Honorable Dr. Abiy Ahmed, Prime Minister of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia and Guest of Honor of the Day. Honorable Ato Ngeke Teshager, Speaker of the House of Federation. Honorable Ato Tewodros Mihret, President of the Federal Supreme Court. Honorable Ato Temesgen Tiruneh, Deputy Prime Minister of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia. Honorable Ato Adem Farah, Head of the Democracy System Building Coordination Center in the capacity of Deputy Prime Minister. Honorable Regional Governors. Honorable Mayors of the two city administrations. Honorable Ministers, Ministers of State. Honorable Ambassadors and Heads of International Institutions. Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the Digital Ethiopia 2030 Launch Program. We have met peacefully. In November 208, the year of Mihret, the Digital Ethiopia 2030 Strategy was approved by the Council of Ministers and put into operation. It is known that he entered. This is to jointly announce the launch of the 2030 Digital Ethiopia Strategy. We are excited about this great event. Today, we are not only talking about technology, but also about how we are transforming digitally to serve every citizen, grow our economy, and position our country as a global digital hub. Ladies and gentlemen, now regarding the next 10 years of Digital Ethiopia 2030, Honorable Prime Minister Dr. Abiy Ahmed will be addressing us in a Fireside Chat. To do this, I invite the Honorable Dr. Beliko Molla, Minister of Innovation and Technology, to the stage.
Good afternoon, Honorable Prime Minister. Ladies and gentlemen, how are you all doing? I would like to say hello. Honorable Prime Minister, now that the time has come, what does the national digital journey look like for the next five years? What are we going to do? I am personally very happy to have the opportunity to share this tradition with you, as it is an opportunity to listen to your broad perspective on what our path looks like. Honorable Prime Minister, there are about ten points that I would like to discuss. The first one I would like to raise is about digital empowerment. Digital technology is changing human life in many ways, greatly increasing human capacity to perform, ensuring agency, enhancing the ability to choose and decide, and empowering the entire human race as an individual, as a society, as a nation, and as a whole. We are at a time when digital technology is advancing rapidly. We have been implementing this strategy in our country to transform the lives of our citizens. Today is the day to conclude the strategy we have implemented for the past 5 years and to open the strategy for the next five years. Therefore, when we say digital transformation or strategy, we are looking beyond digital gadgets and systems to individuals, communities, and countries. I respectfully ask you to share your thoughts on what kind of digitally empowered Ethiopian life will look like in five years after implementing this strategy.
First of all, I would like to congratulate Dr. Beliko. As you may recall, when Digital 2025 was designed, there was widespread fear that it would not succeed because it was a rather ambitious plan and we did not have much experience in developing and implementing a digital sector strategy. Surprisingly, from the decision that one of the five main sectors should be a strategy, it has a significant role in ensuring Ethiopia's prosperity. From the time the vision of aligning digital from agriculture to industry to mining to tourism was initiated, and then looking at the way the strategy was designed and implemented, it is possible that although it has achieved good results in agriculture, mining, and industry, the 2025 Digital Strategy is a 100 percent successful strategy. I invite not only the government structure but also academia to examine this strategy. If you had the opportunity to see what the plan was, what was successful, and what was not, it would have been a valuable educational journey that would have shown not only how to plan something far in advance, but also how to achieve it. I think you should be congratulated, as you are the person who led this strategy and led the institution that led it. The 2030 Digital Strategy was launched in 2025. But when we look at the main vision, the main need, one of which is access, to fulfill three things. It is about creating an opportunity for all citizens to access the services they need from the comfort of their homes and cell phones. The 2030 strategy, which says we will achieve 90% of digital productivity by 2030, is so conservative that we should not be afraid of it. Because if 90 percent of people have access and 10 percent of citizens do not have access, the government, willingly, will allow the 10 percent to come back and say that there is no need to forgive. The first requirement for citizens to have equal opportunities and access to equal services is access, and the second is opportunity. In a field where we do not provide equal opportunity, we cannot benefit equally if we do not provide it. It is necessary to create a system that provides equal opportunities for citizens regardless of gender, disability, or distance. One of the things that Digital 2030 needs to achieve is to provide economic opportunity to citizens. What does it mean? If a farmer in Sebeta and a farmer in Kebridadhar or Shiraro have different information about the virus, if the one near them is infected and the one far away is not, their crops may be damaged due to lack of