At the Princess Tenagnework Comprehensive High School, an Indian teacher encouraged her interest in science and chemistry.

Due to the hardness of the situation in the country at the time, she dropped out of university to work teaching physical science.

Her main role as minister was to discover the basic geoscience data of Ethiopia, to promote mineral and petroleum exploration, and grant permits to investors seeking to make money in mining.

Throughout Ethiopia's history the government typically pursued agriculture for development, but it began focusing more on mining when Ejignu was appointed.

[1] In 2012, she was involved in a dispute with the Hong Kong-based company PetroTrans after she revoked their license since they were taking too long on a project.