Central banks’ efforts to contain high and rising inflation are fueling growth headwinds and threatening to tip the global economy into recession. But the proximate cause of today’s inflationary pressures is a large, broad-based, and persistent imbalance between supply and demand. Higher interest rates will dampen demand, but supply-side measures must also play a large role in inflation-taming strategies.

Over the past year or so, the rollback of pandemic-containment policies has spurred a simultaneous surge in demand and contraction in supply. While this was to be expected, supply has proved surprisingly inelastic. In labor markets, for example, shortages have become the norm, leading to canceled flights, disrupted supply chains, restaurant closures, and challenges to health-care delivery.

The Addis Ababa School of Commerce (widely known as Commerce), which is now under the administration of Addis Ababa University, is located in the area locally known as ‘Senga Tera’. It was established in 1943 as a commercial school in Ethiopia. The area is becoming the business center of the city and the headquarters of most banks, insurances, and the National Bank of Ethiopia.

The establishment of the school was a major contribution to the business sector of Ethiopia, as the country was recovering from the five-year Italian invasion and occupation. It was a school designed to modernize the business sector and meet the knowledge and skills requirement of foreign companies coming to Ethiopia at the time. The importance of the school was of great importance as the establishment of many government offices and businesses at that time also increased the demand for modern office workers, office management and secretarial staff, as well as knowledgeable and skilled workers.

The Key Line of Defense Against Mounting Cyber Threats in Ethiopia

Cybercrime has been on the rise in Ethiopia and elsewhere in the world causing substantial financial losses, business interruptions, and impairment to the reputation of endangered companies. Official reports from Information Network Security Agency (INSA) officials indicated that Ethiopia has recorded more than 2,800 cyber-attack attempts during the year 2021, cataloging an alarming increase in such attacks, which is more than double the 1,080 similar cyber-attack attempts recorded during the previous year. Observing the cyber risks affecting Ethiopia, the agency cautioned companies to reinforce their cyber security systems to safeguard against imminent challenges. We have also heard that cyber attacks have been increasing in the country principally in association with the second filling of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD).

Fast-growing companies and startups were once the preserve of Silicon Valley and Seattle. No longer. Today, the United States boasts several innovation hotspots, including Austin, Miami, New York City, and Washington, DC. In recent years, similar hubs have also emerged in Europe, including Amsterdam, Berlin, Helsinki, London, Paris, and Stockholm. But this phenomenon is no longer limited to the advanced economies of the West. In fact, startup culture has gone global.

COVID-19 has sharpened the focus on many challenges with which the world has long been grappling, including rising inequality, insufficient access to adequate health care and education, and climate change. Long before the pandemic, people had begun to ask hard questions about globalization and technological progress. Despite all the wealth creation and reductions in global poverty in recent decades, economic opportunity has remained elusive for many people, irrespective of their abilities. The resulting fracturing of society poses a grave threat to the long-term health of businesses, citizens, and economies.