Green Motion Ethiopia and Ethiopian Airlines have signed a strategic partnership that will allow travelers to earn ShebaMiles points through car rental services, in a move that links air travel with ground transportation and reflects Ethiopia’s shift toward greener mobility.

The agreement, announced on April 14, 2026, comes as Ethiopia’s transport sector undergoes rapid change following the government’s ban on importing internal combustion engine vehicles in 2024. The policy has accelerated demand for electric vehicles and pushed rental companies to modernize their fleets and services.

Green Motion Ethiopia said 70% to 80% of its current fleet is fully electric, positioning the company among the private-sector players adapting quickly to the country’s EV transition. Company officials said the move supports Ethiopia’s climate commitments and broader efforts to reduce transport emissions.

Richard Lowden, founder of Green Motion, said the company supports Ethiopia’s electric vehicle policy and aims to minimize the environmental impact of its services. He said the gradual expansion of renewable energy infrastructure would further reduce emissions from the sector.

Under the new partnership, Ethiopian Airlines’ ShebaMiles members will earn one mile for every dollar spent at Green Motion branches in Ethiopia and at the company’s locations abroad. Green Motion Ethiopia General Manager Bizuayehu Tadesse said the arrangement is designed to reward loyal customers while making travel more seamless for both business and leisure passengers.

He said the deal creates a direct link between aviation and sustainable ground mobility, adding that travelers can now accumulate miles even when they are not flying.

The partnership also reflects growing private-sector interest in Ethiopia’s electric vehicle market. Banks including Zemen Bank and Dashen Bank are increasingly offering financing for EV purchases, making it easier for rental operators and consumers to manage the high upfront cost of electric mobility.

A new IFAD report warns that disruptions in global fertilizer and fuel supplies are already reverberating through rural economies, exposing how quickly international crises can turn into local food and livelihood emergencies. The report says countries across Africa, including Ethiopia, are facing rising input costs, supply bottlenecks and growing pressure on small-scale producers as the conflict in the Middle East upends key trade routes.

The report, Global shock, local crisis: Sustaining rural livelihoods through adaptive practices, says the abrupt interruption of fertilizer and fuel shipments through the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab el-Mandeb has already pushed up prices and threatened planting seasons across Africa, Asia and parts of Latin America. It warns that the shock is being absorbed most heavily at the farm gate, where small-scale producers have the least capacity to cope.

For Ethiopia, the report places the country among those most exposed to the wider regional fallout, citing fuel supply tightness, higher import costs and pressure on agricultural production. Across sub-Saharan Africa, it says food insecurity risks are deepening as higher energy and fertilizer prices feed into transport costs, food inflation and lower farm productivity.

The IFAD analysis says that in many African countries, imported fertilizer and fuel remain essential to agriculture, leaving rural livelihoods vulnerable to external shocks. It notes that some countries import more than half of their fertilizer from Gulf sources, making them highly dependent on unstable supply corridors.

The report also points to practical examples of how countries and projects are responding. It cites locally adapted fertilizer solutions, digital soil and input advisory platforms, and flexible crisis-response mechanisms as tools that can help farmers maintain production during periods of disruption. In Ethiopia and other affected countries, such approaches could help reduce dependence on imported inputs while strengthening resilience at the community level.

IFAD argues that the crisis reinforces the need to invest in what it calls resilience at the “first mile” of food systems — the point where shocks first hit farmers, producers and rural traders. The report says that without stronger storage, local production systems and adaptive support, external shocks will continue to pass quickly into domestic markets and household food insecurity.

The agency says governments and development partners should prioritize rural resilience before the next crisis intensifies. That means supporting small-scale producers, improving access to affordable inputs, strengthening local production systems and building emergency response tools that can be activated quickly when markets are disrupted.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has unveiled a series of regional logistics and customs reforms aimed at protecting African markets, including Ethiopia, from the current maritime instability.

