Former central bank governor says public investment-led growth delivered expansion but left behind FX shortages, inflation, debt stress and financial-sector risks Ethiopia’s former central bank governor, Mamo Mihretu, has offered one of the bluntest insider assessments yet of the country’s old development model, saying the public investment-led growth strategy that powered years of rapid expansion […]

A groundbreaking initiative powered by SAQPay is transforming laughter into a new way for Ethiopians to connect and reimagining social participation. As people become more intentional about how they spend, even the simplest social rituals can feel like a trade-off between connection and cost. In this reality, socialising is often reconsidered. However, the true value […]

The Addis Ababa City Administration has proposed a record 502.27 billion birr budget for the 2026/27 fiscal year, a 43 percent increase from the current year’s allocation, as the Ethiopian capital seeks to finance an ambitious infrastructure programme while expanding support for low-income residents. The draft budget, approved by the city administration’s cabinet on Friday […]

Arifpay says it has processed 156.9 billion birr in digital payment transactions since launching operations, as electronic payments continue to expand across Ethiopia’s financial services industry. The company told BirrMetrics that nearly 75 percent of the total transaction value was recorded in 2025, reflecting a sharp increase in the use of digital payment channels by […]

Ethiopia’s exports to Turkey more than doubled over the past five years, with annual earnings rising from just over 46 million US dollars in 2021 to a record 103.5 million US dollars in 2025. The growth capped a strong recovery from a slowdown in 2022, with export revenues increasing for three consecutive years thereafter. Over […]

Ethiopia’s greatest sporting success comes from athletics. Its deepest sporting emotion belongs to football. But the sport that moves the country most remains the one least prepared to pay its own way. Ethiopia’s greatest sporting success has usually come on the track and the road. Its deepest sporting emotion, however, often belongs to football. You […]

The missing middle of manufacturing is not finished goods. It is the spare parts, supplier firms and applied knowledge that keep factories alive. On a factory floor at the edge of one of Ethiopia’s industrial zones, a machine stops. The immediate cause is ordinary: a worn bearing, a cracked mould, a dull blade, a broken […]

Lake Hashenge was chosen to die. Now its people are fighting to bring it back to life. From space, it still looks like a lake, a blue eye set high on the Raya plateau, cradled by the Rayan chain mountains above 3,400 meters, commanding a rare 360- degree horizon. But the data tells a different […]