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Month: May 2020

The Scourge of Substandard, Falsified Products Only Gets Worse with Pandemic

Posted on by Web Master

The United Nations has declared access to “safe, effective, quality, and affordable essential medicines” to be one of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of their 2030 Agenda. Still, substandard and falsified (SF) medical products represent a serious problem for public health, especially in Africa, Southeast Asia and Latin America.

Substandard medical products can be defined as “authorised medical products that fail to meet either their quality standards or specification, or both,” according to the World Health Organisation (WHO) and may result through poor manufacturing, shipping or storage conditions, or when the drug is sold beyond the expiration date. Falsified medicines, on the other hand, are medical products that deliberately misrepresent their identity, composition or source.

Risks posed by SF medical products can be broadly categorised as health and economic consequences. Health-related consequences of SF medicines include, but are not limited to, risks of morbidity and mortality (resulting from either treatment failure or adverse drug reactions), drug resistance and erosion of patients’ trust in the healthcare system, health care providers and genuine drug manufacturers. By the same token, its economic consequences include increased costs for patients and governments, reduced economic productivity and poverty.

The Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) is the third coronavirus infection in two decades that was originally described in Asia, after Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and the Middle East Respiratory syndrome (MERS). There are currently over five million confirmed cases and over 345,000 have died from the virus worldwide. In Ethiopia, the total number of confirmed cases is in the hundreds, while the number of those that have died from the virus, fortunately, stands in the single digits.

COVID-19 and substandard and falsified medicines share one thing in common: both are global public health threats. However, COVID-19 and SF products are different in many fundamental ways. Obviously, COVID-19 is a disease, but the latter is not. While COVID-19 is spreading across both developed and developing nations, the profound impact of SF medical products is more pronounced in low- and middle-income countries, including Ethiopia. It is estimated that 10pc of medical products in developing countries are SF, according to the WHO. Due to the current increased demand for medicines, vaccines and reagents following the pandemic, this prevalence will increase.

COVID-19 might increase the demand and consumption of SF medical products in three major ways.

The first way is due to the inability of a vulnerable segment of the population – pregnant women, individuals working in the informal sector, and patients with comorbidities – to access healthcare services.

As a way of curbing the transmission of the virus and preventing its devastating consequences, the Ethiopian government declared a five-month state of emergency (SOE). As part of the SOE, stay-at-home or work-from-home orders were issued. Businesses, schools and universities are closed. Transportation fares have doubled as compensation for the 50pc reduction of passenger loads.

With the stay-at-home orders and increased tariffs, millions of individuals might face unprecedented difficulties to access healthcare services. Essential medicines are one of them. It is during this time that these people get exposed to SF medical products.

The inevitable consequences of SF medical products are not only limited to people working in the informal sector. It also affects the other vulnerable segments of the population such as people living with HIV/AIDS, patients with comorbidities, communities living in malaria-endemic settings, pregnant women and people under treatment for tuberculosis.

It is inevitable that the pandemic would take attention away from routine health care services. Pregnant women, for example, are expected to visit health facilities as frequently as possible. With the pandemic taking the air out of the attention from other health services, women and their babies’ health will definitely be at high risk. This will open the door for ill-intended SF dealers to easily distribute their products. The risk posed to the remaining vulnerable segment of the population is no different.

The other way for people to get exposed to SF medical products is due to fear of being quarantined, isolated and traced. Quarantine of suspected cases and isolation of COVID-19 patients and contact tracing are the strategies being implemented to contain the spread of the virus. The acceptability of these measures by the community has not been encouraging though. Fear of being quarantined and isolated might force people to use whatever is available in the market as a substitute for visiting healthcare facilities. In this regard, the chances of accessing SF medical products is very high.

Yet another way is related to import permits for medical products. Since the first case was reported in Ethiopia back in March 2020, an overwhelming number of applications from medicine and medical supplies importers are being filed.

The government has given priority and incentives to importers that have submitted applications to import COVID-19 related medical supplies such as face masks, hand sanitiser and gloves. This is a good and timely decision in terms of filling the PPE shortage we are facing.

