EBRIn a move marked by strategic foresight and geopolitical complexity, Ethiopia recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Somaliland, paving the way to realising Ethiopia’s aspiration to secure access to the Red Sea. This significant development requires a nuanced understanding of the current status of de facto states, the geopolitical centres of the world, and the intricate dynamics of the Horn of Africa.
On December 11, 2023, Ethiopia missed a USD33 million interest payment on its December 2024 dollar bond, marking the East African nation’s latest defaulter by emerging-market sovereigns and raising concerns about its once-promising economic future. This significant default, the first for Ethiopia after years of rapid economic growth, sent a shockwave through the international financial community and threatened to hinder the country’s future development prospects.
Seizing the Inflation Battle Opportunity
Ethiopia’s central bank recently implemented a policy to cap credit lending rates at 14Pct to combat inflation. While this move may appear challenging, it presents an opportunity for Ethiopian banks to strengthen their financial institutions, contribute to economic stability, and enhance long-term competitiveness. Key to this transformation is the adoption of robust credit risk management frameworks, a disciplined focus on enterprise risk management, adherence to international standards, and active cost management across the entire organization, argues Michael Okwusogu, Managing Partner and Head of Financial Services at Value X Partners
What Explains the Sky-High Prices?
In the grand scheme of life, they say your first job is like your first love – a rollercoaster ride filled with thrills, spills, and a hint of naivety. My journey into the world of real estate in Addis Ababa was no exception. Picture it: a fresh graduate architect stepping into the bustling world of property development when nobody knew what real estate even meant! It was like explaining the concept of sushi to a room full of cows.
Examining the Ramifications of Not Opening New Public Posts
When the Ethiopian government announced its intention of not opening new posts in the civil service in the current fiscal year, the news shocked students and graduates. For many years, employment in the public sector has guaranteed a stable life. In a changing scenario now, public sector employment is no longer a guarantee for a decent income and regular life. In recent years, the salary and benefits of public sector employees have been minimal. At the same time, the working environment compromises professional freedom as more public sector roles have increasingly become political. That’s because successive governments used the civil service to reward their loyal supporters by offering employment.
For this reason, the civil service is already crowdedly staffed, many of whom need to be more skilled. It’s one of the reasons why the current government found it difficult to institute an efficient and corruption-free civil service. Like its predecessor, it, too, wanted to reward some of its loyal supporters by granting them employment in the earlier days of its ascendancy. However, due to a solid fiscal discipline needed to curb inflation, the government announced its intention of not opening any new posts last July. EBR’s Nejat Mohammed explores the ramifications of this policy.
Following the BRICS’ recent announcement that it will add Saudi Arabia, Iran, Ethiopia, Egypt, Argentina, and the United Arab Emirates, India faces a big strategic choice. Why should it belong to a China-centric club that will no longer share or serve its own interests, writes Arvind Subramanian, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and Josh Felman Principal of JH Consulting.
With high debt levels and falling consumer and producer prices, China faces the prospect of a vicious cycle whereby lower demand leads to lower investment, lower output, lower income, and thus even lower demand. To avoid Japanification, policymakers must pursue aggressive aggregate demand stimulus, starting immediately.
The Chaka Project, a development project on over 503 hectares of land in Yeka Sub-City leaning on Yeka hill of the Addis Ababa City Administration, has become a pivotal national project. The project, spearheaded by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, is part of a grand ‘Smart City’ Development endeavour that would cost more than 500 billion birrs.
Addis Ababa, the dynamic capital city of Ethiopia, is grappling with an unprecedented housing crisis due to rapid population growth and urbanisation. The allure of Addis Ababa as Ethiopia’s political, economic, social and diplomatic hub has attracted a significant influx of people seeking better livelihoods, safe environment and job prospects. This surge in population, along with other factors, has led to a severe housing, transport and unemployment crisis in the city. It’s even transpiring unheard-of crimes in the broad day, while its impact on providing essential services has grown tremendously.
Globally, the insurance industry is a critical component of the financial services sector, providing risk management and protection to individuals and businesses, funding capital-intensive infrastructure projects and long-term shareholders of listed firms, to name but a few of the activities they are involved in. Long-term contracts and a wide range of products characterise the industry, including life, health, property, and liability insurance. It is highly regulated, with specific rules and requirements for insurers to operate and manage risk. Like all other industries, the global insurance industry is undergoing significant transformation, driven by digitisation, and this represents, for Ethiopia, a window of opportunity to radically re-design its insurance industry, further driving the changes experienced in the banking sector.
