🙌 Frank Digest hits 100 Editions

Welcome to the 100th edition of ፍራንክ Digest!

Yes, a century of publishing, almost 200 articles filled with knowledge, anecdotes, reflections, and GIFs…we’ve brought it all.

Thanks for the love so far, and as usual, here’s what’s coming your way:

• 💯 On This Milestone, a Little Story Time

• 🪙 Mastercard and Visa are Betting on Stablecoins…Should Ethiopia?

• 🗝️ The Key Takeaways

Thanks for reading!

A year later – Our application to the ECMA Sandbox

Technology

What’s more appropriate than celebrating our 100th edition than sharing an interesting experience with you all? Turns out…nothing

The date was December 10th, 2024 - 2pm to be exact

Sitting in a conference room on the 15th floor of the Minaye Building, where the Ethiopian Capital Market Authority (ECMA) has called home for the past two years or so, we could see the Addis skyline, where the afternoon sun offered a yellowish glow to the dark grey room.

Sat across from us were a few sharply dressed individuals who looked like they were wrestling to maintain focus after devouring their delicious chicken quesadillas from Savor, the restaurant located at the foot of the building. Nice spot by the way

The stage was set and all three of us ፍራንክ editors had prepared enough to address the team, a mix of ECMA personnel, independent consultants and foreign industry experts who came together to pick out a few promising startups for the sandbox.

Our pitch was ‘ፍራንክ Money’, a robo advisory platform that aimed at matching up retail investors with equity, corporate/government bonds, ETFs and more investment products.

All powered through AI. 

The grilling took almost two hours with questions ranging from market research to technological capabilities, ending with the all important Habesha question, የት ሰርታቹሃል?