Samia Zekaria Gutu is a Harari-Ethiopian diplomat. She serves as the director of

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 ...

of Ethiopia and was chairwoman of

National Election Board of Ethiopia The National Election Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) () is an autonomous federal government agency which supervises the national elections of Ethiopia. The NEBE was established by Proclamation number 64/1992, and answers to the House of Peoples' Re ...

until 2018.

Early life

Samia was born in the city of Harar and raised in

Dire Dawa Dire Dawa ( am, ድሬዳዋ, om, Dirree Dhawaa, 3=Place of Remedy; so, Diridhaba, meaning "where Dir hit his spear into the ground" or "The true Dir", ar, ديري داوا,) is a city in eastern Ethiopia near the Oromia and Somali Re ...

. She credits her mother who was president of the Harari association called ''Afocha'' for instilling leadership skills in her at a young age. Samia has a BA in agricultural economics at Haramaya University and an MA in econometrics/economic statistics at Texas Tech University.

Career

Samia was chairwoman of the

until she was replaced by

Birtukan Mideksa Birtukan Mideksa ( Amharic: ብርቱካን ሚደቅሳ; born 27 April 1974) is an Ethiopian politician and former judge who is serving as chairwoman of the National Election Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) since 2018. She was the founder and leader ...

in 2018. She was also previously the Ethiopian ambassador to Nigeria and is currently the Ethiopian ambassador to Qatar.

References

Texas Tech University alumni People from Harari Region Ethiopian government officials Ethiopian diplomats People from Dire Dawa 1955 births Living people Women diplomats {{Ethiopia-politician-stub