Ethiopia loses 144.8 million dollars due to internet shutdown in the period of February 9 to June 30, 2023 according to the newly launched Internet Society ‘NetLoss’ calculator that measures economic impact of internet shutdowns around the world.
Hosted on the Internet Society’s platform that tracks and analyzes shutdowns, NetLoss uses a novel econometric framework to understand the impacts of shutdowns and provides an unprecedented level of rigor and precision in estimating economic damage.
As indicated, internet shutdowns globally reached a record high in 2022; in Africa, with seven countries experiencing a total of nine shutdowns. The other African countries that experienced shutdowns were Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Somaliland, Uganda, and Zimbabwe. In Ethiopia’s Tigray region, the shutdown finally began to conclude in February 2023, after 787 days of disruption.
“Governments often mistakenly believe that internet shutdowns will quell unrest, stop the spread of misinformation, or reduce harm from cyber security threats. But shutdowns are extremely disruptive to economic activity: they halt e-commerce, generate losses in time-sensitive transactions, increase unemployment, interrupt business-customer communications, and create financial and reputational risks for companies and also hurt a country’s growth as research shows internet adoption positively impacts GDP,” the platform revealed.
The calculator considered a wide range of economic impacts beyond traditional measures of economic output, such as Gross Domestic Product (GDP), to demonstrate the financial impact of an internet shutdown. It also included the change in the unemployment rate, the amount of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) lost, and the risk of future shutdowns.
In the six months the country lost 28,698,784 million dollars in FDI, unemployment increased (persons) 2,447 percent and shutdown risk increased by 10.72 percent.
“The global rise in internet shutdowns shows that governments continue to ignore the negative consequences of undermining the open, accessible, and secure nature of the global internet,” said Andrew Sullivan, President and CEO of the Internet Society.
“The calculator is a major step forward for the community of journalists, policymakers, technologists and other stakeholders who are pushing back against the damaging practice of internet shutdowns. Its groundbreaking and fully transparent methodology will help show governments around the world that shutting down the internet is never a solution,” the CEO emphasized.
Four months into a social media ban, communications businesses and civil rights groups in Ethiopia are feeling the impact. Strict regulations are making it harder for them to reach audiences or verify information. In March, the country blocked access to Facebook, TikTok, Telegram and YouTube nationwide following a disagreement with the country’s Orthodox Church, where some religious leaders called for protests. But human rights groups, including Amnesty International, have said the ban violates freedom of expression and goes against Ethiopia’s constitution, laws and international treaties.
The ban was imposed following tensions in February, when three archbishops in Ethiopia’s Oromia region broke away from the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church and announced a new structure. The move resulted in clashes where at least three people were killed in Shashamene, over 200 kilometers south of Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa. Church leaders and supporters then staged a protest and blacked out their social media pages to express solidarity. The government has also imposed similar bans since coming to power in 2018, including during the war in Tigray.
Amid global rise in internet shutdowns, the Internet Society launched the ‘NetLoss’ calculator to measure economic impact internet shutdowns around the world. As indicated, the groundbreaking calculator uses a unique econometric framework to give a new level of precision in estimating the impact of internet shutdowns worldwide.

The Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE) and Ethio telecom launch a telebirr-based digital micro credit and micro saving services, aiming to provide fast, easy, and secured alternative financial services to citizens.
As stated on the launching ceremony held on Tuesday June 27, 2023, these services are available on a non-collateral platform for individual customers, merchants, and agents based on their telebirr transaction credit score and salary payments. The four digital financial services offered are Sinq, Enderas, Deldiy, and Adrash, which enable customers to borrow up to 50,000 ETB for startup or expansion businesses.

