Myriam Said, Digital Advisor to the prime minister, is the leading personality behind Ethiopia’s stride towards the digital economy. She coordinates initiatives implemented to advance digital technology throughout the economy, currently at an early stage of development. Myriam’s promotion to advisor to the prime minister in February 2020 came as a result of her dedicated work when serving for nine months as Director of the National Digital Transformation Program at the Ministry of Innovation and Technology. While working as a director, Myriam led a team of experts who developed Digital Ethiopia 2025, an inclusive strategy guiding Ethiopia’s journey from analogue practices where government, business, and social interactions took place in person, to a fully integrated inclusive digital economy and society where exchanges are made faster, cheaper, and more securely through digital technology.

Daniel Zemichael, a father of three, is Founder and CEO of Freighters International, one of the biggest private shipping companies in Ethiopia. Established 35 years ago with ETB100,000 in capital, and growing to its current ETB20 million; Freighters International is the exclusive agent for Maersk, a Danish shipping company active in ocean and inland freight transportation. EBR sat down with the logistics guru, to converse on the expected impacts of recent governmental moves to allow foreign companies to own a minority stake in local logistics companies amongst other topics.

One of the young leaders that bolted to the front after PM Abiy’s reformist administration took power in 2018, is Fitsum Assefa (PhD), Minister in Charge of the National Planning and Development Commission (NPDC). She successfully maneuvered in the struggling economy to replace the previous GTP II with the Homegrown Economic Reform program. For the last two years, she led 12 studies preparing the Ten-Year Perspective Plan (TYPP), involving domestic and foreign institutions like the Korea Development Institute. The overambitious TYPP document is almost ready for implementation now.
Prior to her current appointment, she occupied different administrative positions at Hawassa University including Dean of the College of Business and Economics and also chaired the committee charting the university’s five-year strategic plan.

Access to clean energy is key to the advancement of Ethiopia. As such, pursuing renewable energy development is essential to attain energy security and economic sustainability, while helping to mitigate climate change and its devastating impacts. Ethiopia is among few countries in the world with great potential for renewable energy generation. Aware of the country’s potential, the government launched a plan to speed up the development of different renewable energy sources, a decade ago.

Tulu Moye Geothermal Operations (TMGO) project is one of the initiatives launched to develop an optimum level of renewable energy mix in Ethiopia. The project, expected to generate 150MW at a cost of USD800 million, is situated in the main Ethiopian Rift Valley close to the eastern margins of the rift and northwest of Assela town. Established in December 2017, TMGO, was formed by a consortium of western investors—French firm Meridiam and the Icelandic Geothermal company Reykjavik Geothermal. TMGO signed a power purchase agreement and an implementation agreement with the government on December 19, 2017 and restated documentation in March 2020. This makes the company the first private-sector-led power project in Ethiopia.

Liyu Dender, is a Logistics and Supply Chain Manager at Nazret Garment, now owned by Bagir Group, an Israeli company specialized in developing, manufacturing, and marketing tailored garments. The company has the capacity to produce 4,000 trouser suits daily. In 2019, Nazret Garment shipped products worth USD5.4 million. However, branded international retailers have canceled their orders after the breakout of the coronavirus pandemic last year. EBR sat down with Liyu to learn how Nazret Garment is coping with this situation and its future prospects.

Mehrteab Leul Kokeb, a leading corporate financial services Lawyer in Ethiopia, has been practicing law for nearly three decades. After earning his law degree from Addis Ababa University in 1992, he worked as a judge in the high court and also as a litigator in the early 2000s. He then partnered with DLA Piper, a London based global law firm with offices in more than 40 countries, and joined the firm’s network by founding Mehrteab Leul & Associates (MLA) Law Office, a de facto law firm advising and representing corporate clients on business and investment issues in Ethiopia. Mehrteab has also studied financial services law at the University of London.

Following the demonetization of the Birr early Septemeber this year; and the strict regulation of the financial sector, a huge sum of money circulating outside the formal banking industry is fast declining as citizens rush to open new bank accounts and change old notes with new ones.

This has increased banks liquidity by six-fold. How are the banks going to deal with this increased liquidity? Will it lead to reduced lending interest? Will it improve access to finance to cash-starving companies in the agriculture and manufacturing sectors?

EBR had an audience with Muluneh Aboyeh, vice president of risk and compliance management at the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE) to discuss about the possible impacts of excess liquidity in CBE and the banking industry at large and how they are working to utilize it.

“I Want to be the Top Industrialist Woman in Africa.”

Amelework Gidey is Founder and Managing Director of Technostyle, a company known for over 20 years as a furniture importer and distributer. She is one of the leading female entrepreneurs in Ethiopia’s emerging manufacturing sector. With the acquisition of the foam and furniture manufacturing division of MNS, a Turkish based textile manufacturer and exporter, Technostyle has been expanding through backward integration of its core businesses since 2015. This has given the company a better competitive edge as it now controls a good proportion of the supply of raw materials.

Beyene Hailemeskel, is the former Director General of the Public Enterprises Holding and Administration Agency (PEHAA), which oversees 21 state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in Ethiopia. He joined the agency 20 years ago, gradually climbing the ladder to the top position. Beyene, who argues that state intervention remains a crucial driver of Ethiopia’s economy, stresses SOEs are undergoing deep reforms to the core. EBR paid audience to Beyene’s reflections on SOEs’ performance and futurity, weeks before he tendered his resignation at the end of October 2020.

Departing Chinese Ambassador to Ethiopia, Tan Jian

Shortly after arriving on December 4, 2017, Ambassador of the Peoples’ Republic of China to Ethiopia, Tan Jian became a dashing figure in Ethiopia’s development activities. Although his tenure matched a period of turbulence in Ethiopia, Tan Jian has had a successful diplomatic stay. His tenure overlapped with the political transition in Ethiopia and the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet, he succeeded in relentlessly pushing for the timely execution of projects, attracting more Chinese investment, and coordinating the fight against the pandemic. He is a popular media figure who reveals the Chinese side of stories, which he argues, are otherwise stereotyped by the West dominated media. EBR’s Ashenafi Endale sat down with him ahead of his end of tenure and departure at the end of September 2020.