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WEGAGEN GRAZES FRESH GREEN GROUND


Wegagen Capital Investment Bank, one of the first two standalone investment banks, launched operations on June 2, 2025, at the Hilton Addis Abeba Hotel. Chief Executive Officer Brutawit Dawit was joined by Aklilu Wubet (PhD), (middle) president of We...

Jun 7 , 2025


Fortune News

Central Bank Moves to Erase Paper Bonds Betting on Digital Overhaul

Investors will soon find that physical paper certificates for government bonds and Central Bank securities are a relic of the past, replaced by electronic records stored securely online. The National...

Jun 8 , 2025

Money Market Watch

Banks Split on Dollar Bids as Birr Slips from Policy Grip

The foreign exchange market looked calm last week, yet its surface stability masked growing tensions among the commercial banks. Buying prices for the Green Buck clustered tightly around 131.95 Br, wh...

Jun 8 , 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

When Purpose Meets Penalties, the Taxman Strikes Back

In a fresh blow to the embattled Purpose Black S.C., the Ministry of Revenues has demanded over half...

Jun 8 , 2025


Horizon Eyes Somali Region for Grand-Scale Agri Investment Push

Horizon Plantations Plc, a subsidiary of MIDROC Investment Group, is launching a major agricultural...

Authorities Target Reckless Driving With Mandatory Retraining

In a marked departure from traditional deterrents, transport authorities are set to impose a compuls...

Jun 8 , 2025








Agenda

A Crisis Hidden in Plain Sight

Meseret Mulle rises before dawn in the crowded quarter around Golagol Tower, waking her two sons, aged 13 and eight, in the single “kebele” house they share. At 35, she cleans homes in Gerji, a two-hour walk each way when she cannot spare the far...

Jun 8 , 2025


Elite Schools Raise Fees Sharply as Parents Cry Foul Over Legal Wrangling

Parents at Flipper International School received a jolt on May 23, 2025, when a letter confirmed that next year's “Category 1” tuition will increase to 178...

May 31 , 2025


When the Rains Come for the Poor

Yohannes Geta spent two years watching the Wyen Amba River trickle past his home in Bole District, Wereda 11, on the southeastern outskirts of the capital. The...

May 24 , 2025







Editorial

Where the Roof Overhead Comes with a Ceiling on Hope

Few promises shine brighter in Addis Abeba than the pledge of a roof for every family. Gleaming office blocks now punctuate horizons once defined by tin-roof shacks, yet the capital's housing gap keeps widening. More than five million people, acco...

Jun 7 , 2025


Courting Foreign Buyers of Properties While Land Remains State-Owned

It is seldom flattering to be bracketed with North Korea and Myanmar. Ironically, Ethiopia has long shared their company on one narrow but emotive list. They are countries that forbid foreign nationals from owning bricks and mortar. That could soon change. ...

May 31 , 2025

A Country on Life Support Must Not Neglect Its Healers

Public hospitals have fallen eerily quiet lately. Corridors once crowded with patients' relatives now echo, wards lie half-empty, and family members milled outside in anxious knots. The silence was not the result of medical efficiency but of absence. Medical p...

May 24 , 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

The Global South Should Rewrite Climate Script on Its Terms

When climate change is framed as a global problem requiring collective regulation of greenhouse-gas emissions, developing-country governments see little reason to prioritise the issue over others. After all, the rich, industrialised countries that contributed disproportionately to the problem are themselves backing away from decarbonisation and climate-finance commitments, while low-income countri...

Jun 8 , 2025


Women's Role in War Should Extend to Peace

Despite all the progress that has been made toward gender equality globally, many are still tempted to view armed conflict as primarily the domain of men. Women often prove decisive in such settings, including combat, non-combat roles, and leadership positions...

Jun 7 , 2025

Africa Takes the Lead on Global Finance Reform

This year's spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank have made it clear that the global financial system, strained by repeated crises, is no longer fit for purpose. Growth is decelerating, climate-related volatility is rising, an...

May 31 , 2025


My Opinion

The Gig Economy's Serfdom with WiFi

When a muggy Tuesday dawns in Addis Abeba, a young driver unlocks a ride-hailing app and hopes, silently, for steady passengers and a generous surge. The compact sedan feels like his own, although the bank holds the title. He sets his hours, or thinks he does, before settling into another 13-hour shift of horns, heat and nasal electronic pings. He would tell riders he is “his own boss,” an ide...

Jun 7 , 2025


Addis Abeba's Urban Facelift Paves Over Its Informal Soul

At dawn, a typical pedestrian in Addis Abeba begins what locals call “the sidewalk slalom.” She skirts an open manhole, hops a fresh trench, threads between scaffold poles and bargains with a fruit-cart vendor. Pavement here is less a right-of-way than an...

May 31 , 2025

Ethiopia Courts the AI Future While the Lights Flicker

Last week, Millennium Hall's biggest technology fair, ETEX 2025, looked like a scene from tomorrow. Drones zig-zagged over polished floors, holograms shimmered, and entrepreneurs pitched start-ups against walls of pulsing LEDs. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (Ph...

