Bako is a town in central

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

. Located in the

West Shewa Zone West Shewa Zone ( om, Shawaa Lixaa/Dhihaa) is a zone in Oromia Region of Ethiopia. This zone takes its name from the kingdom or former province of Shewa. West Shewa is bordered on the south by the Southwest Shewa Zone and the Southern Nations, Na ...

of the

Oromia Oromia (Amharic: ) ( om, Oromiyaa) is a regional state in Ethiopia and the homeland of the Oromo people. The capital of Oromia is Addis Ababa. It is bordered by the Somali Region to the east; the Amhara Region, the Afar Region and the Benish ...

, on the all-weather highway between Addis Ababa(Finfinne) and

Naqamte Nekemte, also spelled as Neqemte (, Amharic: ነቀምት), is a market town and separate woreda in western Ethiopia. Located in the East Welega Zone of the Oromia Region, Nekemte has a latitude and longitude of and an elevation of 2,088 mete ...

, this town has a longitude and latitude of with an elevation of 1743 meters above sea level. Bako is the administrative center of

Bako Tibe Bako Tibe is one of the Aanaas, or districts, in the Oromia of Ethiopia. Part of the West Shewa Zone, Bako Tibe is bordered on the south and west by the East Welega Zone, on the north by Horo Gudru Welega Zone, and on the east by Cheliya. The admin ...

Aanaa Districts of Ethiopia, also called woredas ( am, ወረዳ; ''woreda''), are the third level of the administrative divisions of Ethiopia – after ''zones'' and the '' regional states''. These districts are further subdivided into a number of ...

. During the Italian occupation, Bako is mentioned as having a medical clinic and a school. In 1948, Swedish missionaries opened a medical clinic in the town, which evolved into a mission station by 1953. By 1967, the town had phone service, as well as a primary and junior secondary schools; there was also a school for the blind, which had been moved from Addis Ababa to Bako 1961. The

Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research The Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR'')http://www.eiar.gov.et/ is a research institute for agricultural study in Ethiopia. has evolved through several stages since its initiation during the late 1940s, following the establishmen ...

opened a center in Bako in 1968, which is the national center for improving the yield of

maize Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. Th ...

. Based on figures from the

Central Statistical Agency The Central Statistical Agency (CSA; Amharic: ማዕከላዊ ስታቲስቲክስ ኤጀንሲ) is an agency of the government of Ethiopia designated to provide all surveys and censuses for that country used to monitor economic and social growth ...

in 2005, Bako has an estimated total population of 18,641 of whom 9,370 are men and 9,271 women.CSA 2005 National Statistics
Table B.4 The 1994 census reported this town had a total population of 10,422 of whom 5,082 were men and 5,340 women. It is the largest of three towns in Bako Tibe.

Notes

Cities and towns in Oromia Region {{Oromia-geo-stub