trillion Br budget passed unanimously and without dissent. But what looked like a choreographed display of parliamentary consensus quickly gave way to sharp looks f...

Jul 6 , 2025


Fortune News

Addis Abeba to Launch Sweeping Crackdown on Construction Safety Failures

In a city rising skyward at breakneck speed, a reckoning has arrived. Authorities in Addis Abeba have declared a sweeping crackdown on unsafe construction practices, putting thousands of developers, c...

Jul 6 , 2025

Money Market Watch

Behind Gentle Slide, the Brewed Buck Faces Mounting Strain in a Restrained Market

The Birr (Brewed Buck) edged lower against the Dollar (teh Green Buck) last week, a gentle slide that belies a deeper tightening of liquidity. Last week, the average buying rate posted by commercial b...

Jul 6 , 2025

News Analysis

Siinqee Bank Accelerates Growth, Struggles to Convert Scale into Profit

Siinqee Bank has burst confidently from microfinance trenches into the competitive commercial banking industry, posting an impressive profit surge that outshone many peers. Its net profit jumped by 8...

May 11 , 2025


Latest Updates

Finance Ministry Mandates Open Access to Digital Payments in Public Sector

A landmark directive from the Ministry of Finance signals a paradigm shift in the country's digital...

Jul 6 , 2025


Awash Bank Stakes Claim in Budding Capital Market with Investment Banking Arm

Awash Bank has announced plans to establish a dedicated investment banking subsidiary with an initia...

Jul 6 , 2025


Minister Habtamu Bets on a Smoke-Free Future While Flames of Doubt Linger

Habtamu Itafa's Ministry for Water & Energy unveiled a 10-year roadmap for national clean cookin...

Jul 6 , 2025








Agenda

When Pepper Burns the Purse

The late-morning sun cuts through Addis Abeba's usual haze and lands on Haile Garment, an industrious pocket of the capital's Nifas Silk-Lafto District where sewing workshops crowd narrow lanes. From one stall, the scent of ground chilli, Shiro an...

Jul 6 , 2025


As School Fees Soar in Addis, Families Choose Between Education, Survival

Late June in Addis Abeba brings its first curtain of rain, a grey veil that slows the minibuses and muffles the usual din of the capital. It is the season when...

Jun 29 , 2025


Addis Abeba's Messy Taxi Overhaul Leaves Riders Waiting, Veterans Sidelined

Around 5:00pm, a time when most civil servants spill out of office towers and scramble for rides home, Mexico Square was oddly hushed. On Mozambique Street,...

Jun 21 , 2025







Editorial

Civil Society Feels the Squeeze as Reform Era Unravels

Six years ago, Ethiopia was the darling of international liberal commentators. A year earlier, crowds filled Mesqel Square, chanting slogans celebrating the dawning of an era away from what was an authoritarian state and towards political openness an...

Jul 5 , 2025


Soaring Taxes Fail to Plug Holes as Audit Reveals Enduring Waste

Meseret Damtie, the assertive auditor general, has never been shy about naming names, and with a reputation for her clear voice and sharper pencil. Last week, she published her latest verdict on the federal government's finances, covering 115 of the 182 instit...

Jun 28 , 2025

Expanding Federal Budget Tests Limits of Fiscal Discipline

A well-worn adage says, “Budget is not destiny, but it is direction.” Examining the budget bill for 2025/26 now before Parliament, the federal government's compass appears to be drifting. The budget bill reads more like a political document than an acco...

Jun 21 , 2025







Exclusive Interview

Germany Champions Reforms While Industrial Model Faces Global Stress Test

Jens Hanefeld, Germany's envoy in Addis Abeba, touched down last September with a resume that mixes three decades of diplomacy, a decade running Volkswagen's global lobbying shop and the trained eye of a historian. Serving as ambassador to Ethiopia and Berlin's permanent representative to the Africa...

May 17 , 2025


Legacy Businesses in a Liminal Era

At first light in Addis Abeba's Qality District, the smell of freshly roasted Yirgacheffe beans drifts into the yeasty haze from Shoa Bakery's ovens, a blend that sums up Ethiopia's family firms. Such outfits are scarce everywhere, yet in Ethiopia, roughly 40p...

