Ethiopia

Economy & income

Currency

• Ethiopian Birr (ETB, Br)
• ~160.9 per USD (14 Jul 2026)
• floated Jul 2024 (ended peg for a $3.4B IMF loan) and heavily depreciated since (~57→160+/USD)

GDP per capita

• ~$1,130 nominal (2024, macrotrends/World Bank est.; total GDP ~$174B per IMF) — sharply reduced in USD after the Jul-2024 birr float and volatile
• ~$2,884 PPP (2024, World Bank), IMF ~$3,146 PPP (2025)

Average salary

• ~$40–60 net/mo (formal, wage aggregators/Numbeo 2025-26; avg gross ~ETB 6,500 ≈ $40)
• Numbeo sample thin & Addis/expat-skewed. ~80%+ of employment is informal/agrarian, so formal wages cover a small minority

Median salary

• n/a — no official median wage published
• vast informal/subsistence economy makes any median unreliable to estimate

Minimum wage

• No national minimum wage
• federal public-sector floor raised to ETB 6,000/mo (~$37) Sept 2025 (from ETB 4,760)
• garment/industrial-park de-facto ~ETB 1,500–2,000/mo (~$9–12) — among the world's lowest

Cost of living

• Low in birr terms for locals, but the float has driven high inflation eroding purchasing power
• Numbeo Ethiopia/Addis data is thin & expat-skewed (treat cautiously)

Digital landscape

Population

134 million (Jan 2025, DataReportal/Kepios)

Internet users

21.3% (~28.6M users, Jan 2025) — low penetration, big upside

Social media users

• 6.2% (~8.30M identities, Jan 2025)
• ~67.7% male / 32.3% female

Mobile connections

85.4M cellular connections = 63.8% of population

Devices

mobile ~67.4% / desktop ~31.9% / tablet ~0.7% (StatCounter, Jun 2026)

Ad spend

• DataReportal publishes no total ad-spend figure for Ethiopia
• Statista est. digital-ad market ~$66M (2024), social-media ads ~$23M (2025), projected ~$86M by 2028 — tiny, mobile/social-skewed

Top social platforms

Facebook ~8.30M ad reach, 6.2% — dominant social platform, ~29% of internet users

LinkedIn ~1.40M, 1.0%

Instagram ~1.25M, 0.9% — small; +24% YoY

Facebook Messenger ~1.40M reach

• TikTok — fast-growing, huge youth base; DataReportal reports no ET ad-reach figure
• YouTube — very widely used for music/entertainment; no DataReportal ad-reach figure for ET
• Telegram — extremely popular — news, channels, communities, file-sharing; effectively a top platform in Ethiopia

Messengers

• Telegram (arguably the #1 messenger — news/channels/communities, resilient during internet restrictions)
• WhatsApp (widely used personal + diaspora)
• Facebook Messenger (~1.40M reach)
• imo (popular for cheap international/diaspora calls)
• Note: Telebirr & CBE Birr apps are the mobile-money layer alongside chat

Payments & behaviour

Payment methods

• Telebirr (state-owned Ethio Telecom mobile money — dominant, ~52.6M users, ~ETB 4.9tn cumulative transactions)
• CBE Birr (Commercial Bank of Ethiopia wallet — large state-bank base)
• Cash on delivery / pay-on-delivery (default for physical-goods e-commerce)
• Amole (Dashen Bank) & HelloCash — early wallets
• M-Pesa Ethiopia (Safaricom — launched 2023, ~5.2M active but boxed out by the state, tiny revenue)
• Bank cards Visa/Mastercard — very low penetration, forex-limited

E-wallets

• Telebirr
• CBE Birr
• M-Pesa Ethiopia
• Amole
• HelloCash
• Chapa / ArifPay (online payment gateways)

Cash on delivery

• High — pay-on-delivery is the default for physical goods
• low digital literacy/trust and a cash-heavy economy

E-commerce

• Very low but growing off a tiny base (~$71M 2025, ~18% CAGR to ~$138M by 2029)
• classifieds/marketplace-led (Jiji, Qefira, Engocha) rather than big B2C stores

Notes

• Telebirr + CBE Birr are the rails
• EthSwitch links banks/wallets
• strict forex controls make USD card-out payouts hard — plan for local COD/mobile-money settlement
• Ethio Telecom blocked M-Pesa's telco-agnostic 'Lehulum' app on its network (Dec 2025).