information. If they cannot access equal information regarding the market after production, due to lack of information, one farmer will not get the price he paid for it, and the other farmer will get the price he paid for it. Here, the first is access, the second is opportunity, the third and most important thing is trust. If there is no trust between citizens and institutions, for example, if there is a citizen who says, 'Don't let someone steal my mobile phone, I won't use it on my mobile phone or on TV,' it is necessary to convince them that the mobile phone is not a thief but a facilitator. If there is no trust between institutions and citizens, issues such as learning about financial transactions, giving health data, applying for jobs, and storing personal information on the cloud are not considered. In a society like ours, filled with suspicion, fear, and conspiracy, if technology fails to be a catalyst and citizens are afraid of it, it will not achieve what we envision. Digital 2030's access, opportunities, and trust must be combined to create the first jobs. They must create a lot of job opportunities for the citizens. Second, they must ensure the development of the country. We need to grow. But work and growth alone are not enough. It must also prove sovereignty. It is in this context that Digital 2030 is envisioned by the government as one of the main pillars or sectors that will ensure Ethiopia's prosperity. I have full confidence that we will achieve this vision through collaboration. Thank you.
So, one of the key enablers and factors that play a key role in the digital transformation is electricity. So, our country is generating high-capacity electricity, but we will also have to continue to ensure that this is distributed throughout the country and accessible to all citizens and households. According to the National Strategy 2030, electricity and internet connectivity are among the main issues that have been identified, and what are the processes that can be used to ensure their accessibility in our country as a whole? Here, I would like to give you a brief overview of the topic. The issue of universal access is closely linked to the vision that I have set out earlier. The issue we are addressing in the context of Access Opportunity will only be successful when two critical foundations are met. One is electricity. Electricity is the fuel for all current technology. We cannot use technology without providing food. For example, a phone is powered by electricity. A car is powered by electricity. A drone is powered by electricity. Most gadgets that we use are powered by electricity. If we deny food and provide food, people will not be able to use it. Electricity is the food for current technology, and any technological result that is not provided with sufficient food will not provide the expected service. For example, if I provide a car to a farmer and that car cannot be charged, or if I provide a tractor and the tractor runs on electricity and cannot be charged, or if it is said that products are not selected for a hundred cycles in advance, if we want to deliver by drone and we have to charge it with electricity, due to the lack of electricity, the tractor, the car, the television, and the refrigerator cannot be used by the person. It is necessary to provide access to electricity, which is the fuel of all technologies. The way we access it doesn't necessarily have to be the National Grid. Some may be on-grid and some may be off-grid. For example, it is a rural festival that has been crossed. Efforts are being made to bring solar systems to every farmer's home. Ethiopia has now started producing solar cells and is exporting $20 to $25 million per month. That cell can be expanded in rural Ethiopia to meet the remaining demand. In short, electricity is the bedrock of transformation. Without fulfilling it, we cannot ensure progress. Energy is needed to achieve complete progress. That energy, however, should not be confined to cities and confined to a short distance, but should be accessible to all citizens. Second is connectivity. Many cities have started providing 4G and 5G access. Connectivity is said to be the great equalizer. When a person is connected and being connected is not equal, it means that there is no equal opportunity. One person has data, one person does not have data. Because of this, many information, knowledge and systems that make data available may be lost. And the way we connect is 4G and 5G, if we cannot easily reach remote areas with fiber optics, if we cannot reach the BTSs we use now, we need to follow the path of using the satellite option. As most of you have seen, the results have been very impressive, but in terms of planning, we must be ambitious. We must connect Ethiopia 100% in the next five years. We believe that it is possible and unless we do that connection, citizens will not be able to have equal opportunities. They do not have equal opportunities to learn. They are not treated with equal opportunity, nor are they given equal opportunity to find work. A citizen who has not received equal opportunities should not be considered equal to one hundred and thirty million people. He should see equal opportunities. To ensure that, electricity is a sector that should be treated as a food source and connectivity as an equalizer and worked on aggressively. Only when we achieve this and increase our knowledge can we fully confirm our vision. As we turn twenty-three, we expect to see a transformed Ethiopian life.
