Issue 207: Groundwork

October 06, 2025

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Top Stories of the Week

  1. US Pledges Support for Ethiopia’s $10bn Mega Airport Project

  2. Ethio Telecom vs Safaricom Ethiopia: World Bank Sounds Alarm Over Lack of Fair Play

  3. Abiy Ahmed Launches First Phase of Ogaden LNG Project

  4. Fayda Digital ID Program Signs MoU with Zambia to Provide Technical Support

  5. EuroCham Backs EUDR Delay, Citing Ethiopia’s Smallholder Coffee Compliance Risks

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US Pledges Support for Ethiopia’s $10bn Mega Airport Project

The United States has pledged support for the construction of a $10 billion international airport in Ethiopia, marking President Donald Trump’s first major business initiative in the Horn of Africa.

The Bishoftu Mega Airport, located about 40 km south of Addis Ababa, is intended to relieve congestion at Bole Airport and boost both passenger and cargo capacity. Phase I is planned to accommodate 60 million passengers annually, with later expansion targeting 110 million passengers and 3.73 million tonnes of cargo. Groundbreaking is slated for late 2025, with completion expected by November 2029. Read more.

Wegagen Introduces Real-Time SWIFT Tracking

Wegagen Bank has launched a new mobile app feature that enables customers to track international SWIFT payments in real-time. The bank is the first in Ethiopia to introduce an online SWIFT payment tracking system. Read more.

Ethio Telecom vs Safaricom Ethiopia: World Bank Sounds Alarm Over Lack of Fair Play

Ethiopia’s digital transformation has connected millions, mobile subscriptions have nearly doubled since 2018, and telebirr now serves over 53M users. But a new World Bank assessment warns without decisive regulation to curb market dominance, the digital progress could stall.

Safaricom Ethiopia has invested over $3B, brought cheaper data, and boosted broadband use. Yet the World Bank cautions that Ethio Telecom’s dominance, app blocking, and possible cross-subsidies are eroding fair competition. Read more.

An Ethiopian Engineer Finds Value in What the Butcher Leaves Behind

Every holiday season, thousands of animals are slaughtered across Ethiopia, and tons of blood are washed away. One engineer is collecting and turning this slaughterhouse blood into organic feed. Read more.

Abiy Ahmed Launches First Phase of Ogaden LNG Project

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (PhD) has officially inaugurated the first phase of the Ogaden Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) project in Calub, Somali Region, and launched the second phase, which is expected to add 1.33 billion litres of output per year and generate 1,000 megawatts of electricity.

Alongside the LNG project, foundations were laid for a urea fertilizer plant to be co-developed by Ethiopian Investment Holdings and the Dangote Group, as well as a crude oil refinery by Golden Concord Group Limited. Read more.

Visa and Santimpay to Roll Out 20,000 PoS Machines Across Ethiopia

Santimpay Financial Solutions and Visa have partnered to deploy 20,000 Point of Sale machines across Ethiopia within a year, with plans to reach 100,000 in five years. Read more.

Fayda Digital ID Program Signs MoU with Zambia to Provide Technical Support

Ethiopia's Fayda Digital ID program has signed an agreement to provide software development and professional consultancy services to Zambia's national digital identity program.

The agreement represents the first instance of the Fayda program offering advisory services to a foreign institution. Program officials stated that their use of the MOSIP (Modular Open-Source Identity Platform) has enabled the development of in-house capacity, allowing them to provide these services. Read more.

Ethiopia Loosens Its Grip on Lending, but Warily

More credit, but not too much. Ethiopia’s MPC raises the lending cap by six percentage points while holding the policy rate at 15%. Read more.

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What’s on Our Mind

Ethiopia Is Not Addis Abeba

An upcoming rapper named Eyouel Yosief, who goes by the stage name "Yomariyos," narrates the life of young people growing up in Ethiopia’s districts and peripheral regions outside of Addis Abeba in his debut rap single. The song portrays the dreams and struggles of youth living in these "territorials," who envision migrating to the capital city as an escape and a utopia where they can become "better off" compared to life in the periphery.

