By Asha Elmi - Reporter
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, 5 October 2026 Ahmed Shide has been elected Speaker of the House of Peoples' Representatives, becoming the first ethnic Somali to hold the post.
Shide, who served as Ethiopia's finance minister for nearly eight years, succeeds Tagesse Chafo, who had led the lower house since October 2018.
Appointed finance minister in October 2018, he held the post during a period of major economic reforms, including a programme supported by the International Monetary Fund.
Related articles
Before that, he served as transport minister from 2016 to 2018 and briefly as minister of government communication in early 2018. He also spent several years as a state minister in the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development.
His earlier roles included Speaker of the Somali Regional State parliament and chair of the Somali People's Democratic Party.
He holds a bachelor's degree in economics from the Ethiopian Civil Service College and a master's degree from the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom.