Ethiopia has a number of government and other institutions that are responsible for supporting scientific and technological innovation, including the Ministry of Innovation and Technology, the Ministry of Science and Higher Education (Ethiopia), the Science and Technology Information Center and the Ethiopian Space Science and Technology Institute.

The growth of Information Technology has been closely related to the introduction of computers into Ethiopia by foreign suppliers. IBM helped to introduced technology to Ethiopia in 1962 with the 1421/814 accounting machine.[3] In 1963, IBM introduced a semi-mechanical accounting machine at the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), followed by the auto code 1440 model, commissioned by the Ethiopian Electric Light and Power Authority. The IBM 360/20 electronic data-processing system was introduced between 1965 and 1970, with a capacity of 8-16 KB. The transition from card to tape-disk system was made in 1970s. The first programming language was Report Program Generator, which was used in Ethiopia until 1986.

As suppliers increased competition, major technological changes attracted attention.[3] The NCR Corporation introduced cash registers, mechanical accounting machines and payroll technology. The first NCR model minicomputer was installed in 1976, with 64 KB of main memory and 9.6 MB of hard disk. The corporation also installed 850 minicomputers between 1977 and 1984.[3]

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