Michael Teshome, is Director of the Ethiopian Mediation & Arbitration Center, Attorney and Consultant at Law, as well as Co-author of the book Arbitration in Ethiopia.
Michael specializes in handling business arbitration cases, which is a leading alternative model to settle business disputes. However, Ethiopia was not on the international business arbitration map until this year when it ratified both the international 1958 New York Convention and the local Arbitration and Conciliation Working Procedure Proclamation, in which Michael participated at the drafting level.

Now, arbitration awards rendered in Ethiopia can directly be implemented in the 167 signatory countries, with reciprocity. Michael stresses this has an immense and multidimensional benefit in making Ethiopia business-friendly and Addis Ababa an international arbitration seat.

Ewnetu Taye is Deputy Director of the Logistics Transformation Office (LTO), established to transform and solve lingering sectorial problems which have long hampered Ethiopia’s development. He sees Djibouti still holding the key position going forward even with its numerous military bases which are incomparable to benefits bestowed by economic relations with Ethiopia. Alongside developing sea outlets, liberalizing the sector within Ethiopia is registering heavy developments. EBR sat down with Ewnetu to learn about the current status of the logistics sector in Ethiopia.

Muluneh Lema, is a founding member and General Manager of Mintu Investment Group (MIG) as well as President of the Ethiopian Millers Association. Educated in the US, he took the initiative to turn his family’s legacy of a candy factory and flour wholesaling into a gigantic group of factories. Under the group, companies engaged in the manufacturing, food processing, real estate, import, export, and pharmaceutical sectors, operate. Wakene Food Complex, Mintu Plast, Menoria Real Estate, Mintu Export, and Mintu Pharma are his leading companies. With ETB800 million in annual turnover, the group has doubled its investment capital to ETB1 billion over the last six years. Formed by four brothers, MIG succeeded mainly because the siblings specialized in different sectors.

The plastic factory has especially managed to substitute imports of plastic bottles and caps for water bottlers in Ethiopia. It has also substituted the import of PVCs and other plastic products used as construction and agricultural inputs. Wakene Food Complex, on the other hand, has the lion’s share in Ethiopia’s wheat and flour market.

Terje Skjerdal, is Associate Professor of Journalism and Media Studies at the Norwegian NLA University College, with decades of engagement with Ethiopian media with a focus on the conduction of research in collaboration with Addis Ababa University. In February 2021, Skjerdal published “Ethnification of the Ethiopian Media,” a research peace alongside Mulatu Alemayehu (PhD).

He argues that although it seems that ethnicity has become the new mainspring, it has always been an undercurrent in the Ethiopian media and journalism landscape. EBR had an audience with him to learn more about recent developments observed in the media sector.