The story
Anbessa started its operations by converting trucks left behind by the Italians after their occupation of Ethiopia. It operated informally until 1948 when The Anbessa City Bus service started as a share company owned by Emperor Haile Selassie, some state owned companies and members of the royal family. It had 40 Italian drivers and mechanics with 80 Ethiopian trainee recruits.
The first livery of Anbessa buses was green and yellow, inspired by the colors of the Ethiopian flag and had only two routes:
Route 2: Piassa to Genet Hotel
Route 4: Cinema Ethiopia to Kasanchis
The leaping lion logo, used by the enterprise for much of its history, was designed by an Italian artist.
In a rebranding, Anbessa shifted its livery to the current yellow and red, based the lower two bands of the Ethiopian flag. Although this is contested by some claiming it is based on the jersey of Saint George Football club.
In 1974, the Derg military government dissolved the share company and nationalized the enterprise.
After the fall of the Derg in 1991, the EPRDF re-established it as a public enterprise.
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Anbessa acquired buses assembled locally by the Metal & Engineering Corporation, a military industrial complex of the Ethiopian government. It has included in its fleet more than 500 of these locally assembled buses known as Bishoftu Buses, which bear the town's name where the assembly plant is located. Eight of these buses are in Jimma, although Anbessa only operates in Addis Ababa and special zones of Oromia Regional State.
Currently, there are around 1000 city buses under the enterprise. Nearly 40 percent of these were out of service due to technical issues.
In 2023, Anbessa City Bus Service Enterprise merged with Sheger Bus, a relatively newer and smaller government-owned bus operator. The combined company became known simply as "City Bus" a move that garnered criticism regarding the preservation of historical heritage. The merger also included the change of buses livery to full green, However buses from both operators still maintain the original livery and name on the exterior bodies of the buses before the merger as of 2025. The merger also caused arbitrary dismissal of about 400 employees from the enterprise, which caused controversy
From Wikipedia’s article on Anbessa City Bus Service Enterprise, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3