Ethiopia hosts Twitter's Jack Dorsey, Alibaba's Jack Ma

Ethiopia is this week playing host to Twitter founder Jack Dorsey and former Alibaba chairman Jack Ma, as the East African nations strives to implement an ambitious digital transformation strategy.

Ethiopia is the last stop of Dorsey’s tour of the African continent, which has seen him meet entrepreneurs and techies in Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa.

While in Ethiopia, the Twitter CEO is expected to meet trailblazers like Betelhem Dessie of iCog Anyone Can Code, Noel Daniel of Kudu Ventures among others.

Meanwhile, Ethiopia’s prime minister, Abiy Ahmed on Monday met Chinese billionaire entrepreneur Jack Ma, as they discussed the launch of the Electronic World Trade Platform in Ethiopia.

Both parties hope the platform will promote Ethiopia’s export products to the global market and open the door for small enterprises to become competitive.

This visit follows a meeting between the Abiy and Ma at the Alibaba Headquarters in Hangzhou last year. In January this year, they met at the World Economic Forum in Davos and discussed a potential partnership to build a tech city in Ethiopia.