Getahun Mekuria (Amharic: ጌታሁን መኩሪያ) is an Ethiopian politician and engineer who has served as several positions in the government cabinet such as the Minister of Science and Technology from 2016 to 2018 and its merger, the Minister of Innovation and Technology from 2018 to 2020, and the Minister of Education from 2020 to 2021.
Education and career
Getahun earned doctorate in engineering from the University Duisburg-Essen in
Germany, where he studied a
Daaden-Herdorf scholarship holder. Getahun worked as an assistant professor of electrical engineering at Addis Ababa University and has been director of the
Siemens subsidiary in Ethiopia. In November 2016, Getahun succeeded
Abiy Ahmed as Minister of Science and Technology and served until 2018. In October 2018, the minister was merged to Ministry of Innovation and Technology and he was appointed as minister. During his office, Getahun joined as advisor of XRP Ledger Foundation, a non-profit organization that promotes development of Ripple.
On 22 January 2020, he was appointed as Minister of Education upon ministerial appointment by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.
On 6 October 2021, he left the minister during cabinet reshuffle, succeeded by
Berhanu Nega.
