IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

According to the document, which is released at the First Session of the Committee on Development Information, Science and Technology held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the country has been utilizing ICT for exchange of information among institutions and thereby improve provision of social and administrative services.

Africom is also developing 31 e-services at a cost of EBR 1.9 million and eSystems Africa is developing 44 services for twelve government institutions including Addis Ababa City Administration, the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development (MoFED), the Ministry of Culture and Tourism (MoCT), the Ministry of Industry (MoI), the Ministry of Trade (MoT) and the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (MoLSA).

Ethiopia's Ministry of Communication & Information Technology (MCIT) will in a month launch 20 mobile applications for 20 government offices, which it has been working on since September 2015, Addis Fortune reported.

Given the mandate to introduce and implement new technology and communication systems in Ethiopia, project operator MCIT has had an e-government plan since 2010. The plan vies to improve the online presence of government services and to improve access to the general public.

The statement was made by agency's Director General Debretsion G/Michael while speaking at a workshop on the distribution of the technology, including the challenges and opportunities.

Ethiopian government offices are austere affairs. They even lack the typical African decoration of the president's portrait on the wall. None of the furniture would fetch 10p in a British junk shop.

One detail disturbs this pattern - a large flat-screen plasma monitor, plugged into a rack of digital routers, appears to have been teleported from another universe.

Ethiopian Foreign Minister Taye Atske Selassie briefed the diplomatic community in Addis Ababa on the implementation of the ambitious Smart City project, as reported by ENA.

The Ethiopian Foreign Minister introduced the initiative, which aims to turn the capital into a technologically advanced and sustainable metropolis. He spoke about the Addis Ababa urban corridor development project.

The Ethiopian government is prepared to commence an Electronic Government Procurement (EGP) system to increase the effectiveness of public procurement procedures.

As Tsegaye Abebe, Procurement Coordinator and Training Advisor with Public Procurement and Property Administration Agency, explained, the system is expected to increase operational efficiency, transparency, and competition between bidders. It will also enable institutions to increase efficiency through automation of manual processes.

The e-service installation and development was conducted by two private IT solution providers at a cost of 3.8 million Birr. Africom Technologies Plc developed 33 of the e-services portal for 2.8 million Birr while E-System Africahad supplied the remaining 16 at a cost of 1 million Birr it was said at the time.

The Ministry of Innovation and Technology and Ethio Telecom have outlined strategies to accelerate Ethiopia's transition to a digital economy.

Minister of Innovation and Technology, Belete Mola visited the Ethio Telecom Experience Center today, where he discussed the nation's digital transformation journey with Ethio Telecom CEO, Frehiwot Tamru.

Minister Belete emphasized Ethio Telecom’s critical role in the Digital Ethiopia 2025 transformation, commending the company's significant strides in digital services and Telebirr.

In the ever-evolving realm of global economics, Ethiopia stands at the precipice of a digital revolution that holds the power to reshape its economy. With a rapidly expanding population and an increasingly interconnected world, Ethiopia’s digital economy carries tremendous promise in unlocking unprecedented growth and addressing urgent challenges, such as unemployment. The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) reported that in 2023, Ethiopia’s population reached 126.5 million, with 58 percent falling within the 15-64 age group, which constitutes an active demographic for digital usage. Drawing inspiration from the remarkable transformations witnessed in countries like China, Japan, and South Korea, Ethiopia’s trajectory towards digital advancement appears poised to steer it towards prosperity and innovation.

The Ethiopians are in the country for a one-week tour to learn and share experience on how ICT has successfully been used in education.

Ethiopia is among those countries with the lowest level of internet penetration and use. A 2014 World Internet Stats report, for instance, claims that Ethiopia has had only 1.9% internet penetration. Similarly, the World Economic Forum also rated the number of internet users in Ethiopia at 1.1%, ranking the country 142 out of 144 countries surveyed in 2012/13. As of December 31, 2013, that number had only risen to 5.5%, according to a report released by the Ethiopian government. Indeed, it was only in 1997 that Ethiopia introduced the internet, and not until 2005 that the first four thousand kilometers of fiber optic backbone were laid in Addis Ababa. This delay in the proliferation of the internet has played a role in delaying the development of internet policies including legislative measures surrounding the internet.