How Tria Trading is Quietly Powering Addis Ababa’s Smart City Transformation

In the mix of small-scale technology start-ups currently operating in Addis Ababa, a company formed by a trio of US-educated Ethiopians is quietly reshaping the city’s digital landscape. Tria Trading PLC is emerging as a major player in the City Administration’s smart city project, leveraging a suite of digital tools to address education, health, and public services. Founded by Hussien Mohammed, Million Belema, and Muluhabt Amsalu, who all have a background in computer science, the company’s technology solutions have proven critical to the City’s digitization goals.

Key in the slew of smart city projects has been the full transition into a paperless office management system in over 15 government bureaus, including the mayor’s office. Tria’s e-school management platform has already enrolled over 700,000 students and 46,000 employees from the education bureau and averages a million monthly users.

Bezawit Teklehaymanot, marketing director at Tria, says a flexible and scalable business model underpins the company’s operational strategy. She recalls that it has been two and a half years since work began on the e-school management platform, which has now been integrated into every public school in the city.

“A national rollout including private schools is being planned,” Bezawit told Shega.

The Platform allows online registration, class management, school asset tracking, alumni services, and a host of other academic affairs management tools, integrating 152 workflows and 11 modules. 

Another critical project by the six-year-old company relates to the health sector. The Addis Ababa Food and Drug Authority employs Tria’s system for its inspection, regulation, and supervisory responsibilities. It enables licensing management, form processing, and hosting-related tasks through a single portal integrated into e-payment gateways.

“End-to-end management of medicine and health care,” Bezawit explains the project.

The company with over 50 staff members has also garnered attention from public offices at the Federal level, with the Ministry of Labor & Skills picking up its smart office management system. Tria’s corporate training platform has attracted clients like the incumbent Prosperity Party, while the Addis Ababa Democracy Party building utilizes the company’s ERP system.

However, Tria is not merely a technology company as it engages in the import and export of several items. Imports of the sunflower oil brand Sola from Egypt, rebars from Turkey, and different automobiles from the US and Europe. The company also exports cotton to a variety of countries.

Recently, Tria has ventured into the infrastructure business with the supply of a Hyperconverged Infrastructure (HCI) for the Addis Ababa Innovation and Technology Development Bureau.