SPX - Africa-Led Strategy, Research, and Implementation

Two weeks ago, the Council of Ministers approved the Digital Ethiopia Vision 2030 roadmap, charting a new five-year trajectory for cross-cutting digital transformation. The plan signals a shift from diagnostic ambition toward targeted, institutionally grounded action, now reinforced by clear, measurable targets across the digital economy. The 2025 strategy emerged as an evaluative response to Ethiopia’s nascent digital landscape. Drawing on Oxford’s Pathways for Prosperity framework, it identified four priority sectors, agriculture, manufacturing, IT-enabled services, and tourism, while cataloguing gaps in infrastructure, enabling systems, and ecosystem capacity. Its approach was iterative: understand the landscape, consult stakeholders, then propose projects.

Five years later, much has changed, and not nearly enough. The 2030 framework reads like an implementation manual shaped by experience.

It explicitly notes that “earlier modernization efforts have been
challenged not in planning, but in execution,” a rare admission in Ethiopian policy. Building on progress, including 63% electricity access, 45% internet penetration, 25 million Fayda digital ID enrollments, and more than 800 digitized government services, the roadmap sets ambitious numeric goals: 60% internet penetration by 2027, 90% by 2030, and 95% household electricity access nationally, 90% in rural areas by 2030.

A notable evolution is the 2030 strategy’s embrace of digital sovereignty. The roadmap prioritizes homegrown solutions, sovereign cloud infrastructure, and data localization. It also integrates Medemer, the philosophical framework of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, positioning unity and synergy as guiding principles for governance. Targets appear to be grounded in pragmatism. Where the prior strategy forecasted 300,000 digital jobs, an ambition that fell short, the 2030 plan lays out a phased path, with 200,000 jobs in ICT, BPO, and tech-enabled services by 2027 and one million by 2030. Digital GDP contribution is projected to rise from 3.9% to 6% by 2027 and 12% by 2030, with digital exports climbing from under USD 100 million today to USD 500 million by 2027 and USD 3 billion by decade’s end. Digital SMEs, currently fewer than 200, are targeted to reach 1,000 by 2027 and 5,000 by 2030.