In a country like Ethiopia, where there is an already existing shortage of essential medicines, the tight window through which these products are allowed to come in is tantamount to adding fuel to the fire. It complicates the problem and will be a good recipe for dealers of SF medical products to easily penetrate the market.

The threat from SF medical products will continue even after the COVID-19 era unless strict steps are taken by the government. Genuine importers, healthcare providers and end-users should be vigilant in the war against SF medical product dealers.

One way of overcoming such threats, especially for consumers, is by following certain general guidelines that can go a long way in combatting the flood of SF medicines.

People need to look at the packaging and search for spelling mistakes and grammatical errors. Checking who the manufacturer is and whether or not the expiry date matches the inner package would also go a long way. Discussing the products with healthcare providers by any available means is critical, as is reporting suspicious medicines to the authorities.

Although the measures that are being taken to halt the transmission of COVID-19 are timely and appropriate, it is also highly important to consider the underemployed and the vulnerable segments of society. They need to be protected both from the pandemic and the consequences of these control measures, consumption of SF medical products in this case. Concerned regulatory bodies should intervene aggressively to ensure the safety, quality and effectiveness of medical products before we face a parallel pandemic of substandard or falsified alternatives.

 

‘Not Too Expansionary’

Posted on by Web Master

The Ministry of Finance has drafted a bill that proposes 470 billion Br for next year’s federal budget, a figure highly influenced by fears of the repercussions the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) could cause to the economy. The proposed budget is 83 billion Br higher than the current fiscal year’s value.

In terms of foreign currency, the budget stands at 13.7 billion dollars, a slight increase from the current fiscal year’s 13.4 billion dollars and a considerable increase from the 12.6 billion dollars that was ear marked two years ago.

The bill that is expected to be tabled to the Council of Ministers this week aims to cover a little over half of the budget from domestic tax revenues. Out of the total, 100 billion Br will also be raised through external loans. The remaining balance of expenditures is expected to be covered by other non-tax sources, including foreign grants and domestic investments.

The Ministry’s proposed budget is 21.5pc higher than that of the current fiscal year and 35.5pc higher than the amount that was allocated two years ago. However, the growth rate also remained modest, considering the 52.3pc growth rate that was recorded 13 years ago, when the federal budget jumped to 45.7 billion Br.

Out of the total budget, 180 billion Br of it is allotted as subsidy appropriations to the regional states, higher by 40 billion Br from the current fiscal year’s budget.

Next year is going to be a difficult one, according to Eyob Tekalign (PhD), state minister for Finance, pointing that the pandemic has already battered the economy.

“We needed to be more flexible,” Eyob told Fortune.

To offset the challenges the economy is facing due to the pandemic, the parliament has approved 48.6 billion Br as the second supplementary budget of the year. The latest approval made the total extra budget of this year 76.5 billion Br. The supplemental budget will be directed to food support for 30 million people who are part of vulnerable groups and to procure additional medical equipment and medicine to combat the pandemic.

Two months back, the government approved a 27.9-billion-Br supplementary budget for the implementation of the Homegrown Economic Reform Agenda that was launched by the administration. The two additional budgets are on top of the 386.9 billion Br federal budget that was approved last July.

For the current fiscal year, the government intends to raise 253 billion Br from domestic revenue, of which 225 billion Br was expected to be generated from tax revenues. However, the pandemic, which was first reported in mid-March in the country, hit the economy hard and paralyzed almost all economic sectors and industries.

With decreased government income from tax and non-tax sources and increased government expenses, 11 billion Br is expected to be lost by the end of this fiscal year, according to Ahmed Shide, minister of Finance.

Since February there has been a significant drop in the collection of taxes. The tax revenues generated in February as compared to the same month in the last fiscal year shows a decline of 14.8pc. The government is expecting the growth rate of the country’s GDP to fall by two to three percentage points from what was expected.

To address the adverse effects of the pandemic on fiscal policy, the country needed 64 billion Br. Out of that sum, 15 billion Br was raised by restructuring the budget of this year from different government offices.

