How Inflation Built Ethiopia's Digital Economy: The Unlikely Rise of Mobile Money
Ethiopia's inflation crisis did not just erode purchasing power. It quietly dismantled the logic of cash and pushed millions toward digital money faster than any policy alone could have.
These days, you won't hear the usual jingle of coins in the hands of Addis Ababa's minibus taxi assistants. The weyala is increasingly redirecting passengers to a phone screen instead of a coin purse. Commuters have stopped fishing for exact change. Instead, a question has started echoing through the crowded blue-and-white minibuses that crisscross the city: Telebirr alleh?
It is a small, unremarkable exchange. But it encodes something significant: the informal economy of Addis Ababa, which once ran almost entirely on physical birr, is going digital. And the force that pushed it there was not merely a government campaign or a tech startup's marketing budget. It was inflation.
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