​A high-level coordination meeting held this week in Dubai, led by the Emirates and involving the country’s maritime authorities as well as international shipping organizations, resulted in a strategy specifically designed to ensure the continuity of import and export trade for corridor-dependent African economies amid disruptions in the Red Sea. ​This high-level coordination meeting was hosted at the headquarters of the Ports, Customs and Free Zone Corporation (PCFC) in Dubai.

The meeting brought together officials from the UAE, shipping companies and maritime authorities to address bottlenecks affecting cargo movement across the Gulf and the Horn of Africa. UAE officials described the relationship with Ethiopia as extending beyond diplomacy into a strategic economic partnership with direct implications for trade resilience.

The UAE has become one of Ethiopia’s most important economic partners in recent years. Since 2018, it has provided close to $3 billion in loan and investment support, while more than 113 UAE-backed projects are currently active in Ethiopia, with an estimated value of $2.9 billion. Trade between the two countries also exceeded $6 billion in 2023, underscoring the scale of their commercial links.

Officials said the 2024 currency swap agreement between the National Bank of Ethiopia and the Central Bank of the UAE helped ease foreign exchange pressures, but stressed that maintaining the physical flow of goods remains just as important for economic stability. Trade resilience, they said, now depends on both financial cooperation and secure logistics.

At the center of the discussion was the UAE’s “Green Corridor,” a fast-track customs and logistics channel designed to speed up cargo clearance and reduce delays. Dubai Customs Director General Abdullah Busenad said the Emirates is expanding the system to Saudi Arabia and Oman as part of broader efforts to improve regional supply chain efficiency.

The UAE is also relying on alternative maritime gateways, including the ports of Fujairah and Khor Fakkan, to reduce exposure to disruptions in sensitive sea routes. Officials said integrating these ports with land and rail transport has helped create more flexible and reliable trade routes for partners such as Ethiopia.

Executives from international maritime organizations said the UAE’s policy flexibility has helped offset rising transport costs and keep goods moving in a difficult global environment. UAE Minister of State for Foreign Trade Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi said the goal is to build a more connected and resilient trade system that ensures strategic commodities reach Ethiopia without interruption.

Ethiopia is planning to build a local satellite assembly, integration and testing center with Russian support in a move officials say could help shift the country from relying on foreign technology to becoming a regional space hub.

The Ethiopian Space Science and Geospatial Institute said the proposed facility would enable Ethiopian engineers to design, assemble and test satellites on home soil, reducing the need to send equipment abroad for critical technical work. The announcement was made during a Cosmonautics Day commemoration held with the Russian Embassy in Addis Ababa.

Institute Director General Abdisa Yilma said the project forms part of Ethiopia’s wider ambition to expand its role in space science and aerospace technology over the next decade. He said the country does not want only to use satellites, but to build and verify them locally.

Ethiopia has already entered the space sector with its first satellite, ETRSS-1, launched in 2019. But officials say the next phase of the program will focus on local capacity-building and the development of domestic expertise in satellite technology.

The planned center is expected to be developed in cooperation with the Russian government, with discussions ongoing between the Ethiopian institute and Russia’s state space corporation, Roscosmos, on technical and financial arrangements. Officials say the facility would combine Russian technical experience with Ethiopian scientific capacity.

Russian Ambassador to Ethiopia Evgeny Terekhin said Moscow is ready to share its experience in space science and technology. He said the partnership reflects a broader spirit of cooperation and pointed to Russia’s long history in space exploration as a source of expertise for Ethiopia.

Officials said the proposed center could deliver both scientific and economic benefits. Ethiopia plans to launch ten new satellites by 2035, and local assembly would reduce foreign currency spending while strengthening national capabilities in areas such as crop monitoring, disaster prevention, climate data and communication systems.

The facility could also open a new revenue stream by offering satellite services and testing capacity to neighboring countries. In addition, Russia has pledged support for training Ethiopian professionals in advanced scientific and technical fields.

The event was held to mark Cosmonautics Day, which commemorates Yuri Gagarin’s historic 1961 flight as the first human in space. Officials said the anniversary serves as an inspiration for younger generations and reflects the ambition behind the proposed Ethio-Russian partnership in space technology.