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Top Stories of the Week
Parliament Grills Health Officials Over Irregular Audit Findings, Weak Epidemic Preparedness
Ethiopia Flirts with a ‘Kazakhstan Moment’ as Bitcoin Miners Weigh Exit
EIH and Wildberries Join Forces to Support E-Commerce Expansion
Ethiopia to Impose 30% Combined VAT and Excise Tax on Fuel Next Month
One Year On, Ethiopia’s Personal Data Protection Law Faces a Slow Path to Enforcement
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Parliament Grills Health Officials Over Irregular Audit Findings, Weak Epidemic Preparedness
Members of Parliament pressed officials from the Ministry of Health this week to provide explanations for financial gaps revealed in audit reports, lagging service delivery, and weaknesses in epidemic preparedness.
The parliamentary Standing Committee on Health, Social Development, Culture and Sports Affairs gave audit-related lapses at the Ministry and other health institutions precedence as its members conducted a wide-ranging review of the health sector’s first-quarter performance. Read more.
Ministry Introduces Penalty Over Undisclosed Tuition Fees
The Ministry of Education plans to enforce strict laws on unendorsed tuition fee increments of private schools. A new draft directive proposes fines of up to 500,000 Br on private schools that fail to clearly disclose monthly or term-based tuition fees at the beginning of the school year, after consultation with parents and guardians. Read more.
Ethiopia Flirts with a ‘Kazakhstan Moment’ as Bitcoin Miners Weigh Exit
Ethiopia’s state utility has introduced a steep, multi-phase tariff increase for Bitcoin miners, raising rates by nearly 30% this December and more than 80% by 2027.
The move has rattled a sector that contributed $220M in electricity revenue last year, almost double the country’s electricity export earnings. Investors from China, the Middle East, and Latin America spent much of 2025 exploring expansion into Ethiopia, attracted by low-cost renewable power.
But halted permits, inconsistent messaging from regulators, and abrupt tariff changes have begun to undermine confidence. Read more.
EIH-Backed Akobo Minerals Eyes Expansion in Ethiopia Amid Record Gold Prices
Akobo Minerals, a Scandinavian gold producer operating in Ethiopia for 15 years, eyes expanding its operations a few months after backing by the country's sovereign wealth fund. Read more.
EIH and Wildberries Join Forces to Support E-Commerce Expansion
Ethiopian Investment Holdings (EIH) has partnered with Eurasia’s e-commerce giant Wildberries, to collaborate on developing Ethiopia’s e-commerce ecosystem and supporting the company’s planned entry into the Ethiopian and wider African markets.
Through the MoU, the two will collaborate on investment and technology initiatives to boost online retail, logistics, and digital capacity marking Wildberries’ first public step into Africa. Read more.
Google and Cassava Technologies Partner to Deliver Data-Free Gemini Access Across Africa
Google has partnered with pan-African technology company Cassava Technologies to offer users across the continent free access to its Gemini AI app without consuming their mobile data. The deal also includes a six-month trial of Google AI Plus, which unlocks more advanced AI capabilities. Read more.
Ethiopia to Impose 30% Combined VAT and Excise Tax on Fuel Next Month
The Ethiopian Petroleum Supply Enterprise (EPSE) is set to begin collecting a new fuel tax next month. This measure is part of the government’s broader economic reforms, which include the gradual elimination of long-standing fuel subsidies.
The key change involves implementing a combined 30% tax on petroleum products, which includes a 15% value-added tax (VAT) and a 15% excise duty.
Since mid-2022, the government has been incrementally reducing fuel subsidies to curb public spending, a process that has already led to rising prices. Read more.
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What’s on Our Mind
Ethiopia’s Push for Rigor Is Exposing a Fragile Education System
Ethiopia has been rolling out a sweeping overhaul of its education system for the past four years. Strict testing, a rewritten curriculum, and new examinations for university entrants and prospective graduates are at the center of the effort. The results have been as swift as they have been jarring. Roughly 90 percent of students sitting for university entrance exams are failing each year, and nearly half of prospective graduates are falling short. The Ministry of Education attributes the mass fallout to tighter controls on cheating and the end of widespread exam leaks. A few reform advocates have applauded the changes, but criticism over the exclusion of millions of young people from higher education opportunities has grown louder with every exam cycle.
The concerns are rooted in the realities of the classroom. Many students lack even the most basic academic supplies, safe learning environments, or sufficiently supported teachers. Nearly nine million children are estimated to be out of school, and almost half of primary school students lack textbooks. Questions around teacher competency remain a defining feature of Ethiopia’s education system, with most educators failing nationally administered proficiency exams. This raises a blunt question: how can a system that struggles to provide the fundamentals expect students to perform at historic levels.
The disparities are starkest when comparing students in rural Ethiopia with their peers in the capital. Even boarding schools that routinely send nearly all of their students to university do so with amenities and infrastructure that are unimaginable to most Ethiopian children.
Students now find themselves at the crossroads of conflict, chronic shortages of educational materials, and the limits imposed by underprepared teachers. It is worth asking what can reasonably be expected of them under these conditions. Meaningful support mechanisms that help narrow the gaps created by poverty, insecurity, and poor infrastructure could produce significant gains. Punishing young people for circumstances far beyond their control risks deepening the very social fractures education is meant to repair.
Assessment of Women Centric Financial Products in Ethiopia: AKOFADA
Explore how Ethiopia’s financial sector is developing women-centric products to close the gender gap in access to finance. This report highlights how tailored savings, credit, and insurance solutions can empower women, strengthen financial resilience, and advance national goals for inclusive growth and gender equality, assesses barriers to women financial inclusion. Download the report.
One Year On, Ethiopia’s Personal Data Protection Law Faces a Slow Path to Enforcement
A year after Ethiopia introduced its first personal data protection law, progress remains slow. Key directives are still pending, public awareness is low, and regulators are working to build the systems required for nationwide compliance.
The Ethiopian Communication Authority is preparing to launch a digital portal that will register all data controllers and processors, a foundational step toward enforcing the country’s new privacy regime.
At a recent workshop, major data custodians, including banks, telecom operators, and public institutions, revealed early compliance measures, offering a rare glimpse into internal practices at some of Ethiopia’s largest data processors. Read more.
Heads Up: What’s Coming & What to Catch
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