May 24 , 2025






Featured

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 platform's arrival has raised a mix of apprehension and cautious optimism among smaller delivery companies that suddenly find themselves riding a wave of new orders, while bracing for a corporate giant that could one day eclipse them. Few felt the jolt more quickly than Bereket Tadesse, founder of As...

May 24 , 2025


Commentaries

How Africa Should Negotiate with Trump

In a recent interview, Fox News anchor Bret Baier asked Felix Tshisekedi, the president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), how his government would balance continued ties with the United States, including the negotiation of a critical minerals deal, with its deepening relationship with China. The DRC President responded that China's influence is not so much “waxing” in Africa as America's influence is “waning.” Tshisekedi is right. In 2000, the US was Africa's largest trad...

Jun 7 , 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

77

The percentage share of private consumption in the GDP for the fiscal year 2021-2022. As the largest component of aggregate demand, it rose from 67.6pc in 2001, indicating an increase in household spending relative to the overall size of the economy.

Jun 7 , 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

"If need be, there was a lot we could talk about."

Gedion Timotheos (PhD), minister of Foreign Affairs, responded to the concerns of Desalegn Chane (PhD), an opposition legislator from NaMA, tossing the claims that Ethiopia is in a "war of words" with Eritrea.






Fortune Video




Sunday With Eden

Tainted Trust Behind White Lies

Milk has long symbolized nourishment, growth especially for young children. In many families, including mine, it is more than a dietary staple; it is a cornerstone of early childhood nutrition. So, when my husband and I recently transitioned our daughter from breastmilk to pasteurized cow's milk, we did so with trust. Trust in the product, the manufacturers, and the system meant to guarantee its s...

Jun 7 , 2025


A Dream Taxed to Death

Six years ago, a dear friend took a leap. He poured his life savings into building a business not for quick profits, but to create something enduring. He hired twenty young people, many fresh from rural villages, with no homes in the city. So, he gave them she...

May 31 , 2025

The Subtler African Stories Lodged in Luxury

Every family has its ritual, one that bookmarks the year and brings everyone back to center. For ours, it's the quiet, recurring pilgrimage to Kuriftu Resorts. Whether nestled in Bishoftu's lakeside calm or perched in the cool canopy of Entoto, these retreats...

May 24 , 2025


Life Matters

A Dangerous Beam in a Childs Hand

It was during an ordinary errand, shopping for socks, that an unexpected discovery occurred. A gleaming green beam drew my attention to a curious device: a sleek, stick-shaped pointer with a clip and flower-shaped tip. The shopkeeper described it as a laser toy for children, complete with buttons that changed the light from green to red, blue, and even purple. Priced at just 60 Br, it seemed like...

Jun 7 , 2025


The Dangers We Brew

It is unsettling how often news surfaces of everyday household items leading to accidents, some unexpected, others devastating. A recent report about a moka pot explosion struck a familiar chord, stirring memories of TikTok clips that documented similar incide...

May 31 , 2025

Healing the Healers

Reliable information about the recent strike by health professionals in Ethiopia has proven elusive. The public discourse is muddied by sensationalism, bias, and deafening silences. Online, a stream of videos shows deserted hospitals, while an increasing numbe...

May 24 , 2025





Radar

Parliament Enacts Solid Waste Management, Disposal Proclamation

Parliament has unanimously passed the solid waste management and disposal proclamation, marking a decisive move toward environmental sustainability. It mainly introduces stringent penalties for the use and distribution of single-use plastic bags, focusing on reducing pollution and promoting responsible waste practices. Under the new proclamation, individuals carrying plastic bags face fines ran...

Jun 7 , 2025


Parliament Enacts Solid Waste Management, Disposal Proclamation

Parliament has unanimously passed the solid waste management and disposal proclamation, marking a decisive move toward environmental sustainability. It mainly introduces stringent penalties for the use and distribution of single-use plastic bags, focusing on reducing pollution and promoting responsible waste practices. Under the new proclamation, individuals carrying plastic bags face fines ran...

Jun 7 , 2025

In Picture

NEW COMERS

A construction site in Casanchis stands tall announcing its presence sticking out like a sore thumb steeling the spotlight for the existing building smaller by size but bigger with stories to tell. Spanning 1,000 hectares, the Casanchis Corridor now features newly built roads, pedestrian walkways, bicycle lanes, children's playgrounds, sports arenas, green parks, public toilets, commercial shops,...

Jun 8 , 2025


MAKE OVER

Sporting a fresh coat of gray and white paint, a condominium near Gofa Gebriel undergoes a striking transformation. Wooden frames stand like scaffolding sentinels, protecting each brushstroke as the building's façade is revitalised. This makeover is part of a citywide beautification initiative launched in April 2024, which mandates uniform painting in light gray and white hues...

Jun 8 , 2025




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