Shega

Innovation, Technology, and Entrepreneurship in Ethiopia. Subscribe to our Weekly Newsletter

[Shega @shegaHQ]

At the Stark Official Hackathon, 79 submissions yielded five finalists and a pointed debate about AI-assisted coding.

Judges worried that too many developers were outsourcing the thinking along with the code.

Read more.
https://t.co/xMnluqcc5v

[Shega @shegaHQ]

Dangote’s refinery swung to $1.82bn profit in H1 2026. It’s raising $1.56bn, about a tenth of the $14.3bn expansion it’s meant to fund.

In Ethiopia, 100 investors may take part through an instrument that no local rulebook yet defines.

Full analysis
https://t.co/O9sO5pKRQK

[Shega @shegaHQ]

Issue 260: Ribbon Economics

💳 Visa and ETTA target 148,000 businesses for digital payments
🌾 Agricultural bank nears launch
🛣️ Ethiopia returns $109m in unused WB financing
🏙️ Addis tightens tax rules for unlicensed professionals

Read more:https://t.co/3zyFKWJsL4

[Shega @shegaHQ]

Ethiopia’s new cybersecurity law sets compliance obligations for critical infrastructure operators, with penalties for violations. Aman & Partners LLP and Shega examine what businesses and institutions need to know.

Read more:
https://t.co/y9y59ryt7G

[Shega @shegaHQ]

Digital sovereignty needs infrastructure and usable products.

Four new offerings from ZERGAW Cloud, VP Solutions and Nuna Ethiopia target that gap, from local hosting and cloud storage to business accounting software.

Read more:
https://t.co/PdQ0M1SPI0

[Shega @shegaHQ]

A marble, a circle in the dirt and a game from Harar.

That is where gheero begins. Today, the Ethiopian technology company works across AI, data and digital skills, guided by one lesson: understand the ground before making the move.

Read more:
https://t.co/mlxZkKJPOJ

[Shega @shegaHQ]

Issue 259: Open Doors, High Hurdles

🏦 Two foreign banks seek entry
📊 Economists question inflation data credibility
🌍 Alibaba remains out of reach for exporters
💰 AAU has ETB537m in unsettled receivables

Stay Ahead with Shega Weekly:
https://t.co/62FljoS3UY

[Shega @shegaHQ]

Ethiopia has made progress on financial access. But access is not the same as use. 66% of adults own an account, yet only 21% made transactions in 2025.

Read more.
https://t.co/nNTViOS5rv

[Shega @shegaHQ]

Ethiopia has 1.1m+ refugees and asylum seekers and nearly 1.9m internally displaced people, many under 18.

For displaced learners, education can be interrupted for years, not just a term.

August’s EdTech Mondays episode asked what technology can do.

https://t.co/Ukp2K5bjzY

[Shega @shegaHQ]

Issue 258: New Money, Old Ground

🏦 Youth investment bank targets 100+ startups
🌍 Ethiopia misses WEF tourism index
💰 AfDB readies USD 5.1bn emergency buffer
🏗️ Addis reviews 10,000 reclaimed plots

Stay Ahead with Shega Weekly.
https://t.co/xQiSbjioLW

[Shega @shegaHQ]

Ethiopia’s newest financial innovation may end up lending more money to the government.

The country’s long-awaited investment-fund rules have arrived, permitting money market funds, mutual funds, ETFs and REITs.

Read more:
https://t.co/edrYb80Z0k

[Shega @shegaHQ]

Medanit puts Ethiopia’s emerging digital health scene on the continental stage, joining the ADHN Startups Watchlist 2026.

Read more.
https://t.co/UejbFGmwXf

[Shega @shegaHQ]

From EdTech pilots to national scale: what makes public-private partnerships work?

Tonight, 8:10 p.m. EAT on Fana FM 98.1 + 10 affiliates.

Read more:
https://t.co/7XZJVoHqpQ

[Shega @shegaHQ]

Issue 257: Regulatory Dice Roll

Ethiopia prepares to relaunch sports betting under tighter rules.

🌫️ Addis faces a black-carbon problem
🏨 Sheraton Addis finds profit after 21 years
⚡ Power exports to Kenya are set to double

Full Newsletter.
https://t.co/0f0k7GzARR

[Shega @shegaHQ]

Ethiopia’s unemployment rate is 9.6%. But with 69.4% of employment in agriculture, average weekly hours at 31 and only 22.9% of workers earning wages.

Read more.
https://t.co/g4NWF63G1C

[Shega @shegaHQ]

Ethiopia's remittance apps advertise exchange rates and bonuses separately, so the number senders compare is rarely the number that decides the transfer. We ran the arithmetic on ten of them.

Read more:
https://t.co/nfdewAWA98

[Shega @shegaHQ]

Issue 256: Capital Gains, Currency Pain

⚡ GERD beats first-year output estimates by 17%
💱 Forex auction averages 160.53 Birr/$
🤖 Africa debates home-grown AI
🏦 Ethiopia’s investment banks explain what comes next

Shega Weekly
https://t.co/PzUoLXwfMI

[Shega @shegaHQ]

USD 150,000 buys a foreign national a house in Addis Ababa and a five-year residence permit.

Set against comparable programs, that looks cheap. Greece asks 800,000 euros, the UAE about USD 545,000, Turkey USD 400,000, Egypt around USD 316,000.

Read more:https://t.co/qyeGvlpCpN

[Shega @shegaHQ]

Ethiopia has licensed nine investment banks. Its stock exchange has six listed companies.

We interviewed the executives running seven of them. Their answers converge on constraints and diverge on goals.

Full interview.
https://t.co/j0ZWQoq9OU

[Shega @shegaHQ]

Issue 255: Digital Doors, Old Bottlenecks
🚢 ESL takes container services online
⚡ Africa’s grids struggle to keep pace with power demand
🌾 ECX moves trader services online
🏥 Ethiopia builds a national health data network

Stay ahead with Shega Weekly
https://t.co/FaSnxGe24G