Apr 19 , 2025

The Roast of Resilience Brews in Bloodline

When her father died suddenly in 2008, Heleanna Georgalis found herself at the helm of Moplaco Trading Plc, a venerable coffee company founded in 1897 during Emperor Menelik's reign. Thrust into leadership amid profound grief, she had to steer the uncharted...

Apr 19 , 2025







Viewpoint

CBE Capital Deserves the Headlines. Now the Hard Work Begins

CBE Capital Investment Bank announced on June 26, 2025, its first “inter-broker trade” on the Ethiopian Securities Exchange (ESX), the bourse that opened its doors only weeks earlier. A few days before, Gadaa Bank became the second firm to list. The twin milestones, splashed across front pages, were celebrated as proof that Ethiopia can at last channel household savings, unlock diaspora cas...

Jul 6 , 2025


Health Extension Model Struggles to Survive Due to Rising Pressures, Waning Support

The federal government's signature program for public health extension services is at a crossroads. Launched in 2003 to bring essential care to the 85pc of Ethiopians who live in rural areas, the initiative once drew applause from global health experts who saw...

Jul 5 , 2025

A Make-or-Break Moment for Global Debt Reform

Amid rising poverty, sluggish growth, escalating climate disasters, and geopolitical instability, sovereign debt has emerged as the single greatest obstacle to achieving global development goals. Without bold structural reforms, the current financial system wi...

Jun 28 , 2025


My Opinion

Baking a Country to Prosperity on Borrowed Yeast

When my father retired from the civil service years ago, he opened a narrow bakery, with four walls, an iron oven, and a hopeful sign. It sent hot loaves to schoolchildren racing to the morning bell. For me, a teenager drafted into wage-free summer shifts, the shop was a seminar in political economy. At dawn on the first of every month, he joined a line at the cooperative, waiting for the gover...

Jul 5 , 2025


A "Talking Gorilla" Walks into Mercato

A couple of evenings ago, TikTok served up a scene that felt equal parts circus and science fiction. An Amharic-speaking Gorilla character strolling through Merkato, waving at fruit vendors, cracking jokes and locking eyes with the camera in a way that seemed...

Jun 28 , 2025

As the Capital Rises, the Regions Wait for a Turn

It is stating the obvious to claim Addis Abeba is placed foremost in the economy, playing the protagonist, director and banker of national growth. The data affirms this louder than any. Though the capital houses only three percent of the population, it prod...

Jun 21 , 2025






Featured

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 shopping and more like financial triage. Aster Lemma headed to a boutique near the 22_mazoaria neighbourhood expecting mid-season prices. She wanted to buy a new rain jacket for her seven- and 10-year daughters. The shop greeted her with racks of bright and weatherproof coats. Each one cost 3,800 B...

Jul 6 , 2025


Commentaries

How to Put Development Finance Back on Track

lobal growth this year is expected to slow to its lowest rate (outside of a crisis) since 2008. The outlook is especially problematic for developing countries that are already growing well below historical averages, and for those 35 countries, mostly in Africa, that are already in or at high risk of debt distress. One out of every three countries now spends more repaying creditors than on health or education. As debt payments crowd out money needed for development, these countries' futures ar...

Jul 5 , 2025


News Analysis

Siinqee Bank Accelerates Growth, Struggles to Convert Scale into Profit

Siinqee Bank has burst confidently from microfinance trenches into the competitive commercial banking industry, posting an impressive profit surge that outshone many peers. Its net profit jumped by 82.7pc during the financial year ending June 30, 2024, displaying a rapid growth trajectory that few of its generational counterparts could match. Nevertheless, while its deposit base grew explosively, Siinqee Bank's lending operations faced substantial limitations, mainly due to the National Bank...

May 11 , 2025


Delicate Number

731,568

The decline in the number of registered businesses between 2021 (3,898,081) and 2023, representing an 18pc drop.

Jul 5 , 2025


Fineline

Leaders of the National . . .