To fill the remaining balance, the government intends to borrow 10 billion Br from the central bank, raise another 10 billion Br by selling treasury bills and bring in 28.6 billion Br from various grants and loan.

Alemayehu Geda (PhD), a macroeconomist and a lecturer at Addis Abeba University, projects that the deficit will be more than double what is mentioned by the authorities.

The impact of the pandemic will increase the current expenditure of the government by 30pc and shrink its total revenue, including grants by 16pc, according to Alemayehu.

“With this figure, the expected deficit just to maintain the country’s fiscal posture will jump to 145 billion Br,” said Alemayehu. “Financing this will be a headache for the government.”

Alemayehu said that the government needs an additional 228 billion Br in the coming months to cover the deficit of this fiscal year along with the 83 billion Br in additional expenditures the government planned for the next fiscal year.

“This will lead the government to print cash that will automatically increase the broad money supply by 10 percentage points,” he said. “This in the end will cause 24pc inflation.”

The country is already grappling with a higher rate of inflationary pressure since the beginning of this year. April’s inflation rate stood at an annualised rate of 22.9pc, the highest figure in the last seven years. Food inflation stood at 25.9pc, while non-food inflation hit 19.2pc.

The coming fiscal year’s budget is very expansionary, and it did not consider the inflation rate, according to Alemayehu.

Eyob, the state minister, also admits that the coming fiscal year budget is expansionary, considering the previous years’ experience.

“But it isn’t too expansionary,” Eyob told Fortune.

The nation’s total outstanding debt increase also reached 29 billion dollars as of this February. Of that amount, 16.7 billion dollars is external debt. In the first half of the current fiscal year, Ethiopia secured 1.7 billion dollars in the form of loans and grants.

Despite the debt stress, the double-digit inflationary pressure and the negative impact of the pandemic, the government seems ambitious in hoping to control the budget deficit.

“We’ll carefully watch to make sure the budget deficit does not exceed three percent,” Eyob told Fortune.

To mitigate the challenges, Alemayehu recommended the government cut its expenditures as much as possible, try to finance the deficit from external loans and avoid domestic borrowing altogether.

“Part of the loans secured from external sources should be used to import food items, basic commodities and medicine to avoid import inflation and depreciation of the Birr,” Alemayehu recommended.

Alemayehu also suggested that the government avoid depreciation since it will increase government expenditures and employee elective credit policies, and instead use a strategic shift in some sectors and allow major economic sectors to function.

Making Up for Lost Time, Learning in the Midst of COVID-19

Posted on by Web Master

Many students across the country have had to reacquaint themselves with what school means during the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. For some students in the nation’s capital, classes have continued uninterrupted in the comfort of their own homes on online platforms like Google Class and Zoom.

For others, it has meant taking worksheets from their schools and working on them at home, with the responsibility of teaching placed on parents now more than ever. For those living in remote areas such as Dawro Zone in the Southern Regional State, it has meant a complete standstill. Students have been disbanded until further notice.

The school compound of Woldehane Secondary & Preparatory School, in Gena Wereda, Dawro, lies testament to that. It has been eerily vacant for months now.

Students there have little to no access to radio and television, and they will remain at home until they are called back again, according to Amde Behailu, a teacher in Woldehane Secondary & Preparatory School.

“School has stopped since the official announcement was made in March,” said Amde. “Most families here have no televisions or radios, and, this goes without saying, but the students don’t have mobile phones either.”

The school, with over 1,000 students, has continued to pay its teachers but has no means of continuing classes and has had its doors shut for over two months now.

The decision to close schools was handed down on March 16, 2020, as a way to contain the spread of COVID-19 in the country. Initially levied for two weeks, it has been extended indefinitely, revealing big disparities in the learning process for students throughout the country.

The government has also extended all final year examinations throughout all grades; a decision that will impact 26 million students in the country. This includes national qualification examinations for grade eight and grade 12 matriculation examinations.

Though there is an understanding that it will be difficult to reach students in remote areas where even electricity might not be accessible, the Ministry is working on facilitating and continuing the learning process through television and online platforms like Telegram, according to Haregua Mamo, communications director at the Ministry of Education.

