Issue 39: RIDE to Scale to Djibouti

Hybrid Designs is taking RIDE to Djibouti. The company took to social media to announce the news and stated that it had finalized operations to launch soon.

RIDE is scaling its operations to Djibouti with a population of one million after five years the company broke ground in Ethiopia.

This is not the first time Ethiopian ride-hailing companies have announced their expansion to other African countries. Platforms like Catch Taxi and Zayride had previously shared similar goals, with Catch operating in Kenya for a few months before it closed while Zayride’s plan failed to materialize.

Dashen Bank Inaugurates $4.4M Tier-III Ready Data Center

Dashen Bank has become the latest institution in Ethiopia to join the data center race, unveiling its facility set up at the cost of 230 million birr (4.4 million dollars).

Built to Tier-III standards, the Bank installed the Huawei FusionModule2000, a next-generation, smart modular data center solution that integrates power, cooling, rack, cabling, and management systems.

The center’s redundant system allows Dashen to work on the setup without taking it offline. At the same time, its backup generator keeps operations running in case of a local or region-wide power outage. Read More.

Ethiopia on Course to Reach 70 Million Ethiopians with a Digital ID by 2025

Yodahe Zemichael, Executive Director of Ethiopia’s National ID Program, has said the country is well on course to reach 70 million Ethiopians with a digital ID by 2025.

In an interview with Biometric Update on the sidelines of the ID4Africa Augmented General Meeting, which took place last week, Yodahe stated the IDs are expected to reach 100,000 people by the end of July.

“In the last quarter of 2022, we plan to reach 500,000 people. By the beginning of 2023, and within the next two years, it will be an intensive nationwide rollout phase,” he added. Read More.

New Ride-hailing Startup Bets on Motorcycles

A new startup is betting on motorcycles’ ability to avoid the capital’s frequent traffic congestions and is launching the first motorcycle ride-hailing platform in Ethiopia.

Available for Android phones, for now, the two-wheeled ride-hailing platform by Addis Motor Taxi is backed with a call center, 9530. Providing package delivery services besides ride-hailing, the startup has already signed up 1000 drivers to its locally developed platform.

Unofficial sources state close to 50,000 cars are working under several ride-hailing platforms in the city. But Addis Motor Taxi says it’s going after a different market. Read More.

Eih Onboards 27 Public Assets, Launches Operations

The Ethiopian Investment Holding (EIH), a recently formed state-owned commercial entity has conducted an onboarding summit and launched operations.

EIH, which aims to serve as a strategic investment arm of the government, has an estimated asset holding of over two trillion birr within its portfolio.

The 27 state-owned enterprises, including Ethiopian Airlines, Commercial Bank of Ethiopia, and Ethio Telecom, under EIH generated a revenue of 350 billion birr and contributed 10 percent to the GDP in the past year. Read More.

Pitch AgriHack 2022 Open for Applications 

AGRF, Heifer International, and Generation Africa announced the launch of Pitch AgriHack 2022, marking the second year the organizations have come together to provide cash grants that accelerate entrepreneurial growth and job creation in Africa’s agriculture sector.

Pitch AgriHack identifies innovative youth-led businesses with technological solutions to food security challenges, awarding the most impactful businesses with cash grants, media visibility, and investor exposure. Read More.