Ethiopian Business ReviewAlthough travel and tourism competitiveness is underdeveloped in Sub-Saharan Africa, the performance of Eastern African countries has been the most improved among the sub regions of the continent, according to the Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report published by the World Economic Forum. Neighboring countries such as Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and Uganda were among Sub-Saharan countries that made it to the top ten list. Mozambique, which rose eight places to 122nd, was the most improved nation in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Gross written premium in the insurance industry showed a significant rise in the first half of the current fiscal year. The aggregate premium written by all private insurance firms reached five billion birr during this period. The lion’s share of the premium, accounting for 90Ppct of the total, is collected from general insurance lines of businesses such as Motor Insurance. The remaining comes from life insurance.
Ethiopia has experienced a steady stream of internal displacement over the years, but the number of people affected rose sharply in 2016 and the first half of 2017. This was due to natural disasters and conflict, according to a newly report released by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre entitled Africa Report on Internal Displacement.
Ever since Donald Trump became the President of the United States of America a year ago, the fate of countries that receive large amounts of aid money has been hanging in the balance. The US President’s campaign promise to cut back foreign aid has caused fear, which was exacerbated in the last days of 2017 when the president threatened to withhold aid to countries who voted in favor of the United Nations resolution rejecting the United Sates’ recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
Ethiopia is currently the second populous country in Africa. This can be an exceptional opportunity to strengthen its economy and fight poverty. However, this potential for growth, prosperity and development could be lost if the country is unable to support the job creation and business opportunities to absorb the growing youth population. In fact, improving infrastructure, especially access to electricity, is critical to expand business opportunities and job creation in Ethiopia.
Despite the collapse of global commodity price and political instability that have slowed growth in North Africa, most African countries are still moving forward. In fact, Africa was among the world’s fastest growing continent with more than 5Pct average annual rate of growth over the past decade. In 2016, Africa has also become the second most attractive investment destination in the world, standing next to North America, according to the World Bank.
In Birr is the amount of money collected from the public, out of the pledged 10.2 billion for the construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), as reported by the National Council for the Coordination of Public Participation. The collected money has covered 23pct of the expenses so far.
Since the legislation went into effect in 2000, exports under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) have increased by more than 500 pct, from USD8.15 billion in 2001 to USD53.8 billion in 2011. About 90 pct of these exports has been oil, which underscores Africa’s growing strategic importance to the United States.
The house of peoples representatives has approved a total budget of ETB 154.9 billion for the 2013/2014 fiscal year (2006 EFY). From which a substantial amount of it, ETB 64.3 billion, which is about 41.5 pct of the total budget is allocated to capital expenditures. Whereas the budget subsidy to regional states is the next biggest share amounting ETB 43.1 billion or 37.5 pct of the total budget. The additional 21 pct goes to the recurrent budget ETB 32.5 billion, and to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) ETB 15 billion.
Ethiopia’s federal budget over the last five years has shown an average increase of 20 pct. In 2009/10 and 20010/11 the budgets grew nearly 20 pct to ETB 64.5 and ETB 77.2 billion respectively.
At the first year of the GTP the federal budget has leaped to ETB 117.8 billion recording remarkable growth of almost 40 pct. In the previous year the budget has increased to 137.8 billion with 13.6 pct growth. Similarly the next year’s 2013/14 proposed budget has shown a 12.3 pct growth.