Leaders of the National Election Board are in a charm offensive mood, of a sort. Last week, they organised a rare tour for members of the media, showcasing what polling stations will look like during the upcoming national elections; and they took the...

Oct 3 , 2020


Verbatim

"Boasting tax revenue is an existential matter."

Ahmed Shide, minister of Finance, addressing Parliament ahead of the federal budget’s approval last week, told Parliament the economy’s stability rests on the government’s ability to mobilise domestic resources to finance the 1.9 trillion Br spending plan.






Fortune Video




Sunday With Eden

Rise Without Ruin

At times, the pursuit of opportunity quietly takes on a ruthless tone. Success begins to feel like a zero-sum game, where someone must lose for another to win. This mindset isn't confined to boardrooms or political arenas; it seeps into homes, friendships, and everyday relationships. A single moment, small on the surface, can reveal how far ethical boundaries have shifted. Recently, my husband...

Jul 5 , 2025


Real Respect Shows Up First

A couple of weeks ago, I found myself at a social gathering where strangers and old acquaintances mix in a haze of small talk and light laughter. It was meant to be forgettable, a blur of pleasantries and passing moments. But something I witnessed there stayed...

Jun 28 , 2025

Absence of Agile Discipline

In Ethiopia, across both public and private sectors, a quiet saboteur undermines productivity: the meeting. Too often, gatherings stretch endlessly, draining time, energy, and focus, yet producing little in return. Having worked extensively with European co...

Jun 21 , 2025


Life Matters

The Quiet Roar Beneath the Calm

There is often a sense of awe when encountering someone who appears to have everything under control. Impeccably dressed, composed, and seemingly immune to stress, such individuals exude a calm that feels almost enviable. Yet, beneath that exterior may lie a hidden condition known as highly functional anxiety. It has become increasingly common, slipping by unnoticed precisely because it wears the...

Jun 28 , 2025


The Quiet Roar Beneath the Calm

There is often a sense of awe when encountering someone who appears to have everything under control. Impeccably dressed, composed, and seemingly immune to stress, such individuals exude a calm that feels almost enviable. Yet, beneath that exterior may lie a h...

Jun 28 , 2025

The Weight of the World

The film Straw did not just break a heart, it reached into something deeper, unsettling a primal fear that resides in every parent. As a mother, the thought of losing a child is not merely distressing, it is destabilizing. It lives beneath the surface of daily...

Jun 21 , 2025





Radar

Capital Markets Set for Lift with Real Estate Funds, Commercial Paper

Ethiopia's financial sector is on the brink of a transformative shift as the Ethiopian Securities Exchange (ESX), with FSD Africa and FSD Ethiopia, prepares to launch Real Estate Investment Trusts/Funds (REIT/Fs) and a Commercial Paper (CP) market. This plans to deepen capital markets and open investment opportunities beyond the traditionally informal real estate sector. REIT/Fs, proven in mark...

Jul 6 , 2025


Ethiopia Unveils Consortium to Insure Millions of Farmers

Ethiopia has launched its Agricultural Insurance Consortium (AICE), pledging to protect three million farmers by 2026. Announced on July 3, 2025, at the Hyatt Regency, the initiative is backed by Pula Advisors and five major Ethiopian insurers. AICE plans to promote climate resilience through insurance bundled with the government's input voucher system. Leveraging AI platforms like Mavuno and PIE...

Jul 6 , 2025

In Picture

TIME GARDEN

Ethiopia's National Museum in Amist Kilo home to treasures from ancient relics to the most recently added “Selam,” the 3.3-million-year-old fossil, is getting a fresh new look. Built in 1986, it's now swapping dusty corners for shady benches, bright lights, and leafy paths, giving visitors the perfect spot to wander, wonder, and soak up history under the stars...

Jul 6 , 2025


GRID GUARDIANS

Dangling between chaos and current, a tangled mess of wires meets two linemen climb up an electric pole around Mesqel square determined to keep the lights on. Over time, as the polpulation of the city grew power lines have twisted into a chaotic knots, forcing these linemen to hook themselves to the pole, balancing life and limb to restore order strand by strand. It's a risky dance with electricit...

Jul 6 , 2025