Settling In

Settling into Addis

This page provides tips and advice for new arrivals to Addis, including how to get around, managing your money, ordering food at home, hiring home help.

How to get around in Addis

Taxis / Public Transport

The most efficient and far safer way to move around the city (without your own car) is with the ride sharing apps Ride or Zayride, which you can download from the App Store or Android Equivalent. Unfortunately, the drivers still don’t trust the mechanics of it all and insist on calling you to confirm you location each time even though it’s in the app, but ultimately they do come and are quite reliable. There is another one called Feres which my crazy French friend says is the best (soon I will find out if he reads my website), but I haven’t tried it myself.
A cheaper option is the little blue and white taxis which are found everywhere in Addis. However, they are not high quality and many organisations (mine included) do not allow their staff to use them. I personally prefer the apps as at least there is a record of who you are travelling with.
The cheapest way to get around, favoured by most Ethiopians, is via the minibus network that criss crosses the city. Confusingly, Ethiopians also call these taxis even though they run on set routes. These are highly crowded and not recommended for foreigners.
Finally there is are 2 tram lines in Addis but, again, not recommended for expats, especially not when you first arrive.

The first thing you will want to do when moving to Addis, or even before you get here, is to connect with other expats. Unlike other places that I have lived, there is not a single go-to facebook group for expats. Rather, there are many facebook groups (none which are expat-only), some Telegram groups, and some WhatsApp groups.

Unfortunately many of these groups are by invitation only and so you’ll need to be introduced by someone. I don’t think people would appreciate me sharing the link publicly online. Nevertheless, there are some good public ones such as:

There are LOADS of expat groups on Facebook, just search for Addis Expats. However, I haven’t found a really good one yet. The biggest are Expats in Addis Ababa and Expats in Addis Ababa Ethiopia, both with 32,000 members. Expats in Addis Ababa Ethiopia has 25,000 members whilst Ethiopia Expats has 24,000 members, followed by Expats in Addis Ababa with 19,000 members, and Expats and Diplomats Network in Addis Ababa with 4,000 members.
Anything Important Telegram Group has over 4,000 members so you should easily be able to find an invite.
There are more Telegram groups including LinkUp Addis, Events Ethiopia, and Addis Parents, just search for them on Telegram.

See here for the various expat social media options in Addis: https://welcome2addis.com/expat-facebook-groups-about-addis/.

Getting a Sim Card

There are two network providers in Ethiopia: Ethio Telecom and Saraficom. Ethio Telecom is state owned and was founded in 2010. It is the most extensive and easy to use, so I recommend that you start here. Saraficom is a Kenyan network which entered Ethiopia in 2021 so it still relatively new. I haven’t tried it so if you’re using Saraficom, please let us all know how it is.

To get a sim card with Ethio Telecom, you just need to visit one of their many offices, show your ID Card, and they will register you on the spot. I did it when I was still on a tourist visa and it didn’t seem to be a problem. Top tip – register for Telebirr at the same time as it’s super useful and you’ll be able to top up from there – see below for more details on Telebirr.

Managing your Money

On Monday 29 July, the Ethiopian government announced that they would end the practice of fixing the official exchange rate and allow the rates to be set by the market value. Before this, there was a rampant but hidden black market which provided more than double the official exchange rate for USD. Now, the official rate is almost the same as the black market, which has rendered the black market almost irrelevant. You can read more about this here, here, and here.

Not all foreigners used the black market but those that did would try to bring as many USD from abroad as possible. That is no longer necessary. According to my calculations, the cheapest way to spend in Ethiopia is to use a foreign credit card which charges you directly in your home currency. For example, I now use Wise and Revolut, which both offer around 130 Birr per CHF (my salary is in Swiss Francs) without any transaction fees. If your money is stored abroad, I highly recommend using either Wise or Revolut. If you don’t have them, please use my referral links so that we both get a bonus.

Ethiopian Bank Accounts: Some people choose to open an Ethiopian Bank account. You need t be registered here first, either with a resident’s permit or a diplomatic ID, but then it’s pretty easy. You just visit the bank, provide your documents and passport, and they will open it for you right there and then. Wise and Revolut are currently offering such good deals that it might not be worth opening an account if your money is abroad, but if you are paid in Ethiopia or have money here then it’s probably worth it. There are a number of banks such as Dashen Bank and Awash Bank, but Commercial Bank of Ethiopia and is recommended as it’s the easiest for foerigners.

NOTE: There are limits to the amount of currency that you can withdraw in dollars and how much you can take out of the country so do not accumulate a lot of money in Ethiopia; just maintain the amount that you will need to spend here.

Telebirr / M-PESA: The two main mobile networks offer finance apps which you can use to store money and pay for things.

Telebirr, which is provided by Ethio Telecom, is the most widely used by far and accepted almost everywhere (the Hilton is one notable exception). It’s super useful and has loads of apps within it so you can pay for things like airtime, flight tickets, and taxis directly from the app if you want to. It’s also easy to transfer money from one person to the other.
M-PESA is the Safaricom equivalent but is less widespread because Safaricom only started operating in Addis in 2021 (it’s from Kenya!). I haven’t tried it myself but I understand that it does many of the same things. Nevertheless, I would stick with Telebirr for now.

Food Delivery Apps

There are a few food delivery apps in Addis including Deliver Addis, ZMall, and Ride (same app as ride sharing), but none of them are great.

I have not had a good experience with ZMall in particular; I had difficulty confirming the payment method and then, when I finally managed to place the order, they didn’t have anything I wanted. I think it would work better for food but I was trying to order from a supermarket, which is a service that they offer but they might as well not bother.
Ride was also useless for supermarket stuff but works OK for restaurants. You still have to answer about 4 phone calls whenever you order (the restaurant, the driver, and Ride all call you separately) but I did manage to get delivery. I was particularly happy with the Chinese from Chanoly Smoothie and Noodles. In my opinion, it tasted just like a Chinese takeaway should!
I have tried deliver Addis a few times but yet to make it work.

Overall, the delivery apps have a lot of room for improvement but do work if you’re desperate.

Compiling a Team

Many people who move to Addis will be looking to hire some kind of help such as cleaners, cooks, nannies, drivers, security guards, etc. Sometimes your employers might take care of this but many times its left to us to organise.

There are many ways to go about this but I highly recommend hiring people that come recommended by other expats. Every few days I see posts from people who are leaving that are looking for new employers for their staff and so I suggest that you join the various expat groups before you even get here and already start looking. That way you can arrange for them to come for interview on the day you arrive and they can usually start straight away.