Audience & culture

Languages

• Oromo / Afaan Oromo (~34% — largest first language)
• Amharic (~29% — federal working language & national lingua franca; Ge'ez/Fidel script)
• Somali (~6%)
• Tigrinya (~6%)
• 80+ other languages (Sidamo, Wolaytta, Afar, Gurage, Hadiyya…)
• English (main foreign language — business, higher education, signage)

Religion

Ethiopian Orthodox Christian ~43.8%, Muslim ~31.3%, Protestant/'Pente' ~22.8%, Catholic ~0.7%, traditional ~0.6% (2016 est.; Orthodox north/centre, Islam east/south, Protestant south/west)

Median age

• ~19–20 years (Worldometer ~20.1, 2025) — very young
• ~40% under 15

Key seasons

• Enkutatash — Ethiopian New Year (11 Sept; note Ethiopia's own calendar, ~7-8 yrs behind, 13 months)
• Meskel (27 Sept — Finding of the True Cross)
• Genna — Ethiopian Christmas (7 Jan) & Timkat/Epiphany (19-20 Jan — biggest festival)
• Fasika — Ethiopian Orthodox Easter (spring; long fasting season precedes)
• Ramadan & Eid (Muslim regions — evening spend)
• Irreecha — Oromo thanksgiving (Sept/Oct, mass gatherings)

Cultural notes

• Facebook + Telegram + TikTok are effectively 'the internet'
• Instagram is tiny
• Localize in Amharic (Fidel script) + Afaan Oromo, not English-only
• COD/mobile-money trust, cash-heavy, price-sensitive, very young
• Huge diaspora (US, Gulf, Europe, Israel) is a prime retargeting/remittance pool
• Athletics & football fandom is national glue
• Note the unique Ethiopian calendar & 6-hour clock.

Where to find creators

• TikTok
• Facebook
• YouTube
• Telegram
• Instagram

Media landscape

Creators & public figures

Top creators

Rophnan (Rophnan Nuri) ~385K Instagram

InstagramEDM/Afro-fusion superstar & youth icon — telco, energy-drink, apparel fit

Teddy Afro (Tewodros Kassahun) ~618K Instagram

Instagrammost iconic contemporary singer (far bigger on Facebook) — mass reach

B

Betty G (Bruktawit Getahun) ~176K Instagram

Instagramaward-winning pop/R&B singer — beauty/lifestyle brand fit

E

Eshetu Melese (Donkey Tube) ~3.2M YouTube

YouTubecomedian — kids'-wisdom 'Dink Lijoch' & standup; family/FMCG fit

S

Seifu Fantahun ~1.0M YouTube

YouTubeEthiopia's #1 TV talk-show host (Seifu Show) — strong endorsement power

M

Mariyeta Badume ~1.3M TikTok

TikToktop Ethiopian TikTok creator — short-form/youth

Aster Aweke ~17K Instagram

Instagramlegendary vocalist (DC-based diaspora; modest social but iconic) — heritage/music

