Ethiopia’s securities market is preparing to accommodate eight securities through an over-the-counter (OTC) market, offering an alternative trading platform for companies that do not meet the Ethiopian Securities Exchange’s (ESX) main listing requirements or have strategically chosen a different route to the capital market.

Yodit Kassa, CEO of the Ethiopian Securities Exchange, said the OTC market would complement the main exchange as the country gradually develops its capital market infrastructure and expands opportunities for businesses to access investment.

According to ESX, seven securities are currently actively traded on the main exchange, comprising shares in one telecommunications company and six banks. With another security expected to enter the market in October, the exchange aims to add approximately seven more to reach its target.

The OTC market is designed to serve companies falling outside conventional listing criteria, as well as those opting to trade through the alternative platform. This framework is expected to broaden participation in Ethiopia’s developing securities market, though the specific eight securities joining the OTC platform have not yet been named.

Beyond equities, the ESX is working to build trading in government debt securities and other financial instruments as it seeks to establish a comprehensive capital market ecosystem.

The exchange currently lists approximately 48 active government Treasury bill securities covering maturities of 28, 91, 182, and 364 days. However, Yodit acknowledged that an active secondary market for these instruments has yet to develop.

While Treasury bills are listed following their issuance through the government’s auction process and registered under the Central Securities Depository, the exchange’s next challenge is encouraging investors to trade them on the secondary market after initial issuance. Developing this secondary market would allow holders to sell securities before maturity, improving liquidity, enhancing price discovery, and laying the groundwork for longer-term debt issuance.

“We want to progressively build the market in terms of those products and see long-term debt issuance,” Yodit said, outlining the exchange’s approach to expanding the debt market.

The exchange has also recorded progress in other segments of the financial market. According to the CEO, Ethiopia’s interbank money market has facilitated transactions between commercial banks for nearly two years, while a foreign exchange market was launched in January 2026 with support from the National Bank of Ethiopia. The exchange stated it will provide further official details on foreign exchange developments once the central bank releases relevant information.

The ESX currently has nine trading members, including licensed investment banks and broker-dealers. Across the broader capital market, approximately 20 to 25 licensed entities are supporting market activities, including trading and transaction advisory services.

This expansion of market participants is expected to bolster the exchange’s efforts to attract issuers, investors, and intermediaries as Ethiopia continues to build its capital market foundation.

​Dashen Bank has officially launched a revolutionary new digital payment solution named “Dashen Air Pay.” Aimed at transforming everyday commercial interactions, the newly introduced service integrates seamlessly into the popular Dashen SuperApp to give customers an effortless way to locate nearby businesses and execute financial transactions.

​Unlike conventional digital payment methods that require cumbersome details, Dashen Air Pay stands out by eliminating the need for traditional account numbers, scanning QR codes, or typing in phone numbers. To utilize the service, users simply open the Dashen SuperApp on their mobile devices and select the “Dashen Air Pay” option.

​The platform automatically displays nearby participating businesses and merchants. Once a user selects their preferred merchant, they can quickly review the transaction details, enter their confidential PIN, and successfully finalize the payment within seconds.

​Speaking at the launch event, Asfaw Alemu, CEO of Dashen Bank, underscored the institution’s ongoing commitment to modernizing Ethiopia’s digital payment ecosystem. He noted that today’s introduction will serve as a vital catalyst in making transactions between everyday consumers and the local business community significantly faster, easier, and more efficient.

​Elaborating on the strategic philosophy behind the rollout, Asfaw stated, “With Air Pay, we are not just providing a means of payment; we are creating an option that directly connects our customers with local businesses.”

​At a time when digital financial technologies are advancing at breakneck speed, Dashen Air Pay successfully bridges the operational gap between merchants and paying customers.

Nasdaq-listed Bitcoin mining operator BitFuFu Inc. is reassessing its planned acquisition of an 80-megawatt (MW) mining facility in Ethiopia. The deal has stalled following a financial and operational dispute between the local target company and its regional electric power supplier.

​According to a regulatory statement sent to Capital, the acquisition—originally announced in October 2024 through BitFuFu’s wholly owned subsidiary, Finfront Holding Company—remains unconsummated due to unmet conditions precedent. The transaction was structured to secure a majority stake in the Ethiopian entity owning the 80MW site, marking a pivotal step in BitFuFu’s strategy to transition from third-party hosting dependencies toward owning and operating dedicated infrastructure.

​BitFuFu has disbursed $4.1 million in total cash payments to the sellers and deployed approximately 13,700 Bitmain Antminer S19-series machines to the facility. The deployed hardware generates a combined hashrate of roughly 1.57 EH/s, carrying a total net book value of $1.74 million as of late September 2026.

​However, the acquisition faces severe headwinds. BitFuFu revealed that the local target company is involved in a contractual payment dispute with its Ethiopian power provider. On September 28, 2026, the supplier issued a formal ten-day notice demanding settlement of outstanding balances. The utility warned it would exercise security rights and seize collateralized assets upon expiration. BitFuFu noted that the disputed amounts remained unpaid at the time of its disclosure.

​While BitFuFu is not a direct party to the underlying power agreement, management emphasized that the conflict poses a material risk to closing the transaction under its original terms. Key unmet conditions precedent include mandatory regulatory filings in Ethiopia, asset consolidation, and the absence of undisclosed liabilities.