“We’re providing the materials so that students can continue the learning process while at the same time ensuring that they’ll be engaged in their homes since their physical interaction must be limited,” she said.

The examinations, postponed indefinitely, will be conducted once it is possible to work and regularly interact, according to the communications director.

“We don’t expect the education process to be the same for all students so we will not be jumping straight to exams,” she said, “but rather providing a short period of school to make sure students have been brought up to date before they sit for their exams.”

Ensuring that students will be given revisions is equitable as students come from varying backgrounds, according to Tirussew Teferra (PhD), Ethiopian Education and Training Roadmap Project Leader.

“This is a decision that needs to vigorously involve teachers since they know their students best and what the progress was like while the schools were closed,” he said.

The decision to postpone exams and thereby pass students into the next grade or stage holds true for university undergraduate and Technical & Vocational Education & Training (TVET) students as well. Both public and private learning institutions cannot graduate or progress their students to the next grade as per the Ministry of Science & Higher Education.

The plan here is for a short-term crash course to be completed upon the students’ return to schools followed by the examinations that will allow them to pass on to their next year or graduate, according to Andualem Admassie (PhD), director-general at the Higher Education Relevance & Quality Agency, the regulatory body.

“One justification for this decision is that students at this level aren’t expected to have the resources to continue an online education successfully,” said Andualem. “This is especially true in rural areas where even connectivity is very poor.”

The crash course, when universities reopen, will be delivered free of charge. At the same time, the current methods of teaching students through different online platforms are provided at a minimum discounted rate of 25pc. This is a decision that has come from the Agency and is applicable to all public and private institutions.

Postgraduate and doctoral students, however, are expected to proceed in line with the schedule countrywide, and virtual graduation preparations are underway for July 10 for Addis Abeba University students.

“We expect students at postgraduate levels and above to be able to work on their own,” Andualem said. “It’s a continuation of their undergraduate degrees. They are older, most of them are working, and they also have the resources to work online.”

An online resource centre has been set up to make resources remotely available to students. The National Academic Digital Library was recently made functional to provide course modules and over 70,000 reference materials.

The Digital Library is fully functional with over 4,000 users a day, according to Zelalem Assefa, director-general of the Ethiopian Education & Research Network.

Another platform brought to life out of the necessity created by COVID-19 is the Electronic Learning Management System; an online platform designed for 50 universities in the country. Teachers can hold online classes for up to 250 participants and upload assignments, worksheets and other related materials for their students. The platform also has a corresponding application that students can use for data collection.

“We held over six rounds of online training for teachers on how to navigate the platform with over 500 participants at a time,” said Zelalem. “We have weekly meetings with all the university academic vice-presidents as a way to share experiences and figure out the challenges.”

Though students at graduate levels and above may be able to self-navigate and gain access to resources that are better, the problem for some students lies in the lack of progress they have been able to make so far.

A government-sponsored student in the master’s programme in the College of Development Studies at Addis Abeba University said that the funds for their research work were released no more than 10 days ago. Additionally, data collection has been extremely difficult.

“People aren’t willing to meet with you and talk because they are scared, especially if they know you’re coming from Addis Abeba,” she said. “We also can’t conduct focus group discussions, because it’s not advisable to meet in groups.”

Due to these reasons, she and her classmates are now working on data collection a mere two months before the day of virtual graduation for Addis Abeba University.

For Tsion Molla, 23, whose thesis is on the assessment of the importance of sex education in the secondary school curriculum, it is next to impossible to graduate within this time frame. With schools closed, her progress came to a stop months ago.

“According to the schedule, we may need to pay for another full year because students like me won’t be able to finish on time,” she said. “I may even have to change my thesis focus fully.”

Over 1,500 students are expected to graduate at Wollo University under its 95 graduate and post-graduate study programmes. The graduation is available for those that will somehow manage to complete their thesis on time, but the university is not oblivious to the challenges its students are facing.

This will be difficult for those that have to do data collection in certain periods, especially in the fields of natural science. Questionnaires are difficult to hand out in such times where people are trying to minimise any contacts with others, according to Abate Getahun (PhD), president of the University.

