Sidama Gets a New President: Mesai Hailu Replaces Desta Ledamo

Sidama Region has a new president. Dr Mesai Hailu was appointed on Tuesday to lead the region in place of Desta Ledamo, according to Tikvah Ethiopia.

A health administrator, not a career politician

The appointment is unusual in its pedigree. Mesai previously ran the Sidama Zone Health Department, and served as vice president for administration and student services at Hawassa University. His first degree is a bachelor's in public health, also from Hawassa.

That is a technocratic CV for a job that is, in practice, a political one. Regional presidents in Ethiopia sit at the junction between federal transfers and local delivery, and they arrive this month into a budget cycle the federal government has just told parliament it intends to run under tighter control.

Why it matters for business in the region

Sidama is among Ethiopia's newest regional states and is still building out its administration. For anyone investing in Hawassa — the industrial park, the hospitality sector that has grown around it, or the coffee trade that runs through the zone — the identity of the regional president determines who signs land allocations, who arbitrates local tax disputes, and how quickly federal programmes reach the ground.

A president drawn from the health bureaucracy and a university administration is a different counterparty from one drawn from the party apparatus. Whether that changes how the region deals with investors is an open question, not a settled one.

Open

Neither the reason for Desta Ledamo's departure nor his next posting has been stated. Nor has the regional council published the vote or the terms of the handover. Fact.et has not seen a statement from the Sidama regional administration setting out either.

Sources: Tikvah Ethiopia, 6 October 2026