So, to make this digital transition happen, we will inevitably engage in infrastructure construction. We will expand what we have started and build on what infrastructure will be needed to enable this transition. There are specific areas where I would like to focus and invest. To give you an idea, we can divide digital infrastructure into two categories: one is Digital Public Infrastructure or DPI. The second is KPI, which is called Key Public Infrastructure. KPI can be a law enforcement system of the government. It can be a separate system. Now we are focusing on DPI, Digital Public Infrastructure. These are the main ones, for example, one is Faida. What is the main issue that public infrastructure does? For example, Doctor Beliko has 1000 birr. You have a salary. You don't know where you put that 1000 birr. Whether it is at home or in the office or in your pocket. You don't know the address. You have money. You go to the cafeteria for coffee and when you are told that you have money, but right now, I don't know the address. No one will listen to you. It is important not only to have money on you, but also to know where it is. It's not about saying we have one hundred and thirty million, but if we don't know where each citizen is, what they do, and how they live, there's no way to know if there's work, if there's business, or if there's no business, if someone is studying or not, if there's a health problem. Faida is a comprehensive information of a citizen, including the address, and a person with that information can borrow, transfer money, and make purchases without being physically present in the digital payment system. However, if it is known, it is not possible to carry out that transaction with an unknown person. The first issue that we need to look at in detail in DPI is the addition of Faida to Faida. The second is the payment system. The current state of the payment system is based on cash. In the past five years, Ethiopia has largely shifted its business system from cash to digital. This is not a matter that can be seen as ordinary news or ordinary talk. Because Ethiopia spends hundreds of millions of dollars printing cash every year. Because our cash is printed, as you know, there is a problem with our payment system, so it will be an auto-forger soon. If new coins are not printed, we will not be able to trade with the cash we have left. Now, the digital transaction system has simply replaced cash, which has reduced the wealth of our country. This payment system, however, must be reliable and usable in all sectors, both locally and internationally. It is necessary to create a system where a person who is here can buy goods from another country through a digital payment system. If we take the market as an example, during the annual festivals, the price of lamb or onion or any other commodity that used to be created by people in the middle of the trade system has been reduced to a very high level. It connects the buyer and the seller directly. If we expand the market, having a storehouse everywhere will prevent a liter of water from being sold at a higher price than it costs, and digital payment is the second critical infrastructure. The third and most important thing that I want the majority of the leadership here to understand is that in a country without a complete data exchange, our digital lives cannot be fully free. In the past five years, almost every institution has a website, a system for providing resources, and a system for providing some services, but they do not have the X-Minister system and the Y-Minister system. I have a digital advantage, and I go to the foreign ministry and the services I use are not the same as the services I use, because there is no data exchange. I meet with each institution according to their needs and system. This is not the person-centered system that was mentioned earlier. If there is a data center, in terms of sovereignty, 1 person comes as a government official in a diplomatic passport delegation. If someone named Dr. Beliko is a minister, he will be called a minister of state. Six months later, he will appear as a doctor in the wet visa with a private passport. If he comes and, for example, Bale cannot go as an official, he can come as a tourist, take what he wants, and return. With current technology, only drones can detect underground resources, such as coal deposits. When he came and asked for investment, I replied that we would consider it, but he came as a private tourist and said that we want tourists to come and visit him. He went to a village and said that he had a camera drone and identified the wealth I had underground. Then he came as a government and said that this is the place where the company will be established. I don't know why he wanted that place. Since a person can change his appearance, change his name, change his address, and come, there is a data exchange between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Immigration, between the Ministry of Immigration, between the Ministry of Police, between the Ministry of Police and the Ministry of Tourism. No matter how he changes his appearance, he cannot deceive us. If he cannot do that, he will ask for tourism that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has banned. The immigration that the Ministry of Tourism has a system for using. If it is for tourism purposes, it can be simplified. Since the visa is for three weeks, it is a complete system that we think of unless we verify the data exchange. We will not create a second system that every ministry and every institution should see. It is not whether I have a system or not, whether my system is supported or dynamic. They say that our digital public infrastructure is not there, but they did not sell us a complete package. To prevent that from happening, we need to work hard on the issue of benefits and reach 100% of the percentage that was mentioned earlier. Our payment systems must be scalable, not only teleportation, but all third-party data exchanges, between banks, between government institutions, between government and private data centers. If we cannot exchange data between different data centers, digital cannot help the Ethiopian economy. It is not enough to just do what was manual on a computer. It must be dynamic, and if we take the three as examples on DPI, they can be seen as very critical.
