Ethiopian Business ReviewThe number of people currently under detention by court order since the Federal Ethics and Anti Corruption Commission began arresting senior government officials and private sector tycoons on May 10, 2013. The number had been 61 until two detainees were released on bail in the last week of June. Among these detainees is Melaku Fanta, former director general of the Ethiopian Revenue and Customs Authority, whose office has been taken over by Beker Shalle, the former mayor of Adama town.
Africa’s economy remained strong to register a 5.0 pct growth in 2012. The region’s economic growth was reported to be promising as it came amidst slowing world economy. Africa’s economic growth has benefited from the improving political unrest in the northern region of the continent, elections were hold and normal business activities have begun to return in Egypt and Libya.
Number of people who will be living in extreme poverty in Sub Saharan Africa by 2015, which will be 42.3 percent of the region’s total population. The number was 289.7 million in 1990, 56.5 pct of the population of the time, according to a Global Monitoring Report 2013, jointly produced by the World Bank and the International Monitory Fund.
The number of Ethiopian tax payers who have given their finger prints to the Ethiopian Revenue and Customs Authority (ERCA) as of the first week of march 2013. ERCA has registered 127,574 finger prints through online and offline methods in the second quarter of the 2012/13 fiscal year. The biometric card production has also reached 1,447,021.
Graph 1:Ethiopia’s GDP Growth Rates in Comparison with that of Sub-Saharan Africa 2004 – 2011 Source: World Bank, World Development Indicators (2012); and IMF, World Economic Outlook (2011).
This figure shows the overall economic performance of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and Ethiopia. From a high base of close to 14pct real GDP growth in 2004, Ethiopia achieved a growth rate of nearly double the region. Ethiopia’s model of massive public sector investment is attributed for the consecutive double digit growth. The country’s economic indicators seems to replicate the 1960’s and 70’s situation of Asian tigers; at the start of their economic takeoff. This broad based growth is set to continue in the foreseeable future according to the World Bank.
The foreign direct investment (FDI) in Ethiopia, in 2011/12, was hugely dominated by two countries. Perhaps, contrary to what many people might think, Turkey and India took 58.75 per cent of the total FDI capital registered in the last fiscal year. If we see the data of only the top 10 total capital, the two countries’ contribution increases to more than 81 per cent. In terms of job opportunities, 62 Indian projects which created employment opportunities for 46,131 people (over 28 per cent of the total jobs FDI brought in the year) leads the group, while Turkish investors with 22 projects created 12,004 people is the second. Investment from neighbouring Sudan which created 11,645 jobs was the third.