“We realise some students won’t be able to graduate within this time,” he said.

The reopening of schools may be a question on most students’ and parents’ minds. The work required before reopening schools, however, is something that will preferably have a national task force assigned to assess what measures will have to be put in place before resuming school, according to Tirussew, the education expert.

“The task force should engage teachers, health and psychological experts,” he said. “In the meantime, we need to make sure that there is a loophole within which students are being evaluated upon what they can do and achieve given the disparity in resource availability.”

The country needs to take a close look at what the new normal will look like, in terms of teaching, learning and socialising, advised the expert.

Bereft of Popular Mandate, Hard to Keep the State Viable

Posted on by Web Master

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (PhD) has come a long way since his spectacular arrival at the top of Ethiopia’s political scene. In 2018, few would have predicted a state of political uncertainty would, in combination with economic, social and natural disasters all coming together, evolve to unravel almost every facet of life. The Prime Minister is as much to blame as the slew of unprecedented challenges that were visited upon the country.

Two years ago, standing before parliament, Prime Minister Abiy acted and sounded like a leader ready to offer the country a break in an inclusive future.

Alas! He would later on charge the very parliament that installed him as Prime Minister of having questionable legitimacy. The swearing-in speech was perhaps his most significant performance, carefully delivered to herald the coming of a more refined and prosperous future while also walking a fine line to convey that the foundation for this would be the preservation of the status quo.

Running a state that has no functioning democratic, if not credible, institutions, or the social infrastructure to accommodate rapid changes with several orders of magnitude, is more complicated than is advertised by many in the opposition. Attempting to do this without a clear mandate might have been a tall order. It was no different for Prime Minister Abiy, and each year has brought fresh challenges that are compounding to pose an existential threat to the Ethiopian state.

There are many such threats from every corner. They are daunting tasks in themselves, which should worry the Prime Minister and members of his administration most. But it is clear which one is the most unprecedented of these challenges: the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

With the spread increasing only recently, it has sounded the alarm that Ethiopia is not out of the woods just yet. Confirmed cases have crept up into the hundreds, and a growing proportion of these are cases of community spread. Overturning assumptions that the virus might not be as infectious and fatal, it has shown that COVID-19 can stress the health system, take lives, afflict productive human power and weigh heavily on the mental well-being of citizens and the collective psyche of society.

COVID-19 is a unique sort of virus, for which there is no treatment, vaccine or comprehensive understanding of its epistemology. Thus, its impact extends beyond public health infrastructure. For low-income countries such as Ethiopia, it is first an economic challenge. Through an attempt to contain the virus via the only way the health establishment knows now, by restricting the physical movement of people, economic activity has fallen, taking productivity down with it.

Combined with disruptions in global supply chains and logistics and depressed investor confidence caused by local political uncertainty, Ethiopia is set to lose millions of jobs and grow at one of its slowest rates in two decades. Even if the economic activities were to pick up rapidly in the pattern of the much anticipated “V-shaped” recovery model, the headache from the already lost productivity would still produce lingering socio-political problems for the next few years.

The threat to health and economic well-being posed by COVID-19 would have tested the courage, determination and patience of any government, let alone one that lacks the fiscal space, the infrastructure, and the political mandate to address challenges of this type.

But Prime Minister Abiy’s headaches do not end there. He also has to lose sleep over a threatening locust outbreak. The United Nations warns of a severe food crisis, expected of the worst type of locust invasion to hit the country in a quarter century. Combined with the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been few times in the country’s history where public welfare has been as endangered.

Just as big a worry is the escalating dispute with Egypt over the use of the Nile River. With Ethiopia planning to start filling the waters for the Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) next July, the disagreement has taken on increasingly worrying turns. Few would agree that there is a real chance of military conflicts between the two countries; but, the rhetoric of war and display of military powers do not give confidence for a negotiated settlement.

Such challenges in a country that has only recently been airing its laundry in the open, and when historical grievances are reasserting themselves with a vengeance, it will not be easily surmountable. Where the state is concerned, this may be what breaks the camel’s back.

