Ethiopian Business Review – Page 34 – Ethiopian Business Review

In the midst of frosty relations between the United States and Russia, outgoing US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Russian Minister of Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov both visited Addis Ababa in the begining of March. Both ministers met with Ethiopia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Workeneh Gebeyehu, although there were no formal meetings between Lavrov and Tillerson. Relations between the United States and Russia have taken a notably frosty turn since the election of President Donald Trump last year and allegations of Russian meddling in the US election. Although the presidents of both countries denied any meddling, 13 Russians were indicted in mid-February for interfering in the US election.

For a long time, restaurants in Ethiopia have been offering a wide variety of stews to their customers. These days, the ‘less is more’ philosophy has taken root in cities like Addis Ababa, where some restaurants are specializing in shiro, while others offer a small handful of options to go with the traditional stew.

Established in 1998, EthioAgri-CEFT is a private company operating under MIDROC Ethiopia Investment Group and engaged in the production and processing of various agricultural crops. The company owns two of the three commercial tea plantations currently operating in Ethiopia: WushWush and Gumaro, in South Western part of the country. The company began exporting tea to the global market five years ago and introduced Ethiopia’s tea to international buyers. EBR sat down with Isayas Kebede, general manager, to learn more about the company’s efforts to penetrate the global tea market and the challenges it is facing.

Ethiopia has experienced a steady stream of internal displacement over the years, but the number of people affected rose sharply in 2016 and the first half of 2017. This was due to natural disasters and conflict, according to a newly report released by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre entitled Africa Report on Internal Displacement.

One of the critical problems in Addis Ababa is the lack of efficient public transport. This is despite the fact that government has been deploying various schemes, such as introduction of Higer, Bishoftu, and double-decker buses; and constructing Sub Sahara’s first light railway with billions in investment and subsidies every year.

These initiatives have been unable to sufficiently ease the transport crisis. While officials stress the government is doing its best to execute projects that expand mass transportation, experts argue that transport sustainability can only be guaranteed through proper planning that takes into account factors like urbanization and changes in land use. EBR offers this report.

Access to financial services contributes immensely to economic growth. This is why nations come up with the right mix of policies to expand financial services. Ethiopia, too, has been reforming its financial sector for the last two decades. However, the sector remains immature, even in comparison to other Sub-Saharan African countries.

To ameliorate the situation, the government has been intensifying its efforts to expand financial services. In 2014, the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) made it a requirement for financial institutions to increase their branches by 25Pct annually. This resulted in an unprecedented expansion of financial services. A year before that, the bank introduced a mobile and agent banking policy. As a result, close to 2 million clients are now using mobile banking, while 16,000 agents operate in the country.

Ever since Donald Trump became the President of the United States of America a year ago, the fate of countries that receive large amounts of aid money has been hanging in the balance. The US President’s campaign promise to cut back foreign aid has caused fear, which was exacerbated in the last days of 2017 when the president threatened to withhold aid to countries who voted in favor of the United Nations resolution rejecting the United Sates’ recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

Although cotton is one of the oldest cultivated agricultural commodities in Ethiopia, recent trends show that the demand from textile factories is only met partially from local sources. Out of the three million hectare of land suitable for cotton, less than 10Pct is currently cultivated.

In order to reverse the situation, Ethiopia introduced a new cotton development strategy in October 2017. The strategy, which delineates targets and activities to be carried out in the next 15 years, foresees the growth of cotton production to satisfy local demand and engage in export. One of the institutions responsible for the implementation of the strategy is the Textile Industry Development Institute (TIDI). Yared Mesfin, Deputy Director General of TIDI talks to EBR.

Africa Insurance Company is one of the oldest private insurers established in Ethiopia after the partial liberalization of the financial sector. Established in 1994 with ETB15 million paid up capital, the company has been engaged in all classes of insurance — general and life insurance.

As the industry is being challenged due to the growing cut throat price based competitions and rising clams, some insurance companies are witnessing a declining profit, Africa Insurance is one of them. EBR had a brief discussion with its managing director, Kiros Jiranie, to learn about the company and the overall development of insurance business in the country.

As population keeps increasing and fighting poverty becomes a top global agenda, the need to increase agricultural production has become a priority especially in developing countries like Ethiopia. For that, experts advise policy interventions that can help to increase productivity and production. Using improved technologies and increasing farm size have for long been advised to increase output. Ethiopia has been going in the same direction.

Yet, there is one thing that it was not well thought of to improve food security – managing post harvest loss. The intervention — which can be achieved without major cost — can help avoid much of the loss of output which reaches up to 50Pct in some products. Post harvest loss for major cereal crops, except Teff, is around 24Pct in Ethiopia; the loss for oilseeds is between 15Pct and 25Pct while vegetables and fruits incur the highest loss of about 50Pct. This occurs almost at every stage of the supply chain. EBR explores the issue.

Super Powers in Ethiopia

Rise of Shiro Betoch

We Could have seen at leas half of the Successes Kenya has [Achieved] if we got a timely response from the government

top 10 African Countries with the Highest Number of Internal Displaced People as of 31 December 2016

Public Transport in Addis From Crisis through Crisis, into Crisis

Mobile, Agent Banking Indispensable Tools to Expand Financial Inclusion

Top 10 Recipients of US Aid who Voted Against the US’s Decision to Recognize Jerusalem as the Capital of Israel

The preference of cotton growers in Ethiopia has slipped back to improved local seeds

It is Better to Establish a Commission that Administers the Insurance Industry

Managing post harvest loss another means to ensure food security