As 2025 comes to a close, the pace of change in technology policy continues to accelerate in Ethiopia. For government, businesses, civil society, and private technology providers, staying ahead of these trends will be vital. Here are the top ten things that have reshaped the landscape in 2025.
Digital Ethiopia 2025 Strategy gives way to new 2030 blueprint
Deepening key pillars — such as digital skills development, digital finance, e-services, and e-commerce — Digital Ethiopian 2030 was ratified by the Council of Ministers in October 2025 and is already laying the groundwork for sector-specific strategies that would strengthen Ethiopia’s digital economy. Over 900 government services can now be accessed digitally with flagship national digital ID project now registering more than 29million as at November 2025.
Stronger Data Governance & Digital Public Infrastructure
Government efforts to build safe, efficient, interoperable digital identity systems, data sharing across agencies, and digital public goods accelerated this year with the launch of amalgamated services like MESOB One-Stop Service Center and the national interoperability framework by the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE). The NBE also announced plans of enabling cross border payments and interoperability with other national payment systems.
Content Regulation, Disinformation & Online Safety
The National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) stepped up efforts to draft new regulations on online safety and disinformation following a request by the Ethiopian House of People’s Representatives earlier in the year. A draft is in the works and is expected to be presented by the Council of Ministers for ratification in 2026. As Internet penetration increases and social media use grows, policies on content moderation, hate speech/disinformation, online safety are expected to sharpen with further legal frameworks to clarify responsibilities (platforms, users, government) expected to come into play expanding a mandate previously held by the Ethiopian Media Authority (EMA) and the Information Network Security Agency (INSA).
Workforce Skills, STEM & Digital Literacy
The importance of scaling up human capital in Ethiopia’s Digital Strategy 2030 was a key highlight for 2025 with sector specific strategies for Education, the Finance Sector, and Human Capital policies in place to expand digital literacy, vocational and applied training, bridging urban‐rural skill divides, and up-skilling citizens in digital tools sealed this year.
Digital Payments Strategy 2026-2030
The National Digital Payments Strategy (NDPS) 2026–2030 (also known as NDPS 2.0, BRIDGE 2030) was launched in December providing a national roadmap to transform Ethiopia’s digital payment ecosystem into an inclusive, interoperable, trusted, and innovative system that facilitates economic participation for all citizens and businesses. It follows an earlier strategic blueprint that helped Ethiopia increase mobile money accounts from 12.2 million in 2020 to 139.5 million in 2025, mobile banking accounts from 9.1 million to 54 million in the same period, and annual transaction volumes and values at a compound annual growth rate of 146% and 161% respectively.
Investment, Capital Markets & Private Sector Enablers
Policy changes around investment banking, capital markets, and private sector participation enabled the Ethiopian Capital Markets to surpass a cumulative transaction volume of ETB 1trillion in the inter bank money markets in September 2025 demonstrating swift adoption, increased liquidity, transparency, and growing confidence in the financial sector, and serving as a key pillar in the National Bank of Ethiopia’s (NBE) shift to market-based monetary policy. Key achievements include facilitating overnight/7-day loans, onboarding most commercial banks, and proving a robust platform for managing liquidity and price discovery.
AI takes foothold with homegrown initiatives
Following its launch in 2022, the Ethiopian Artificial Intelligence Institute stepped up efforts in 2025 with new headquarters in Ethiopia’s financial district and led with some interesting projects including an internationally patented AI tool for breast cancer detection; a patented system for diagnosing diseases in coffee and agricultural crops; Development of Mesob, a platform aggregating 100+ services for government and institutional use; and tools for multilingual natural language processing (speech-to-text, text-to-speech, and cross-language services for Ethiopian languages). Outside the EAII’s activities, exciting and promising initiatives include Fintech and embedded AI for alternative credit scoring, digital micro-credit, payments, and financial infrastructure by Kifiya Technologies; natural language processing (NLP) and translation models focused on Amharic and Tigrigna by Lesan AI; Audio intelligence & speech analytics by Hasab AI.
Racing ahead in e-mobility
In 2025, Ethiopia became the first country to attempt a rapid national EV transition by regulation, not incentives alone, with an absolute ban on fuel-powered vehicles. Although adjusted later in the year with focused exemptions, the policy change now means the country now has the largest EV fleet in Sub-Saharan Africa in absolute growth terms with 8% of the national fleer now an EV.
Role of digital voting plans in national elections
Digital voting will be used for the next general elections scheduled for June 2026, according to the National Election Board of Ethiopia (NEBE).
Fraud, Scam, and Arrests come to the spotlight
As the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) and the Ministry of Justice disclosed that the financial system annually loses ETB 1.3billion (USD 8.4million) in frauds and scams in December 2025, authorities moved ahead with key arrests of operators of betting and fintech companies in November citing charges of tax evasion and money laundering. Following the staging the Tiktok Creator awards (not an officially ByteDance affiliated event) aorganised by Kurufud events and headline sponsor G-Power, the Federal police also arrested nine tiktokers for allegedly violating culture norms include putting on “indecent attire”. Later in December, the Ethiopian National Lottery Administration, the authority in the country licensing betting companies, banned all 22 sport betting companies and system operations from all betting on physical and digital platforms.
