The Ethiopia Commodity Exchange (ECX) has launched a new digital service portal aimed at eliminating bureaucratic hurdles and streamlining access to key services for traders and clients across the country. Built entirely using internal IT capabilities, the system marks a major milestone in the exchange’s efforts to modernise operations and strengthen its role in Ethiopia’s agricultural markets.

For years, traders were required to visit ECX offices in person for routine tasks such as opening accounts, renewing licences, obtaining reference prices, submitting official letters and checking market data for commodities including coffee and sesame. During peak trading seasons, the exchange reportedly hosted more than 150 visitors a day, with many making repeated trips and enduring lengthy administrative processes.

Behailu Girma, IT Services Department Manager at the ECX, told Capital that the new portal removes the need for physical presence, allowing users to access services directly from their offices or homes.

“We have reduced this to zero; we have provided the platform for them to use without any intermediary interference and to access their own data seamlessly,” Behailu said. Because the platform is integrated with daily e-commerce data, users can view market statistics and verify commodity prices without manual adjustments.

When users submit standard requests or apply for official documents — such as letters addressed to tax authorities — they receive a unique tracking PIN. To ensure accountability and high-quality service delivery, the digital platform enforces a strict Service Level Agreement (SLA). ECX staff are required to process and respond to any customer inquiry or document request within 30 minutes. Completed documents can be downloaded directly from the portal, replacing the previous requirement to collect paper files in person.

The ECX said the portal’s official launch ceremony will be held within a month, after which the system will become fully operational. The online trade system forms part of the “Digital Ethiopia 2025” strategy, designed to expand e-commerce across the country. It was developed through collaboration between the Ministry of Trade and Regional Integration and the Ethiopian Artificial Intelligence Institute.

The rollout comes as the ECX reports strong performance. Seventeen years after its establishment as a core market reform for agricultural modernisation, the exchange said it achieved 167.8 percent of its target for the 2025/26 fiscal year, executing trades worth 48.83 billion birr.

Initially, the ECX had planned to trade export commodities valued at 29.1 billion birr during the past fiscal year. Instead, it traded 2,145.91 metric tons of produce worth 50.27 billion birr. Data obtained by Capital shows this represents an increase of 21.63 billion birr, or 79 percent, compared with the same period in 2024/25.

Through its warehouse receipt financing system, the ECX facilitated 1.79 billion birr in bank loans for farmers, cooperatives and processors. Over the past 12 months, the exchange issued quality certification samples for 14,327 lots, including 8,499 for coffee and 5,828 for oilseeds and pulses. It also provided weighing services for 17,648 vehicles carrying 695,073 tons of produce and finalised quality grading contracts to integrate three new commodities — opal, cotton, and hides and skins — into its trading system.

Rising heavy machinery rental rates, driven in part by the growing presence of international construction firms, are threatening the viability of fixed-price contracts and squeezing local contractors across Ethiopia’s infrastructure sector, industry leaders warned at a recent forum.

The concerns were highlighted during the launch of the Physical Performance Measurement Standard for the construction industry, co-organised by the Ethiopian Construction Authority (ECA), the Construction Management Institute (CMI), and MIDROC Investment Group alongside its affiliate MIDROC Consulting Architects and Engineers.

Participants said foreign contractors, often backed by international financing and capital-intensive operational models, are setting procurement and machinery rental benchmarks that far exceed domestic baselines. Because these firms can absorb or pass on higher rental costs, they are effectively establishing a distorted market ceiling that ripples through the entire sector.

The impact is being felt most acutely by smaller, lower-grade contractors, who make up the bulk of Ethiopia’s construction industry. Research presented at the event indicated that the vast majority of local operators have limited annual capacity and are especially vulnerable to market shocks and price distortions.

Operating under tight fixed-price contracts or with narrow capital buffers, domestic firms are struggling to compete in a machinery rental market where prices have diverged sharply from national economic realities. When project evaluations rely on these inflated benchmarks, overall cost structures become distorted, exposing mid-tier local contractors to severe financial liabilities.

Industry experts said machinery-centred operational models play a decisive role in performance evaluations. In a sector where physical performance metrics have long been overshadowed by financial expenditures, the absence of standardised, localised baselines leaves contractors exposed to undue risks and, in some cases, contract termination.

“When international pricing standards are imposed on a domestic market grappling with local inflation and foreign exchange shortages, the financial equilibrium required to sustain a fixed-price contract collapses,” one participant said. Many attendees pointed to unregulated spikes in machinery rental as a key driver behind widespread project suspensions and delays.

The foreign exchange crisis has intensified these pressures. The birr has lost substantial value against major currencies in recent years, making it harder for contractors to import materials, spare parts and equipment or to service international machinery leases.

Discussions at the forum also underscored broader regulatory gaps and weak coordination among stakeholders. Although major state-backed and private enterprises are driving urban corridor developments, housing projects and infrastructure expansions, speakers said the absence of synchronized accountability networks routinely generates friction among clients, consultants and contractors.

Representing the Ethiopian Contractors Association and the Association of Ethiopian Architects, Girma Habtemariam argued that performance evaluations and regulatory monitoring disproportionately target contractors, while institutional gaps and compliance failures by clients and consultants often escape scrutiny.

“When evaluating performance, we talk exclusively about time, budget and execution from the contractor’s side,” Girma said. “What about client authorities and consultants? Their legal limitations, responsibilities and occasional breaches of public procurement regulations should likewise be incorporated into any rigorous structural study.”

He added that macroeconomic volatility further exacerbates operational strains. Amid daily fluctuations in material and operational costs, standard weighting formulas used in project evaluations quickly become outdated. Contractors are often the first to bear the consequences of economic instability, absorbing price shocks, currency devaluation and supply chain disruptions largely beyond their control.

The absence of flexible adjustment mechanisms means rapid price escalation is not adequately captured, undermining the financial health of executing firms. In a context of limited institutional oversight and documentation gaps, recurring questions about the credibility of progress reports continue to weaken project management.

In response, the newly introduced National Construction Projects Physical Performance Measurement and Reporting Framework aims to address longstanding distortions between physical performance and financial costs. Its objectives include ensuring accurate data and measurement, implementing man-hour and machine-hour benchmarks, producing reliable reporting, and strengthening time and cost control.

By establishing localised baselines for physical performance, the framework seeks to create a more level playing field where domestic contractors can compete based on actual capabilities rather than against distorted international benchmarks.

Mesfin Negewo, Director General of the Ethiopian Construction Authority, said the authority is working with stakeholders to establish uniform quality standards and regulatory systems. He stressed that coordination is critical, as the construction industry involves multiple actors whose collective performance — not just that of contractors — determines project success.

Mohamed Abdu, Chairperson of the House of Peoples’ Representatives Standing Committee on Urban Infrastructure and Transport Affairs, said implementing such scientific frameworks is essential to modernising the construction sector and building domestic capacity. He urged stakeholders to adopt the standards with a sense of ownership.

While the initial orientation session focused on major industry players, organisers said further awareness-raising platforms will follow to operationalise the framework nationwide in collaboration with regional administrations and professional associations.