Video gaming is no longer just a pastime for the young. The size of the global video game market has increased as younger generations have grown up with video games as a staple of daily life. According to some projections, the United States topped the list of the largest gaming marketplaces globally in 2022, with revenue of 54.9 billion dollars. China’s video game market came in second place, with yearly sales of over 44 billion dollars.


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Even though there was a tense environment in the host country, Ethiopia, the heads of state and government of the African Union held their 36th ordinary session on February 18, 2023. The summit followed a period of heavy tension between the government of Abiy Ahmed (PhD) and the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, which even called for a national protest rally a day after the summit, if it were not for a negotiation that brought the confrontation to a resolution. As is customary, African leaders convened at the Union’s headquarters in Addis Ababa’s Lideta District to discuss how to reduce border restrictions and accelerate economic progress, among many other developments in the year 2022. In this article, EBR’s Addisu Deresse and Eden Teshome review the event and its main topic, the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).


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The video game industry has advanced significantly as a result of the availability of photorealistic graphics, reality simulation, and internet connections with millions of other players in today’s games and gaming platforms. Video game playing is no longer only a kid’s pastime evolving into a way of life for people of all ages. In this article, EBR’s Eden Teshome tells a story on how gaming is growing both as a business and leisure both in Ethiopia and Africa, at large.


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Floors in residences, offices and other such places have seen a series of styles through the years. Until recent times, it was a mixture of cement and sand that would be used to coat most indoor floors in urbanite Ethiopia. Such floors would have been covered by other plastic sheets. For the years that followed, tiles and ceramics have dominated the fashion of coating floors in the capital. Recently, however, the use of epoxy to coat floors and kitchen tables seem to have made an entrance into the business and trend. In this article EBR’s Eden Teshome writes about the material, the trend and the business behind epoxy coatings, and its shifting global market.


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Many have referred to the current global digital transformation as the “fourth revolution.” Ethiopia joined this journey and expressed commitment through the “Digital Ethiopia by 2025” strategy launched on June 20, 2020. Digital Ethiopia is an initiative of the Ethiopian Government, to leverage and expand digital opportunities and lead the country towards an innovative, knowledge-based economy.

The country started to witness remarkable changes in the digital landscape after the emergence of COVID-19, which enforced lockdowns, social distancing, and several restrictions that called for rapid digitization on all fronts. In this article, EBR’s Bamlak Fekadu tells the story of how the latest digital revolution is bearing fruit for e-commerce businesses.


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For the longest time, young men and women in Ethiopia have dealt with substances such as khat, cigarettes and alcohol. Widely consumed and considered as part of the culture in some parts of the country, khat used to be the primary point of concern as far as substance abuse is concerned. In recent years, the list of substances being abused by teenage boys and girls seems to be getting longer. As this concerning list gets longer, EBR’s Bamlak Fekadu looks into the consumption of opioids and its impact on the youth.


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The popularity of book-to-film adaptations is rising. Popular books are frequently adapted into movies and television shows because studios want to capitalise on a successful idea that already has a following, bringing it to a larger audience. Georges Melies, a pioneer who paved the path for numerous film methods, is credited with creating the first known footage of a book-to-film adaptation. In 1899, he produced two adaptations: Cinderella, based on the Brothers Grimm tale, and King John, the first film known to be based on Shakespeare. His other work is based on the English author H. Rider Haggard’s adventure tale, Her. The practice is also being adapted into Ethiopian cinema, writes EBR’s Trualem Asmare.



It would not be an overstatement to say that 2018 was a momentous year in the history of regional integration in Africa, since it was then that the African Union Member States established the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). Aside from its continental ambit, departing from the focus on integration through regional economic communities (RECs) in Africa, the timing of the formation of the AfCFTA is interesting and commendable. It was formed at a time when many were talking about the return of “deglobalization” (referring to less integration among economies) and the rise of populism and protectionism, challenging the post-Cold War era of free trade areas, even in countries that were traditionally the ardent advocates of globalization.



Trade and technology development policies almost always have distributional consequences. There may be a few exceptions for which the implementation of a policy produces either gains or no loss for nearly everyone, what economists would call a Pareto improvement. But these instances are relatively rare. You could argue that for early-stage developing countries, the export-driven growth model that draws surplus labor into the modernizing manufacturing and urban sectors comes close to meeting this standard. But even there, the gains are not spread evenly, and income inequality normally increases.




Ethiopian Business Review | EBR is a first-class and high-quality monthly business magazine offering enlightenment to readers and a platform for partners.



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