One of the challenges faced in the process of ensuring digital transformation is the so-called digital divide, or we can call it the digital divide. As it has many advantages, it greatly increases human potential and increases productivity, but digital technology is not the only one that brings with it problems, such as data fraud, information fraud, fake news, and cyberbullying, cybercrime. So, we are putting our youth and our citizens into the digital system. How can we protect our youth in various ways to reduce their vulnerability or prevent them from becoming victims of cybercrime or cyberattacks? Let us share this with you.
Although the issue of cybersecurity is very important today, the issue of overall progress is not progress, security progress. For example, if a person used to walk on the road, today we buy a car for him and he has been walking peacefully for 20 years and dies because of a car accident, it would be better if the car or cash is used without any problems. If our wallets are stolen when we enter the teleport without warning, it would be better if technology were left behind. Safety is a very important element. As previously stated, a framework is being created to protect Ethiopian data transactions through cyber security and cyber defense 24/7, as taken from the perspective of KPI. This appearance is not permanent. It's been years since we started Insa. It is an institution with the best scientific capacity in Africa. But if it does not grow with the ever-growing world, the attack system may also diverge and become dangerous. What do we expect from our cyber security institutions? First, our systems must be protected. We trust them. We buy and use systems like a private company or a government. If there is an attack on us, they will protect us. Every system must be protected. Just as physical attacks are protected, virtual attacks must also be protected by the host institution. Second, not only systems, but also our data must be protected. Third, the critical point is here. We must embrace technology. We must create a technologically intelligent generation. But that does not mean that it should be in a way that endangers Ethiopian culture, Ethiopian national interests and interests. For example, there were young people recently arrested in connection with TikTok. Those young people are important to Ethiopia. It is something that should be encouraged, that they try to create and learn from that context. But if they mix the knowledge they need to learn from outside and the needs of our culture, which they need to protect and safeguard, with our own interests, it will lead to disaster. That means that it is necessary to recommend reprimand. He says why half were caught and half were not caught. We want to encourage the children, but why do we teach them while disciplining them? For example, if we take a country, there is one that has passed a law prohibiting children under the age of 16 from owning a cell phone. Why? He thought it was a disaster beyond the knowledge those children would gain from having cell phones. So, when they go to school, they have computers, and teachers monitor them. They have a computer when they come home, and the parent supervises it, but in the meantime, they have been banned from having a phone, saying it is harmful and not beneficial. Another country, using the Sabe Institute, has a 100% organization level where children under the age of 16 cannot watch TikTok outside of Steam. TikTok is about science, mathematics, technology, and you can't watch anything that's not funny. They closed down that country, saying that they have the ability to do that. When my children learn about science, mathematics, and physics through TikTok, they don't need the knowledge beyond that. If Ethiopia does not pass a law prohibiting young people under this age from having a phone, and if TikTok cannot filter it, we should be careful, especially what the influencer did in that neighborhood. Many people can be poisoned because of us. Children will be influenced by the person they love, their clothes, their speech, their appearance. We think that there is someone who follows us. If we do not be careful, if it goes against Ethiopian culture, Ethiopian beliefs, and Ethiopian interests, then technology will not be a help, but a disaster. Technology must be tamed by our inner state so that we can learn from it, use it, and grow from it. In this sense, Sabal Security is an institution with a very high responsibility. It is hoped that this will be achieved. Young people leading various sectors show great promise not only in shaping Ethiopia's strategy but also in creating leaders who can lead in that sector. That's how I feel, although I don't know how you feel. It was a very happy day, and I hope these kids will succeed.
