Issue 224: Learning to Let Go

The National Bank of Ethiopia plans to exit the gold market post 2026, opening the sector to private banks, according to the International Monetary Fund’s Fourth Review.

The IMF stated that the central bank will prepare a long-term exit plan from the gold market by December 2026. NBE is currently the sole authorized purchaser and exporter of gold in Ethiopia, buying from domestic suppliers at a premium of up to 15 percent above international market prices. Read more.

Eden Power, an electro-mechanical engineering and manufacturing company, and China’s Southern Power Grid Technology have signed an exclusive partnership to develop a “Green Tech” hub in Ethiopia, focusing on technology transfer, local assembly, and eventual manufacturing of renewable energy solutions. Read more.

Ethio telecom’s half-year report reads like a snapshot of a company in transition. Alongside strong growth in users, traffic, and revenue, the operator publicly acknowledged regulatory pressure as one of its biggest challenges.

Beyond reporting headline figures about its mobile money service, telebirr, Ethio telecom disclosed how money enters, circulates within, and exits the platform, from agent cash-in and cash-out activity to bank-to-wallet and wallet-to-bank flows.

With 58.6 million users and nearly 2 trillion Birr in transactions over six months, telebirr sits at the center of Ethiopia’s digital economy. Making its internal flows visible suggests a recognition that scale alone is no longer enough; credibility, openness, and regulatory alignment are becoming just as important. Read more.

Moving away from traditional aid-led engagement, Washington is positioning private capital, infrastructure finance, and trade integration as its primary tools for sustaining relevance in an increasingly crowded strategic landscape. Read more.

Ethiopia will renegotiate a deal to restructure its $1 billion international bond after the country's official creditors, including China and France, said a proposed agreement was inadequate.

Early this month, the country said it had reached a preliminary restructuring deal on the main financial terms with a group representing holders of its sole international bond. However, bilateral lenders, represented by the Official Creditor Committee, had to sign off on any deal before it could be acted upon. Read more.

The National Bank of Ethiopia has launched an automated foreign exchange trading system that promises to transform how commercial banks transact in the interbank currency market.

The platform, integrated into the Ethiopian Securities Exchange’s (ESX) trading infrastructure, allows licensed banks to quote, match, and settle forex transactions electronically and in real time, replacing the outdated phone-based and manual dealing system that had long been a fixture in the highly controlled forex market. Read more.

Ethiopia is trying to rewire its economic mindset. Last week, the Council of Ministers unanimously approved the National Entrepreneurship Development Policy at its 52nd regular session, a framework that challenges long-held conventions about business, work, and even the role of the state in economic life.

Developed by the Ministry of Labor and Skills and the Entrepreneurship Development Institute (EDI), the policy signals a move toward what its architects call an “entrepreneurial state.” Rather than treating entrepreneurship as a marginal activity limited to MSMEs or tech startups, the policy positions it as a governing principle that cuts across education, culture, public institutions, corporations, and everyday livelihoods. Read more.

The U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) last week announced Selam Demissie as the new Regional Managing Director based in Kenya.

In her new role, Selam will oversee DFC projects aimed at advancing market-driven economic growth and strengthening U.S. economic partnerships across the region. She will lead the deployment of DFC’s full range of financial products while building on the work of the East Africa Investment Advisor. Read more.

Ethiopia’s new National Digital Payments Strategy (2026–2030) marks a fundamental pivot from building infrastructure to driving usage.

The strategy for the next five years makes bold bets: shared infrastructure can overcome competitive instincts, regulation can keep pace with innovation, literacy can be built at scale, trust can be restored amid rising fraud, and 100 million dormant mobile money accounts can be activated through better design and compelling use cases.

While the final verdict will come later, the policy framework signals what lies ahead for digital financial services in Ethiopia. Read more.

Ethiopia lost an estimated $24.6 billion through trade-related illicit financial flows (IFFs) between 2013 and 2022, according to a new report by Global Financial Integrity (GFI) released on 28 January 2026.

The U.S. based think tank GFI listed Ethiopia among the 10 African countries losing the most revenue to misinvoicing, or the deliberate under- or over-statement of export and import values on invoices. Read more.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed inaugurated the Aysha-II Wind Power Project in Ethiopia’s Somali Region on January 31, 2026, with an annual capacity of 467 GWh, marking a key milestone in the country’s expansion of sustainable, grid-connected energy infrastructure. Read more.