Ethiopia Committed to Playing Meaningful Role in Africa’s Technological Progress: President Taye

Addis Ababa, May 16, 2025 (ENA) -- Ethiopia is committed to play a meaningful role in Africa’s technological progress, given its strategic location, young workforce and growing digital infrastructure, President Taye Atske Selassie said at the opening of East Africa's largest ever Ethiopian Tech Expo 2025 today.

The three-day exhibition was opened at the Addis International Convention Center today.

It showcases Ethiopia’s tech-driven transformation; highlights strides in AI, cybersecurity, smart city and innovation.

 

In his opening remarks, President Taye said that the expo is an exhibition of technology advancement plus a dynamic platform for bold thinking, transformative collaboration and decisive action, embodying Ethiopia’s determination to walk along the path of the next leaders of digital transformation.

He noted that Ethiopia has made an encouraging stride in building relatively robust, secure and inclusive digital ecosystem in view of supporting Ethiopia’s recent digital initiatives such as national public key infrastructures and secure communication platform.

 

Information Network Security Administration (INSA), organizer of the exhibition, has played a key role in this respect, he added.

According to the president, the Ethiopian Artificial Intelligence Institute has been exploring practical application of AI to help address local challenges and strengthen initiatives such as AI assisted agricultural tools and healthcare diagnostic devices being tested to support food security and improve medical services.

Digital payment systems such as Tele Birr have markedly enhanced access to financial services, particularly in rural areas helping in bridging gaps in financial inclusion and foster wider economic participation, he stated.

Acknowledging the encouraging achievements that have been made in digital transformation of Ethiopia, President Taye stressed the need for recognizing the challenges ahead and empowering the next generation to play an active and meaningful role in this trajectory.

Today’s rapidly evolving geo-economics and geopolitics is increasingly being shaped by breakthrough in Cloud computing, block chain and other transformative technologies.

He pointed out that one of the most compelling aspects of the ongoing digital transformation that deeply inspired all of us is the empowerment of the next generation to play an active and meaningful role in this trajectory.

“Recognition of this fact has made technology education a cornerstone of the Digital Ethiopia 2025 Strategy. Under this strategy, we have prioritized to equip young Ethiopians with cutting edge skills in coding, AI cyber security and data science. This is being achieved through close collaboration with our universities, technical institutions and private sector tech-ups.”

Information Network Security Administration (INSA) Director-General, Tigist Hamid, on her part emphasized the achievements of Ethiopia in the digital sector that cyber resilient Ethiopia is building.

 

She revealed that the statute of the art digital forensic laboratory, the five-million coders initiative, the National ID program, are among the testaments of Ethiopia’s commitment to national security and technology sovereignty.

Ethiopia is scaling up cyber security programs to nurture homegrown expertise and prepare a new generation of defenders of the digital realm, stressing that the national Cloud infrastructures and data centers of the country are safeguarding access to digital services.

‘Our national Cloud infrastructures and data centers are safeguarding data sovereignty and accelerating secured access to digital services. We are scaling up cyber security programs to nurture homegrown expertise and prepare a new generation of defenders of our digital realm.”