Honorable Prime Minister, one of the issues that has been identified for us to use in all sectors under the 2030 Agenda is Artificial Intelligence. And they are industry fifo. These sectors, if we can deploy and use these in our work processes, will achieve a variety of results and productivity. How should we use artificial intelligence and industry to ensure the development and prosperity of our country and citizens as individuals and as a whole?
The idea recently adopted by the UN, called Industry 5.0, is different from the industrial one-point vision we previously knew. Industry 4.0, for example, is Artificial Intelligence. It is a development in one sector. 5.0 has converged. Every technology should be human-centric, not just for one sector. It is the human that should be the center. It is based on the idea that we should use it in a context where it serves people, and that it should be something that elevates people's living standards. What does this mean? For example, there used to be a typewriter. When the computer came, the typewriter disappeared and was replaced by the computer. But in the current era of artificial intelligence, the idea of Five Point 0 is not like this. For example, AI means everything. It is shopping. It is e-commerce. It is e-governance. It is drone. It is unmanned car. It is robot. It is not to replace a certain sector. It is for your needs. For example, if you are an elderly person and your main problem is cleaning the house, the robot you buy will only clean the house. Or a farmer who has a large field to protect his fields from thieves or monkeys. In the past, farmers dressed in rural clothes and stood like humans so that they could see the beast. But the robot you buy now is an AI solution. When you present this problem to him, it is a robot. It stops at a certain distance. When you hear a sound at night, it is heard. If you set the light to automatically turn on when it detects movement, the Arosh Intelligence light will turn on. If a thief or a wild animal approaches, it will be startled. The light will only turn off again if you give the system a secret code. For example, if you say 'I am a thief,' it will disappear, but if you say 'I am a thief,' it will not disappear. If a thief who does not know that secret code comes, it will light up and he cannot be eaten. The second is that if it moves after it lights up, the robot can be made to scare the enemy or thief with sound, alarm, and movement. What a farmer needs may be a field guard. For one, it may be a car that drives and delivers the product to the city. In one, the product it produces could be a drone that can drop products in the air. The solution that AI brings is not like turning a cart into a car or a typewriter into a computer, as we know it, but rather, it is a solution to the questions and problems that humans seek. Now, if you take our AI, you will remember that about five years ago, when we said we needed an AI institution, no African country had even thought about creating an AI institution at the level we started. There was no country that created an AI strategy. It was a controversial issue among us, saying, 'Why is it needed if there was no AI?' As you all know, there is no government or government officials who have come to Ethiopia have not talked about civil service reform. We hear all the time that the Civil Service is the one that created the basket, but why wasn't it AI? AI created the machine and made our current era of agriculture a reality. If you take the second Mela, you know it very well. If Mela, which I want the entire Ethiopian people to be able to use, is made like Deepsk or Chat GTP, it is not inferior to Chat GTP in terms of content and capabilities. It is not inferior in any way to Chat GTP, except that it is Ethiopian, and it is not inferior in any way to the system's capabilities. Fortunately, Ethiopians believe that if it is made outside, we will believe it, if it is inside, we will doubt it, so there is no need to use Mela, unless it is possible to use Deepsk. For example, the system that I use in many cases is the whole system. The entire DPC can provide you with as much value as it can, but it has limitations. In terms of data, there is something we need to add to that data first. However, as I have heard from many countries that have recently reached a very advanced level of artificial intelligence, there is no doubt that Ethiopia's artificial intelligence is one of the most important pillars of Ethiopia's development journey. It is one of the most important technological capabilities. Why is it necessary to follow what you tell me? We are tired of following everything that comes our way, so we are left behind, so we are starting to get used to it, so that it does not live with us, as the government has suggested, is one solution. Although AI is a fledgling institution in Ethiopia, it has reached a very impressive level in terms of its achievements and, as you know, its headquarters. If everyone can use this, if everyone can help, if AI and the private sector work together, there is no doubt that it will bring the results we think of, it will bring solutions that are human-centered. 5.0 can be fully achieved when there is a technology that can solve every human problem, and that is AI.