It is tempting to sympathise with the administration of Abiy Ahmed. Even the most cynical of the Prime Minister’s detractors would find it hard to argue the administration is having a jolly time governing a country under such testing circumstances.

What concerns the country should be as much a threat to the administration’s interest. In the same token, its success in containing the spread of COVID-19 and the locust infestations; addressing the nation’s economic malaise; negotiating a favourable deal with Egypt; and realising stability through political bargain ought to be just as much in the interest of the country as they are in Prime Minister Abiy’s administration.

None of this can be achieved without the party in government being able to achieve a popular mandate. It needs to win the trust of the public if it wants to mobilise the economic resources it requires and limit the political rights it has to in its effort to address such challenges.

At the outset of his premiership, Abiy was able to buy a level of public goodwill, even if in large part this was due to his appeal to break away from the past in the exercise of power and style of leadership. This was lost as the administration shed the principles it had promised to stand by. Over two years, it has become opaque and less willing to account for its shortcomings. Most importantly, it failed to realise a negotiated settlement with those in the opposition.

There has never been a grand bargain, as the promise of a more inclusive future has all been sacrificed at the altar of populist sentiments. Now a state is being remade in the image of Prime Minister Abiy. With national elections put on hold indefinitely, the administration will soon find itself not just without the political currency it requires to be able to address the complicated problems the country faces but with questionable governing legitimacy.

The wisdom of Thomas Hobbes is due here. A pioneer of the social contract ideal as a political foundation in the organisation of societies, it is Hobbesian to contend any rational person would support and be loyal to a state to which they belong. But Hobbes also held that citizens` responsibility to submit to the wishes of the state is contingent on the state’s upholding its side of the bargain: the social contract.

Prime Minister Abiy’s administration should see that it has not done a great deal of favour to itself for not upholding its side of the bargain. The task that requires his most considerable attention should be to buy public goodwill. With national elections effectively off of the table after the National Electoral Board said it would take longer than a year to prepare, the only other alternative is a negotiated settlement.

During his inauguration – and in the two years since – the Prime Minister promised to break from the past and fashion an inclusive vision and path forward for the country. He needs to go back to the drawing board and take a page out of the book of a slightly younger and idealistic version of himself. There are no shortcuts or alternatives to what the administration has been trying to escape. It needs to sit down with the political opposition and other social forces to negotiate, compromise and come to a grand bargain.

Upon failure, it will be folly of it to think it can save the state, nor itself.

Oil Companies Racked with Pain from Container Pilferage

Posted on by Web Master

Libya Oil Ethiopia Ltd, one of the largest oil companies in the country, has witnessed the theft of lubricants worth 800,000 Br from containers for the third time in less than a year.

The company, which operates 167 stations in the country, has been the victim of tampering on several shipments of lubricants that were unloaded from Djibouti. After the first robbery, Libya Oil reported it to the Ethiopian Oil Companies Association at the end of October of last year.

This was not the only example of this kind of heist. Total Ethiopia and National Oil Company (NOC) also reported that lubricants were missing from containers at the end of October, the same period as Oil Libya.

After receiving the complaints, the Association wrote a letter to the Ethiopian Shipping & Logistics Services Enterprise, according to Tadesse Girma, secretary-general of the Association, which was formed in August 2017 and has seven members. NOC, Libya Oil, Total Ethiopia, Yetebaberut Beherawi Petroleum (YBP), TAF Oil Plc, Kobil Ethiopia Ltd, and Gomeju Oil are the Enterprise’s members.

“We asked the Enterprise to compensate the companies for the amount of damage incurred and also demanded that the shipments be transported by railway instead of by road,” he said.

While the follow-up to the first incident was ongoing, the second theft was inflicted on Oil Libya, and the Association again sent a reminder letter to the Enterprise. Libya Oil also appealed to the state shipping giant independently.

“In the first and second theft, it was hard to figure out where the theft occurred – whether it was the route from Djibouti to Modjo Dry Port or from the port to our cars,” said an official from Oil Libya. “By the third time, we figured out where it might have occurred.”

