Ethiopia Launches Digital Ethiopia 2030 Strategy

Ethiopia has just kicked off its big Digital Ethiopia 2030 Strategy, and it’s all about pushing the country into a more tech-savvy future. Senior government officials are saying that the Digital Ethiopia 2030 Strategy is set to spark real economic change by boosting Ethiopia’s tech skills to a whole new level.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed was the one who officially launched the Digital Ethiopia 2030 Strategy, and he made it clear that it’s built on what they’ve learned and accomplished over the last five years. He pointed out that the digital Ethiopia 2030 strategy rests on three main pillars: expanding access, making sure everyone gets equal chances, and building real trust between government offices and everyday people.

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Tigist Hamid, who’s the Director General of the Information Network Security Administration (INSA), talked about how the earlier Digital Ethiopia 2025 Strategy really set the stage for strong cybersecurity. “By building our own cloud infrastructure, we’ve managed to build trust in digital services right here in Ethiopia,” she explained. She also mentioned they’ve got a digital forensic lab up and running now, which security agencies are already using.

Hamid stressed that cybersecurity is a top priority in Ethiopia’s Digital Ethiopia 2030 Strategy. It covers things like creating tough, reliable key digital systems, updating public infrastructure to modern standards, setting up a disaster response center, and teaming up more with private companies on cybersecurity.

Then there’s Worku Gachena, Director General of the Ethiopian Artificial Intelligence Institute. He highlighted how the digital Ethiopia 2030 strategy will pour resources into growing the country’s AI ecosystem. “On top of our homegrown cloud setup, we’ll create a solid information management system to help with smart, data-backed decisions,” he said. Gachena added that they’ll set up an independent national information authority to handle this, and the strategy puts a lot of focus on developing and standardizing digital services across the board.

Frehiwot Tamiru, the CEO of Ethio telecom, chimed in about the wins from the Digital Ethiopia 2025 program in telecom. She shared that mobile subscribers have hit 97 million, with 57 million people now using the internet. Plus, they’ve connected 1,030 cities to 4G networks so far.

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Looking forward, she said the Digital Ethiopia 2030 Strategy plans to bump mobile subscribers up to 128 million and roll out 5G to 100 cities. Tamiru also noted that it aims to skyrocket digital payments, making them more than seven times the current share of Ethiopia’s gross domestic product by 2030.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed shared a quick note on his social media too, tying the whole Digital Ethiopia 2030 Strategy to the Medemer State’s goals. He said it’s all about rolling out major national plans through smoother, more efficient public services.

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