ITU Regional Director Praises Ethiopia’s Rapid Progress in Digital Transformation

Addis Ababa, June 25, 2025 (ENA)— The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has commended Ethiopia’s digital transformation efforts, highlighting the country’s significant strides—particularly its bold move to open up the telcomm market to greater competition.

Speaking to ENA, Regional Director of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) for Africa, Emmanuel Manasseh, recognized Ethiopia’s progress in embracing digital transformation, particularly through the adoption and implementation of its digital strategy.

Highlighting the ITU’s two strategic goals—universal connectivity and sustainable digital transformation, he emphasized that Ethiopia has made immense strides in advancing its digital transformation agenda.

In his recent statement, Minister of Innovation and Technology, Belete Molla said Ethiopia has been experiencing "remarkable progress" in digital transformation as part of concerted efforts to expand and modernize telecom infrastructures.

Evidently, the East African nation has achieved impressive milestones in advancing telecom infrastructures with recent large-scale advanced 4G and 5G network expansion works.

 

"I would like to commend the administration of Ethiopia for the adoption and implementation of the digital transformation strategy, which is ending 2025.

 And also, I want to commend them for a very good job that they are doing in preparing the digital transformation 2025-2030 which ITU is also involved in since the initial stages," the Regional Director Manasseh stated.

The "Digital Ethiopia 2025" strategy has made significant progress, particularly in expanding internet access and developing digital infrastructure.

For the regional director, connectivity is at the heart of digital transformation as it is the foundation that makes digital transformation possible.

He furthermore affirmed that Ethiopia has done a great job in the digital sphere.

"Within three years, we see digital financial services increasingly adopted from zero to more than 50 million subscriptions in telebirrr."

This growth indicates a substantial expansion of the platform's user base and its role in the country's digital economy, Manasseh also revealed.

That is indeed something to be commendable, he said, adding that but also opening up the markets to other players, like Safaricom, this is also one thing that is commendable.

Additionally, the regional director applauded Ethiopia for its steps toward establishing a competitive market landscape through increased private sector engagement.

He revealed that: "We are seeing the future of Ethiopia, where digital transformation is embraced as we are seeing the future where innovation is harnessed."

 

Referring to the ‘Five Million Coders’ initiative, he affirmed that the program reflects a strong high-level commitment and clearly demonstrates that Ethiopia is taking digital development seriously.

The initiative aims to equip the nation's youth with essential digital skills, enabling them to create jobs and generate wealth, thereby driving the growth of the digital economy, it was noted.

Taken as a whole, Ethiopia’s commitment to digital transformation has translated into considerable development gains nationwide.