Frustrated by the series of robberies, the company requested the inspection of the container at Modjo Dry Port in the presence of officials from the Customs Commission, the Enterprise and Modjo Dry Port.

“We witnessed missing lubricants,” said the official from Oil Libya. “No one was willing to record what we witnessed on the scene.”

“There was no satisfactory answer to our letters,” said Tadesse, who added that the Association went on to send a letter to the CEO of the Enterprise.

“In accordance with our agreement, as a transporter, we have no idea as to the content or number of items in the container,” said Roba Megerssa, CEO of the Enterprise, which carries 17,000 containers a month. “Our responsibility lies in keeping the seal of the container intact to the delivery point. Unless the seal is damaged, we have no legal responsibility since we don’t even know what the contents are.”

“We receive so many complaints,” said Roba. “However, an investigation by the police comes first before any allegations.”

Since the situation is getting worse as time passes, the Association is proposing using the railway for future shipments, according to Tadesse.

Modjo Dry Port, which is located approximately 70Km from the capital, has a railway system with a capacity to move 3,500tn of cargo on a single trip. The largest port in the country, Modjo Dry Port manages over 70pc of the country’s imports and has the capacity to hold 14,500 containers at a time. The train can make two trips a day to Djibouti, while truck transport takes more than four days for a two-way trip.

“Before any other option, the complaints need to be checked into with an investigation,” said Roba.

It really all comes down to the shipping terms of the parties, according to Tesfaye Belay, a lecturer at Addis Abeba University specialising in procurement, logistics and supply chain management.

“Whenever shipping companies receive sealed containers and deliver them sealed, they are unlikely to be liable for any damages,” he said. “The transporters don’t have the chance to know what the containers carry.”

Thus, Tesfaye recommends that the case needs further investigation to detect what exactly happened.

Hawassa Industrial Park Gears up to Export Masks, Bio Suits

Posted on by Web Master

Companies in the Hawassa Industrial Park have started the process for the export of personal protective equipment (PPE) after getting a green light from the Ministry of Health.

The plan to re-purpose the firms has been in progress since the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic caused setbacks for manufacturing and exporting. Doing so will keep the Park operational and allow it to retain its 35,000 employees. A majority of the 22 companies in the Park are prepared to start production by early June.

The companies will be producing reusable face masks, bio suits and surgical N95 masks with the capacity to make between half a million and three million PPE items a month.

The Ministry of Health, which initially prohibited the export of medical equipment in the interest of giving priority to health centres in the country, lifted the ban at the end of last month. In its letter to the Ministry of Revenues, the Health Ministry lifted the ban after taking into consideration the increase in the number of manufacturers in the country.

The companies in the Park are currently at various stages of production, according to Belay Hailemichael, the Park’s manager.

Even though the Ministry gave the green light for the export of the products, the companies were not able to proceed with shipping since there were no standards for the certification of the products.

In the middle of May, the Ethiopian Food & Drug Authority issued its newest directive on standards for the certification, production and sale of cloth face masks and made a trip to assess the companies last week. The directive also aims to decrease the public’s use of medical face masks designated for health professionals in an effort to make the gear more available for the health sector.

The criteria for the certification of the face masks will be based on their filtration efficiency, breathability resistance and hydrophobic nature. The masks must also be free from medicine and biological materials on areas where they make contact with the wearer’s skin.

The certification process for producers of face masks includes having a designated room for the production of the face masks, aerosol and moisture-free production and storage rooms. Regularly disinfecting the rooms and making sure they are free of pests is also required. The manufacturer must also hire a textile engineer, a chemical engineer or a professional who works in textiles.

Companies that are approved will receive a temporary production license that will remain active for the duration of the state of emergency, after which the licenses will be returned.

So far, 12 companies from the industrial parks have applied for the certification, and two of them have fulfilled the requirements and secured the licenses, according to Getachew Genete, medicine facility inspection director at the Authority.

“Those companies are large-scale manufacturers with a capacity to produce 1.5 to two million masks a month,” he added.