“These services are unique for customers in rural and urban areas, enabling them to get loans without collaterals. The CBE has been providing extensive banking services for 80 years and is leading the way in promoting technology-supported banking services,” said Abe Sano, president of the bank, adding that the bank is also implementing various digital platform options whilst working to ensure financial service inclusion.
Similarly, speaking at the ceremony, Frehiwot Tamru, CEO of Ethio telecom, stated, “The telebirr digital payment system has revolutionized the digital transformation and built the digital economy of the country, particularly the launch of economically impactful digital financial services such as micro loans, overdrafts, and micro saving services. The two pioneering institutions will continue to strengthen their partnership in digital financial services and other areas of cooperation to transform society’s lifestyle and advance Ethiopia’s digital vision.”

Higher number of conflict deaths registered in Ethiopia than Ukraine eclipsing the previous global peak during the Syrian war, according to a new Global Peace Index report released by the Institute for Economics & Peace (IEP).
According to the report, including a brutal two-year war in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia that ended with a peace deal in November 2022, conflict deaths from global conflict increased by 96 percent, highest levels, in the century causing world peacefulness to decline.
As indicated, Ethiopia was ranked 151th peaceful country from 163 countries with the war between the government and the TPLF group noted as one of the largest armed conflicts of the globe in the last five years.
The war in Tigray intensified with over 100,000 conflict deaths recorded between August and October 2022. “The final three months of the war saw major battles involving human wave tactics that resulted in 104,000 conflict deaths while disease and famine related deaths were conservatively estimated at over 200,000. This was the most violent conflict event in the history of the GPI and most violent year in a single state since the Rwandan genocide. Violence also surged in Oromia, leading to a shift in the conflict from the North to the South of the country after the peace agreement,” read the report.
“The conflict in Ethiopia has been largely hidden from the media because of domestic media restrictions and internet blackouts. This has coincided with US and UN aid organizations stopping food shipments because of corruption in the food supply chains,” claims the report.
As indicated on the report, the war has cost Ethiopia 37.5 billion dollars in 2022 and 30 billion in 2021. The global economic impact of violence increased by 17% or $1 trillion, to $17.5 trillion in 2022, equivalent to 13% of global GDP.
According to the index, the world’s leading measure of peacefulness reveals that the average level of global peacefulness deteriorated for the ninth consecutive year, with 84 countries recording an improvement and 79 a deterioration. “This demonstrated that the deteriorations were larger than the improvements, as the post-COVID rises of civil unrest and political instability remain high while regional and global conflicts accelerate,” the document cited.
As analyzed on the index, 79 countries deteriorated in the ‘Ongoing Conflict’ domain, with conflict related deaths increasing by 96% compared to the prior year. Conflict deaths are now at the highest level this century while the global number of refugees and internally displaced people continues to rise; there are now 15 countries with over 5% of their population displaced.
Iceland is said to remain as the most peaceful country, a position it has held since 2008, followed by Denmark, Ireland, New Zealand and Austria. For the sixth consecutive year, Afghanistan is the least peaceful country, followed by Yemen, Syria, South Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Highlighting the shifting dynamics of conflict, both Afghanistan and Syria recorded improvements in peacefulness.
As stated also on the report, drones are being increasingly used in conflicts, including in Ukraine, Ethiopia, and Myanmar. The total number of drone attacks increased by 41% in 2022, with the number of different groups using drones increasing by 24%.
The deterioration in the external conflicts fought indicator indicates an increase in external actors becoming involved in internal conflicts. There are now 91 countries with scores that deteriorated, up from 58 in 2008. Of these, 91 were acting alone in an external conflict, 33 in a small coalition, and 45 in a large coalition of ten or more countries. Most conflicts involved countries offering support to an existing government in its conflict with an internal armed rebel or terrorist group.
The rise in global conflict led to a deterioration in the deaths from internal conflict indicator, with 47 countries reporting at least one death from conflict on the 2023 GPI.
Political instability had the third largest average deterioration and has deteriorated every year for the past five years. Despite the deterioration in conflict indicators, 118 countries improved their financial commitment to UN peacekeeping funding, marking the biggest improvement of any GPI indicator since the index’s inception.
The relative level of military expenditure improved for the second consecutive year, with 92 countries reducing their military spending as a percentage of GDP. However, military expenditure still accounts for the greatest share of the total economic impact of violence. The average score on the violent demonstrations indicator improved for the first time since 2016, with 59 countries recording an improvement compared to 43 which recorded deterioration.

