Ethiopia’s auction houses are often crowded affairs, thick with paperwork and whispered alliances. Sales of everything from used vehicles to industrial equipment continue to be conducted in halls where access barriers and information asymmetries could easily tilt the outcome.
When Auction Ethiopia S.C, a private startup, introduced an online auction platform two years ago, it set out to move that process onto a screen. Since then, the company says it has facilitated more than 4,500 auctions worth 10.5 billion Birr and registered roughly 100,000 bidders.
Yet the company has run up against a familiar constraint in Ethiopia’s technology sector: the limits of connectivity and digital literacy. Mobile data coverage has expanded to reach 94% of the population, yet only about 25% of Ethiopians are regular internet users, with 79% remaining unconnected due to persistent infrastructure gaps and low digital literacy.
While Auction Ethiopia’s platform incorporates tools such as blockchain-based recordkeeping and artificial intelligence features, large segments of potential users remain offline or are uncomfortable navigating online systems.
On Friday morning at the Skylight Hotel, the company formally introduced what it calls a Digital Auction Agent program, an effort to bridge that gap through a network of in-person intermediaries.
No Comment Found.