It is claimed Ethiopia is officially the oldest Christian state in the world. The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church is the largest centralized organization in the country. An estimated membership of 50 million people and hundreds of thousands of churches, properties, historical artifacts, and documents. It has also a large diaspora population (estimated more than a million). The highest body of the church is the holy synod.
Like any organization in a third world country, the church suffers from a backward and inefficient administrative practice, costing it millions. It needs to register baptism, church education, qualification, collect almes from members all over the world. The church is the largest land and property owner (next to the government) in the country and often documents are misplaced or lost resulting in conflict and lengthy litigation.
The adoption of Atala would be less bureaucratic compared to the government which IOHK is courting at the moment (as long as it can sell the idea) and if it can pull it off then half the nation is on-boarded on Cardano ecosystem.
If IOHK needs to make Ethiopia a flagship for Cardano adoption in Africa it needs to diversify its engagement with in the country. Regional governments, higher education institutions are badly in need of a solution like Atala and it seems that that is a stright forward implementation than a proposed utility bill and other implementation that are discussed for Addis Ababa.