The Ministry of Innovation and Technology (MINT) of Ethiopia and the Internet Society announced a new collaboration agreement to help advance the digital economy and drive economic transformation.

The Digital Ethiopia 2025 Strategy was officially introduced last year by the Ethiopian government with the central goal to leverage digital technologies to bolster socio-economic development.

The Internet Society has now pledged it support for the implementation of this strategy and help the country roll out digital services to advance key sectors including agriculture, manufacturing, services, and tourism.

“The agreement will also help expand connectivity to rural areas, build Internet infrastructure, and strengthen Internet governance,” reads a statement released to the media.

The agreement was signed at the Ministry of Innovation and Technology during the Advanced Data Science and Visualisation training by Dr Ahmedin Mohammed, State Minister for Innovation and Technology, Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, and Dr Dawit Bekele, Regional Vice President - Africa, Internet Society.

Dr Mohammed said, “The Ethiopian government has set the digital transformation of the national economy as one of its strategic priorities. For the realisation of this, the government introduced the first ever digital transformation strategy which is a visionary umbrella strategy from which sectors and institutions can then design or align their efforts.”

“The Digital 2025 strategy has a goal to see digital transformation playing a key role for inclusive prosperity; innovating and applying the culture, practices, processes and technologies of the digital era to respond to citizens raised expectations.”

He added, “This strategy shall be realised through collaboration and commitment of everyone including government, non-governmental, development partners and societies. The strategy demands aggressive commitment to increase infrastructure, enabling systems, digital applications, and enabling ecosystem.”

Dr Bekele said: “This collaboration comes at a time when Ethiopia is liberalising its telecommunications sector which is in line with the increasing the infrastructure. We sign this agreement to increase rural connectivity and make sure that everyone in Ethiopia benefits from the digital transformation.”

The Internet Society recently partnered with the Ministry to organise Ethiopia’s first Internet Development conference and the school of Internet Governance for Ethiopia.

Currently, the internet society working with the Ministry in Ethiopia’s preparation to host the World Telecommunication Development Conference and organising trainings on advanced topics such as data science, blockchain and IOT.

The organisation is also working with authorities to support the development of community networks in the Awi zone, Amhara Regional State, “and helping young men and women learn how to design, deploy, and maintain local area networks in Bahr Dar.”