Ethiopian digital start-up enterprises are emerging despite the several challenges they face, such as lack of access to finance, infrastructure, trade licenses, limited entrepreneurship, and digital literacy. To address such constraints, LIWAY’s Micro and Small Enterprises (MSE) system is implementing an intervention named Realising Aspiration of Digital Enterprise Transformation (RADET) in collaboration with the Ministry of Labour and Skills (MoLS). One of RADET’s strategic activities is fostering the enabling environment for digital entrepreneurs (DEs) to start and grow/expand their businesses. LIWAY and MoLS are working in close collaboration with the Ministry of Trade and Regional Integration (MoTRI), the Ministry of Innovation and Technology (MINT), and other relevant industry actors, such as the Digital Society Associations, to unlock the enabling environment. Trade licensing and building the competencies of start-up DEs are among the key enabling environment priorities.

Accordingly, representatives from LIWAY, MoLS, MoTRI, business associations, and selected private companies convened on June 14 at the Getfam Hotel to validate the developed trade license categories and areas of competencies needed for digital literacy and related employability skills for digital businesses. A team of 25 experts from the digital industry and the relevant ministries formed a taskforce to conduct situation assessments and develop initial contents that were presented in the validation workshop.

The validation workshop entertained 40 representatives from the digital industry and experts from relevant ministries. The task force from the digital industry and ministers have presented the eight (8) trade license categories and 38 sub-categories. Participants discussed, validated, and provided their input on the licensing areas and their competencies. The major trade-license categories include Business Process Outsourcing Services, Cloud Computing Services, Ecommerce Services, Fintech Services, GIG Services, Internet Security Services, Virtual Reality and Game Development Services, and Digital Equipment Maintenance and Repair Services. Key skill sets for those categories and subcategories were identified and defined. Units of competency were prepared for the above digital business categories and subcategories, with detailed descriptions for each of the skill sets. It is expected that the improvement in trade licensing and the developed competency areas will be endorsed by MoTRI before the end of the current year.