​In response, BitFuFu is actively evaluating legal remedies under the acquisition agreement. Potential actions include terminating the contract, initiating arbitration proceedings against the sellers, pursuing full recovery of the $4.1 million cash consideration, and demanding the immediate return of its deployed hardware.

​CEO Leo Lu sought to reassure investors, noting that power curtailments had already been factored into previous operational guidance and that the dispute will have a minimal incremental impact on total production. BitFuFu maintains sufficient resources to reallocate hardware if local operations require adjustment. Nevertheless, the situation leaves one of Ethiopia’s prominent industrial-scale crypto-mining ventures in jeopardy.

​The BitFuFu impasse unfolds against a volatile chapter in Ethiopia’s engagement with Bitcoin mining. In 2022, the government legalized industrial crypto-mining while maintaining a strict prohibition on local cryptocurrency trading. The strategy sought to monetize surplus hydroelectric capacity—particularly from the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam—by selling electricity to foreign miners in hard currency.

​By 2025, state utility Ethiopian Electric Power had signed power-purchase agreements with roughly 21 mining firms, predominantly foreign-owned. Electricity priced at approximately 3.1 US cents per kilowatt-hour attracted major global operators, including BIT Mining, Bitdeer, Canaan, and BitFuFu. The sector accounted for an estimated 2.25% of the global Bitcoin hash rate and generated roughly $220 million in utility revenue in 2025.

​The Ethiopian Energy Outlook 2025 projected that crypto mining could consume a third of national power output, threatening domestic electrification goals. In August 2025, Ethiopian Electric Power froze new permits, and a tariff revision effective December 2025 raised mining electricity rates by 32%.

​The immediate operational crisis is further compounded by severe drought. El Niño conditions reduced reservoir inflows by 20%, forcing the utility to cut power deliveries to miners to just 23% of contracted amounts by September 2026 to prioritize domestic grid stability.

Ethiopia has officially launched its National Electrification Program 3.0 (NEP 3.0), a strategic national framework aimed at expanding electricity access, improving service reliability, and harnessing power more effectively to support economic growth, agricultural production, and public services across the country.

​The Ministry of Water and Energy introduced the program on October 27, 2026, during the third Ethiopian Water and Energy Week in Addis Ababa. The launch brought together government institutions, power utility providers, regulators, international development partners, financial institutions, and private-sector leaders to outline the nation’s core water and energy priorities.

​Held under the theme “Advancing Science-Based Policy and Partnerships for a Water- and Energy-Secure Future,” the event comes as Ethiopia works to bridge persistent gaps between grid expansion and the actual quality of electricity delivered to households, businesses, and essential public facilities.

​Mesfin Dabi, Executive Officer for Electrification and Energy Information at the Ministry of Water and Energy, emphasized that the initiative marks a fundamental shift: moving beyond merely extending transmission lines and installing meters to ensuring power actively drives productive economic activities and enhances public service delivery.

​The refined strategy highlights the economic leverage of electrification—targeting agricultural processing, irrigation, grain milling, poultry farming, textile production, and digital infrastructure. Simultaneously, it prioritizes reliable service for homes, schools, and health centers while rectifying long-standing inefficiencies within the power distribution network.

​NEP 3.0 builds on the nation’s previous electrification roadmap, which aimed for universal access by 2025 through a blend of 65 percent grid extensions and 35 percent off-grid solar systems and mini-grids. While generation capacity expanded, universal access targets remained unmet.

​The updated framework establishes a long-term goal of universal access by 2035, integrating data-driven planning to determine optimal connection methods. The NEP 3.0 report—prepared by the Ministry in June 2026 with World Bank financing—recommends using geographic information systems, population distribution modeling, and projected demand to prioritize cost-effective rollouts.

​A core finding of the report is the disparity between basic access and quality service. World Bank Multi-Tier Framework data for 2025 shows that while 65 percent of Ethiopian households had basic energy access, only 44 percent met the minimum Tier 1 threshold for reliable, capacity-sufficient supply. Basic systems like solar lanterns provide lighting but cannot support commercial equipment or heavy household appliances.

​In 2025, urban electricity access stood at 91 percent, compared to 56 percent in rural areas. Decentralized off-grid technologies remain vital for remote communities where traditional grid extension is cost-prohibitive. NEP 3.0 targets approximately 4.4 million off-grid household connections by 2035, inviting private-sector participation in mini-grid operation and maintenance.

​Electrification efforts in rural regions have often struggled to boost local incomes automatically. Reliable electricity enables smallholders and rural enterprises to run processing machinery, preserve yields, extend operating hours, and replace expensive diesel generators. However, restricted access to commercial credit for small enterprises remains a key barrier to acquiring the equipment necessary for productive use.

​On the infrastructure side, Ethiopia has made major generation gains over the past decade. Driven largely by flagship projects like the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), installed generation capacity has expanded from roughly 4,462 megawatts to 9,752 megawatts, while the transmission network has grown beyond 20,000 kilometers.

Despite these generation milestones, end-user reliability remains constrained by weak local distribution networks, aging transformers, high technical and commercial losses, and financial bottlenecks. Weaknesses in procurement, inter-institutional coordination, and cost recovery continue to cause project delays.To resolve these systemic operational bottlenecks, NEP 3.0 mandates synchronized investments across transmission and distribution infrastructure alongside grid expansion.