EBR_News Jun 25, 2026

Betegbar Yaregal

Zemen Bank has officially launched its interest-free banking service, branded as “Z-Qamar,” marking the bank’s entry into one of Ethiopia’s fastest-growing financial segments as it seeks to expand its customer base and diversify its product offerings.

The service was unveiled on Thursday, at a ceremony attended by banking executives, religious leaders, and members of the bank’s newly established Sharia Advisory Board.

Speaking at the launch, Zemen Bank Chief Executive Officer Dereje Zebene described the initiative as the culmination of a long-term strategic effort rather than a new standalone product.

“This service is not a new banking service; rather, it is the next chapter of a 17-year journey,” Dereje said, noting that the bank spent the past two years preparing the operational, governance, and compliance frameworks required to launch the service.

EBR_News Jun 24, 2026

Betegbar Yaregal

A senior official of the National Bank of Ethiopia has raised concerns over the reliability and depth of the country’s rapidly expanding digital financial system, saying that roughly one in ten digital payment transactions fails to complete successfully. 

Speaking at the Huawei Finance Summit 2026 in Addis Ababa on Tuesday, Naoll Addisu (PhD), Senior Technology Advisor to the NBE Governor, said Ethiopia’s financial sector has undergone a compressed digital transformation that has left gaps in consumer protection, infrastructure resilience, and service quality.

“What happened in the West over 25 years happened in Ethiopia in a few years,” he said. “Our communities, our society, have not kept up with the technology.”

He said Ethiopia’s digital payment ecosystem processes large volumes but still faces structural weaknesses, including an estimated 8% transaction failure rate. When transactions fail, he said, users are often transferred between banks, switches, and other intermediaries without clear resolution, with some funds taking months to recover.

EBR_News May 31, 2026

Three of Ethiopia’s largest licensed payment gateway operators, Chapa Financial Technologies, ArifPay Financial Technologies, and SantimPay Financial Solutions, have jointly written to the Governor of the National Bank of Ethiopia, Eyob Tekalign (PhD), urgently requesting intervention over enforcement actions taken by the Ministry of Revenue against their companies.

A copy of the letter, dated 29 May 2026, was exclusively accessed by Ethiopian Business Review. It is copied to Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, the Minister of Justice, and the Minister of Revenue, and describes the enforcement as procedurally premature and in violation of Ethiopian law.

EBR_News May 4, 2026

Betegbar Yaregal

Ethiopia is preparing to inaugurate new ceramic manufacturing plants expected to fully meet domestic demand and reduce reliance on imported construction materials, in a move aimed at easing logistics constraints and supporting industrial growth.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed announced the development during the opening of the Ethiopia Tamirt Expo in Addis Ababa, indicating that at least two ceramic factories will begin operations in the near term.

Abiy stated that the country has long relied on imported stone and ceramic products, which, combined with underdeveloped logistics, slowed down construction projects. “For years, Ethiopia has been importing stones. With that situation and poor logistics, it was impossible to accelerate construction as needed,” he said.

EBR_News Apr 27, 2026

Betegbar Yaregal

A new draft insurance proclamation circulating among stakeholders proposes the most significant overhaul of Ethiopia’s insurance sector in over a decade, including the introduction of foreign ownership, an independent regulator, and a regulatory sandbox for innovative products, according to a copy of the draft insurance proclamation reviewed by Ethiopian Business Review.

The draft, which would repeal the 2012 Insurance Business Proclamation and its 2019 amendment, remains in the consultation phase and has not yet been enacted into law.

The draft proposes for the first time to allow foreign insurers to enter the Ethiopian market by establishing partially or fully owned subsidiaries, acquiring shares in existing insurers, or opening representative offices. Under the draft, strategic investors would be capped at 40 percent direct shareholding, while non-strategic foreign individuals would be limited to 7 percent and foreign juridical persons to 10 percent. The aggregate shareholding by foreign nationals would not exceed 49 percent of an insurer’s total subscribed shares.

EBR_News Apr 20, 2026

Betegbar Yaregal

Russia has more than doubled its wheat exports to Sudan and solidified its position as Africa’s dominant grain supplier, capturing a record 40 percent of the continent’s wheat import market, according to Russia’s agriculture export agency Agroexport. The development coincides with Ukraine’s strategic pivot to Africa, opening its first agricultural hub in Ghana and intensifying competition for a continent where Ethiopia remains heavily dependent on Black Sea imports.

Russian wheat shipments to Sudan surged to 1.7 million tons since the start of the 2025/26 season, up from 0.7 million tons a year earlier, driven by the restart of several Sudanese mills and a broader push into African markets. Agroexport reported that Egypt alone accounted for a record 21 percent of Russia’s wheat exports in the 2024/25 season, exceeding 9.4 million tons.