The continent’s pandemic-response funding gap is likely to amount to some USD100 billion annually over the next three years. The international community especially the G7, the G20, and multilateral development banks – must take bold, innovative, and expeditious action to close it.

The massive borrowing, both domestic and external, taken by state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and other agencies is causing financial stress on the government. What has made the matter very worse is that the sheer size of the debts is so gigantic that neither they can be settled by federal government budget nor are they within the financial capacity of the enterprises to repay the loans.

What to Expect From the Government

It is a universal truth that governments should protect the rights of citizens and one of such rights is the right to property. This right is not an ordinary right that can be infringed by anyone and it is more of a human right that needs protection from the government. This truth is also part of our constitution and the international human rights conventions Ethiopia adopted as part of its domestic law.

Thinking Exponentially

Ethiopia is the second most populous country in sub-Saharan Africa after Nigeria. Current population is about 112 million and is expected to surpass 137 million by the end of 2037. During the twentieth century, the growth of the Ethiopian population quickened tremendously. It had grown more than ten times since 1900, five times since 1950 and had doubled since the early 1990s. The rate of population growth increased from less than 2% in the 1950s to a peak of 3% in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Since then the population increased at a decreasing rate reaching a minimum of 2,3% during the 2015-2020 period. Each year, an estimated 2 million persons are added to the population.

For nearly three decades, global supply chains were the quiet engines of economic globalization. From 1990 to 2008, they drove the rapid expansion of trade, accounting for 60-70Pct of its growth. More than a decade later, however, they have stalled – and may in some areas be going into reverse.

The strength of a country’s health system will be tested when emergencies like the outbreak of a pandemic occur. To identify a country’s health care system strong, it has to fulfill at least four basic elements. First, it has to improve public health. Then when people get sick and go to health centers, they have to get proper services. The third element is that the health service provided to people should be affordable. That means with reasonable cost, everyone should get good medical services. The final element is that the system has to ensure the safety of health professionals.

The Fundamental, Missing Issues in the Debate

Industrialisation is the process of building up a country’s capacity to convert raw materials into new products. It involves a growing complexity of production systems, reliance on primary or secondary economic activities and an increase in output.

Before reflecting on what kind of economic model Ethiopia needs, it is imperative to analyze what Ethiopia’s economic potentials are. In order to achieve fast and sustainable growth, the model must prioritize three things. First, we must recognize that we are a low income economy or LDC. Second, we must recognize that we have huge untapped resources. There is huge underemployed and unemployed labor, land, and other resources. For instance, there is redundant labor in agriculture. The third is structural rigidity. There are many problems that hold us back from utilizing markets, infrastructure, resources and others. The model must remove the structural rigidities.

Haile Gebreselassie’s take on business after COVID-19

Covid-19 is the ultimate test to evaluate ourselves individually, our systems nationally and as a global society. Economically, I understand covid-19 from two perspectives; the damage and opportunities it might hold. The hotel and tourism industry in Ethiopia is the most affected since our entire tourist clients were from Italy, France, Holland, German, USA and Asia, countries seriously affected by the pandemic.

Coronavirus disrupted the lives of billions across the world. From the superpowers with a huge economic hegemony to countries with less economic interaction with the rest of the world have been hit hard by the deadly virus. Both developed and least developed countries are likely to witness their worst economic recession in more than a decade. Big corporations and SMEs are reporting losses and cutting millions of jobs, exacerbating poverty and unemployment.