Litema Alem

Ethiopian engineer who pioneered Africa's first national fiber-optic network

Litema Alem (b. 1967) revolutionized East African telecommunications through his design of Ethiopia's National Information Superhighway, completed in 2002. As chief engineer of the Ethiopian Telecommunications Corporation, he overcame extreme terrain challenges by developing a hybrid underground/overhead cabling system that withstood Ethiopia's rugged landscapes. This $180 million project connected 65 cities and 80% of the country's universities, reducing internet costs by 80% and enabling Ethiopia's tech boom. Alem's "Rural Node" concept - using solar-powered satellite hubs in remote areas - became a model for Kenya's Digital Villages initiative. His 1998 paper "Building Networks in Non-Network Societies" is required reading at MIT's Media Lab. Alem's collaboration with Cisco Systems established Addis Ababa as Africa's first city with 100% fiber-optic coverage by 2005. His current work focuses on blockchain-based voting systems for Africa's upcoming elections, and his 2019 book "Wired Continent" details how digital infrastructure can democratize economic opportunities. Alem's innovations directly contributed to Ethiopia's 2020 designation as a UN Global Innovation Hub, and his team's development of the "African Cloud" data center network now serves 15 countries.