Members of the business community oppose the newly revised house tax applied by the Addis Ababa city administration citing gaps in the implementation and rate adjustment.
In light of the situation, the Addis Ababa Chamber of Commerce and Sectoral Association (AACCSA) held a meeting on June 22, 2023 with the presence of members of the business community and representatives of city administration revenue bureau and Addis Ababa property tax coordination office to deliberate on the issue.
As Mesenbet Shenkute, president of the AACCSA states, taxes are a backbone for the development of cities and it is necessary to consult and involve all the relevant stakeholders both before and after the issuance of proclamations and regulations related to taxation.
The Addis Ababa city administration applied the infamous revised house tax rate in April 2023, to which members of the business community at the time lamented that the reform was inconsiderate of the current economic status of the country.
The business community underscored that the rate adjustment was not clear and for some was higher than the rent rate. Participants argued that the city administration didn’t delve into the negative outcomes of the decision. Looking past the living situation of the society and not consulting the resident or all stakeholders, was also deemed by the business community as being negligent by the authority.

To make a sense out of this, Adem Nuri, head of the city administration revenue bureau gave a presentation at the discussion. As he highlighted, the decree in use was issued in 1968 and was known as an urban land rent and house tax 47/68. As the revenue head clarified, there was a gap in updating the rate since the one on hand did not consider condominiums, villas and real estates that did not exist at the time, “We did just a simple rate reform.”
As Adem explained the former rate was insignificant, “It was not possible to collect taxes that keep pace with the growth of the city and the current lack of infrastructure needs and growth.”
As he indicated, in the previous proclamation, 96 percent of the residence of the city paid less than 500 birr in house tax. “Now, when the property tax regulation is amended, this house tax will be included under the property tax regulation,” he elaborated.
The city administration is planning to generate 5 billion birr from house tax per year.
In a legal observation presented by Yohannes W.Gebriel, Director of the Arbitration Institute at the Chamber argued that proclamation no.47/1968 was amended by the Derg regime to go with the communist ideology. As he showed, rather than revising the whole proclamation the city administration revised only the rating method combining both the communist and the current market lead ideology just to full fill the income shortage which is dangerous.
“This is law breaking,” the legal director underlined.
The head of Addis Ababa property tax coordinating office, Asmamaw Mulugeta on his part stated that the house tax distribution was updated based on value of the current rate of the house rent market, the kind of the house, width, services and area level.
As he put across, there are more than 185,000 tax payers in the city, and the tax collected in the city when compare to other countries is low, “Nairobi’s house tax is 20 percent of the total tax while Lusaka the capital of Zambia collects 74 percent. However, Addis Ababa collects less than 1 percent.’’
The investment consultant, Yared Hailemeskel said that the reform of the house tax rate was ill-timed and could create socio economic crises arguing against the adjustment.
“Citizens who can’t afford to pay will get exempted from payment for one year if they can confirm that they can’t afford it,” said the head of the revenue bureau, in response to financial drawbacks.
According to the bureau, government offices, non-government organizations, embassies, religious places are said to be free from the tax.
“It is clear that since the system has not been revised for several years, it may cause a lot of dissatisfaction and confusion when it is implemented. Therefore it would be appropriate to work on creating awareness before the tax payer commits to breaking the law,” said Asmamaw, indicating, “Based on decree no.80/1968 which stipulates that if the taxpayers has a complaint they can go until the criminal code and if they are found breaking the law they will punished based on the criminal code and will pay a penalty of 5 percent of the tax each month for a delay which will be implement accordingly.”