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What did the association propose?
Tikvah Magazine reported on Tikimt 26, 2019 E.C. (5 November 2026) that the Ethiopian Architects Association had submitted a draft legal framework to government while holding its 35th anniversary and 26th annual general assembly. Its president, Architect Habtamu Getachew, said the law would stop a university graduate from working as an architect straight away.
Under the draft, graduates would complete practical training and be assessed before they are recognised as architects. The framework would also set up bodies to check the training, and to evaluate the quality of universities and consultancy firms. The report says a new operating manual approved by the Construction Authority is expected to set fees and practices once the Public Procurement and Property Administration Agency approves it.
Who would the draft affect?
The draft concerns architecture graduates, who would have to finish training and assessment before using the title and taking on projects. The association says there are between 18,000 and 20,000 architects in the country, of whom about 6,000 actually work in the profession. It says the rest have moved into graphic design, marketing and other fields because the market is narrow.
Investors and clients who commission buildings would also be affected. The association says consultancy fees have fallen, and that work is done in bulk by a few people. Its own estimate is that fees average 0.4 per cent of project cost, so an architect on a 100 million birr building is paid about 400,000 birr. It also says projects overrun their budgets by up to 350 per cent and their timetables by up to 250 per cent. These are the association's own figures, as its president gave them.
When would it take effect, and what is known?
| Item | Date or status |
|---|---|
| Report published | Tikimt 26, 2019 E.C. (5 November 2026) |
| Draft sent to government | Date not given in the report |
| Date it takes effect | Not announced |
The report does not name a fee schedule, a list of documents, or a timetable for government to decide on the draft. None of these has been announced.
What can readers do now?
Watch for the government's decision
No response to the draft has been announced. Watch for the Public Procurement and Property Administration Agency's approval of the operating manual, which the report expects soon.
Ask your department
Students and graduates who plan to practise can ask their department how training and assessment would apply to them if the draft is adopted.
Read the association's statements
To confirm the exact wording of the draft, look for the association's own statements. The report does not cite the association's channels.
What led to the proposal?
When the association was founded, there were only four architects in the country. Since then architecture has been taught at 23 universities, and the number of architects has grown quickly. The association says this growth came without enough practical training, and that it has led to unfair competition, low fees and ethical breaches, such as one architect changing another's design without the owner's consent.
The association says it is working on the proposal together with other construction sector associations.
Sources
Every figure and date above comes from one of these. Open them; a story about your child's school is worth checking.
