For any political power aspiring to rule Ethiopia, controlling Addis Ababa is the ultimate accomplishment. Not only does the capital house all essential government organs, but Addis Ababa is mini-Ethiopia. All languages, ethnic groups, and regional states are represented and living in Addis Ababa, making it unique from the ethnic and language-based federalism seen in all other cities bar Dire Dawa to a much lesser extent.
At a sensitive time when the economy is suffering from inflation, unemployment, debt distress, poverty, conflict, and COVID-19, the nation prepares for the sixth national election to decide who rules for the next five years to end the transitional government that has been in power since April 2018.
Nonetheless, the political space is largely occupied by parties fanning and prioritizing ethnic quests instead of addressing underlying economic constraints. Ideology-based analysis and principled models for Ethiopia’s vicious economic circle are brands scarcely seen in the political parties’ campaigns. Out of the 47 political parties cleared to participate, 18 are competing for federal Parliament seats. While very few of the national parties have manifestos, even fewer have well-defined politico-economic policies to relieve voters of the ongoing economic strife.
Mekonen F. Kassa is Senior Director for cloud cyber security engineering at Microsoft company where he has worked for about 22 years now. Living in Seattle, he earned his first degree in mechanical engineering and second degree in information systems management from Washington University. Prior, he worked as a consultant and taxi driver.
After witnessing the politically-led massacre of nine of his teenage friends in his birthplace of Gondar 37 years ago, he fled to Sudan traveling on foot for fifteen days. Escaping from the Amracuba refugee camp in Sudan, he worked as a daily laborer on commercial farms, as a servant, and on other jobs in Algadari and Khartoum. After four years in Sudan, he found Ethiopians who sponsored his move to Seattle 33 years ago. He recently flew back to his hometown to inaugurate the library he built for his old elementary school.
During the 5th national election held in 2015, the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) and its allies scored a landslide victory by winning all the seats in Parliament as well as in regional and city councils. A year after EPRDF achieved this clean sweep, however, a series of nonviolent protests sparked off in the nation, later turning deadly. Witnessing this in a country run by a government supposedly almost unanimously elected by voters just a year prior was surprising for Ethiopians and the international community alike.
The Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs has finalized the crafting of a regulation that introduces minimum wage in the labor market in Ethiopia, in a bid to reinforce low incomers. A board of 40 members will be established to set minimum wage in proportion to accommodate inflation.
Electronic tax payment system dubbed e-tax is launched, in a bid to enable businesses to pay tax online. The Ministry of Revenue has signed agreement with five banks that includes Birhan International Bank, Dashen, Commercial Bank of Ethiopia, United Bank, and Awash International Banks, today at Hyatt Regency Hotel. Other banks are expected to follow suit.
e-tax is developed by Derash, a platform formed under the Information Network Security Agency (INSA). The system is highly expected to reduce taxpayers’ strains and queues while paying tax physically, at the ministry’s branches.
The Ethiopian government announced Eritrean troops are leaving the Tigray region of Ethiopia, after participating in Ethiopia’s military operation against the outlawed Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).
Zamzam Bank SC has started operation naming its first branch Alif, located around Wollo Sefer, Bole district in Addis Ababa. Zamzam has become the first full fledged non-interest bank to operate in Ethiopia. The grand inauguration ceremony today was attended by Yinager Dessie, governor of central bank of Ethiopia, and Grand Mufti Haji Idris, among others.
The first telecom engineering training center dubbed Huawei-AAU ICT Practice Center is launched inside Addis Ababa Institute of Technology, in partnership between AAU and Huawei Ethiopia. The center targeted capacitating over 2,000 engineers and instructors over the coming three years span.
The Ethiopian Ministry of foreign Affairs called the decision ‘ill-advised measure to unnecessarily overshadow the elections’, in a statement released on May 24, 2021. US president Joe Biden’s administration restricted economic and security assistance to Ethiopia, followed by visa restrictions on Ethiopian and Eritrean officials in relation with the six months military
operation in Tigray region of Ethiopia.
Mersha Tiruneh
Ashenafi Endale
Ethiopian Business Review
Samira Suleiman