Celebrities

The Weeknd (Abel Tesfaye) ~78M Instagram

global superstar singer, born to Ethiopian immigrants in Toronto

Marcus Samuelsson ~724K Instagram

Ethiopian-born celebrity chef & restaurateur

Sifan Hassan ~492K Instagram

Ethiopian-born Dutch Olympic distance-running champion

Liya Kebede ~272K Instagram

supermodel, actress & designer; maternal-health advocate

Kenenisa Bekele ~218K Instagram

distance-running legend — Olympic golds & 5000m/10000m world records

Haile Gebrselassie ~49K Instagram

running legend (2x Olympic gold) & businessman — national icon

Affiliate & traffic

Hot verticals

• Nutra COD (weight-loss, beauty, potency, joint/health)
• E-commerce COD (electronics, fashion, gadgets via classifieds)
• Mobile apps / utilities / VAS / games (CPI)
• Sweepstakes / lead-gen (CPL)
• Finance-lite (mobile-money, micro-loans)
• Sports betting was the hottest driver but is now shut down (Dec 2025) — treat as closed

Active networks

• Dr.Cash (nutra COD aggregator)
• AdCombo / TerraLeads / Everad (COD nutra)
• Adsterra & PropellerAds (pop/push/native traffic)
• Mobidea / Golden Goose (mobile CPA)
• Betting networks (1xBet/Betwinner/Mostbet) — historically active but hit by the Dec-2025 betting shutdown
• Local: Jiji, ZayRide, Chapa/ArifPay in-house & telco promos

Payouts

• Tier-3 very low: nutra COD ~$6–15 per approved order
• CPI/sweeps ~$0.1–2
• CPL low single digits
• forex controls make USD card-out hard — most settlement is COD/mobile-money

Competition

Under-served with very cheap CPMs, but a tiny ad market, low card/banking penetration, forex controls, frequent internet shutdowns and sharp regulatory swings (betting ban) deter many affiliates

Seasonality

• Ethiopian holidays (Enkutatash Sept, Genna/Timkat Jan, Fasika Easter, Meskel Sept)
• Ramadan/Eid in Muslim regions
• athletics & football events
• internet shutdowns during unrest disrupt campaigns

Traffic sources

• Facebook & Instagram ads
• TikTok ads
• Telegram channels
• Google / YouTube
• Push/pop & native
• Influencer / UGC

Good to know

Capital

Addis Ababa

Major cities

• Addis Ababa
• Dire Dawa
• Adama (Nazret)
• Mekelle
• Gondar
• Bahir Dar
• Hawassa
• Jimma
• Dessie
• Jijiga

Time zones

• Single zone — East Africa Time UTC+3, no DST
• Note: locals use a 6-hour-offset 12-hour clock (dawn = 'hour 0') and Ethiopia's own 13-month calendar (~7-8 yrs behind Gregorian)

Android vs iOS

98%

Android 98% iOS 2%

Phone brands

• Samsung (~45%)
• Tecno (~11%)
• Infinix (~7%)
• ZTE (~2.5%)
• itel (~2.5%)
• 'Unknown'/grey imports (~22%); Transsion (Tecno+Infinix+itel) collectively large

Top e-commerce

• Jiji Ethiopia
• Qefira
• Engocha
• Zmall
• Deliver Addis & BeU Delivery (food)
• ZayRide (ride-hailing)
• AliExpress (cross-border)

Peak activity

Evenings ~19:00-23:00 EAT (after work); heavy on Facebook/Telegram/TikTok; weekend daytime browsing

Creative taboos

• Ethnic-political conflict (Tigray war aftermath, Amhara Fano insurgency, Oromia), ethnic federalism, religion, government/PM criticism, homosexuality (illegal) — all high-risk
• expect internet shutdowns during unrest

Also worth knowing

1. Telebirr + COD are the payment rails — cards are near-nonexistent and forex-controlled, so build COD/mobile-money funnels, not card-out.
2. Regulatory volatility is extreme — the Dec-2025 nationwide betting shutdown wiped out the hottest vertical overnight; crypto trading is banned while mining is state-backed.
3. Facebook + Telegram + TikTok dominate (Instagram tiny); localize Amharic + Afaan Oromo, lean on the large diaspora, and price offers very low — one of the world's lowest-income, youngest markets, with frequent internet shutdowns as an operational risk.