The story within the song unfolds as a conversation with his mother, who urges him to marry a rural bride and live a life she knows. However, he tells her about his own dream to move to Addis Abeba, perhaps obtain a driver’s license, live the "Addis Abeba life," marry someone from the city, and assures her that she will come and visit him.

Whether that dream is realized or not, it captures the dream of young Ethiopians striving to rise beyond the limits of the periphery.

Released just two weeks ago, the single is rapidly nearing a million views, striking a chord with a generation that sees its hopes, frustrations, and the bittersweet reality of economic migration from Ethiopia’s periphery to its urban center. Beyond its musical appeal, the song captures the steady flow of youth leaving the regions for Addis Abeba a reflection of the country’s enduring structural imbalance.

The Ethiopian state remains structured around a persistent center-periphery tension: Addis Abeba and its elite neighborhoods dominate economically, while other regions face increasing marginalization. This marginalization manifests as neglect of regional environments and infrastructure, leaving peripheral areas less competitive and heavily dependent on the capital.

Addis Abeba, an autonomous city administration, contributes about 29% of Ethiopia’s GDP. In contrast, peripheral regions remain economically marginalized, relying heavily on federal budget transfers that rarely meet their developmental needs perpetuating deep regional inequalities. This institutional imbalance has widened disparities, with the capital controlling the majority of investment and economic activity. Ongoing conflicts and socio-political challenges further exacerbate these inequalities.

Emerging economic opportunities such as remote work could, in theory, enable young people in rural and peripheral areas to participate in the economy without leaving home. In practice, however, weak infrastructure and limited digital connectivity outside the capital make this difficult. Most new economic activity remains concentrated in Addis Abeba, which hosts more than 95% of the country’s startups. While it would be unrealistic to expect companies to decentralize by mandate, this spatial concentration deepens regional isolation and sustains a cycle of migration driven by economic necessity.

Over 60% of the national budget for 2025/26 is allocated to recurrent spending, with less than 40% combined devoted to capital investment and regional transfers. This budgeting pattern further entrenches development disparities.

Without structural reforms that empower regional economies and foster balanced development, Ethiopia risks an ongoing internal exodus and deepening social and economic divides. Transforming the country’s ambitions for inclusive growth requires minimizing the divide between its urban core and peripheral regions, ensuring equitable investment, and improving infrastructural connectivity.

Etenat Awol, Assignment Editor, Shega

Auditors Slam Federal Gov’t for Unchecked Abuse of Vehicle Privileges

Government officials are abusing the personal vehicle privileges granted to them by law, according to a troubling report from the Office of the Federal Auditor General.

Auditors say that ministers, state ministers, directors, and senior officials across government agencies routinely procure and use several vehicles at a time, with some even assigning publicly owned cars to relatives. Read more.

EuroCham Backs EUDR Delay, Citing Ethiopia’s Smallholder Coffee Compliance Risks

The European Chamber of Commerce in Ethiopia (EuroCham), representing nearly 180 European businesses, has called for a one-year extension to EUDR compliance deadlines, supporting a proposal by the EU Environment Commissioner.

Traceability remains a major hurdle for Ethiopia’s coffee sector due to fragmented plots predominantly less than 1ha, while Europe accounts for nearly 35% of the country's coffee export market. With nearly 95% of coffee sourced from these smallholder farms, an extension could provide critical relief to Ethiopia's coffee export sector, racing against compliance. Read more.

Ethiopia Licenses New Capital Market Firms, but Trading Still Lags

Ethiopia’s capital market added three new players, including its first private limited investment bank with First Addis Investment Bank P.L.C., Zuri Capital S.C., and Ignite Capital P.L.C., approved for securities advisory. The growth in licensed players now in double digits marks a steady institutional buildup. Yet actual trading volumes remain muted, underscoring the gap between regulatory progress and market traction. Read more.

MoU Signed to Establish Youth Entrepreneurs Investment Bank in Ethiopia

The Ministry of Labor and Skills and the Ethiopian Investment Holdings (EIH) have signed a memorandum of understanding to establish a Youth Entrepreneurs Investment Bank.

The initiative is supported by funding from the African Development Bank, aimed at expanding youth job creation. The bank is intended to address financial and capacity gaps faced by young entrepreneurs in the country.

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