Among the companies set to start production of PPE are Indochie Hala and Isabella. Isabella, which previously produced socks, has 600 employees and can produce 600,000 masks a month, according to Sunil Suraweera, human resource administration and compliance manager. Hala Indochie, a textile company with 1,600 employees, previously manufactured underwear.

Ethiopian Airlines is facilitating the process of importing raw materials that go into PPE production. The airline has cut down on the cost of importing cargo to companies in this industry by 50pc.

“Ethiopian is ensuring that delays are removed and that this is given priority,” said Belay.

This is not only for PPE raw materials but for all import items by the industries in the park, according to Hibret Lemma, board member of the Hawassa Industrial Park Investment Association.

Railroad costs from Modjo to Djibouti, one of the Park’s biggest expenses, have been waived as of May 1, 2020, in a series of decisions passed by the Ministry of Transport. The Ministry also announced that all products from the Hawassa Industrial Park designated for the Modjo Dry Port would be given a 50pc discount for transportation fees.

“This cuts down costs for the companies significantly,” said Hibret. “There are additional measures as well that are being weighed at the moment.”

Deferring shed rent for three months and availing cash to the companies are among them, according to Hibret.

The adaptability of the industry is a testament to the fact that it is easy to quickly transform, along with ever-changing technology and social and environmental compliance requirements, with the right support, according to Tsegaye Gebrekidan, (PhD) an economist at the Policy Studies Institute.

“If the industry maintains its competitiveness, it can potentially be a hub for PPE, as COVID-19 has shown us that there is a gap in supplies for medical equipment,” he said. “This can also encourage specialisation in the industry.”

Enterprises Break Ground on Mixed-Use Building Project

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Two regional enterprises have started the construction of a nine-storey, mixed-use building in Lideta District for an estimated 163 million Br.

The Oromia Forest & Wildlife Enterprise will cover 52pc of the building cost, while the Oromia Seeds Enterprise will contribute the remaining. The building, which will rest on a 1,115Sqm plot of land, is scheduled to be completed within three years.

It will have three basements along with offices, a meeting hall, underground parking, toilets, an elevator, laboratory and a sample room for the Seeds Enterprise, among other features. The building will rest on land owned by the Oromia Forest & Wildlife Enterprise, a governmental organisation tasked with ensuring the efficient use of forest and wildlife resources in the Regional State.

The Oromia Construction Works Enterprise, which has 400 employees and is currently constructing the Oromia Police Commission headquarters, has been hired for the construction of the building. Oromia Water Works Design & Supervision Enterprise, a firm established in 2006, designed the building and will also supervise its construction.

The two enterprises agreed to construct the building in 2017, and seven board members representing both sides were brought together to manage the construction of the building, which is located in front of Ledeta’s Court on Rahel St.

The construction of the building was delayed two years due to issues in getting construction and construction commencement permits from the city’s construction bureau, according to Gutema Wako, road and building supervision sub-process manager at the Oromia Water Works Design & Supervision Enterprise.

“And the revised city plan that took 15m from the building area for road construction also caused delays for the project,” said Gutema.

Due to this, the original design is under revision, according to Lemma Gelan, a construction expert at the Oromia Seeds Enterprise.

After the design revision, the building area shrunk by 145Sqm to 1,255Sqm of land. The construction project will create job opportunities for about 100 people.

Upon completion, the Oromia Seeds Enterprise, which currently resides in a rented office near Agona, Sierra Leone St., will move into the new building.

“As we’re in a rented office and as a government budgetary organisation,” said Lemma, “we need to have our own headquarters.”

The new building will be used for various purposes including business, according to Girma Delessa, deputy director-general at the Oromia Forest & Wildlife Enterprise, which plans to rent spaces in the building to businesses and banks.

Mesele Haile (PhD), civil engineer and assistant professor at Addis Abeba University, believes that jointly constructing a building has positive merits for both sides in terms of sharing costs and resources.

But he wonders why the process to get a construction permit and a construction commencement permit took two years.

“All services provided by the government should be improved,” he recommended.

Mekoya Alemayehu, a contract administration senior expert at the Addis Abeba Construction Bureau, argues that the delay could have occurred since the enterprises designed the building without checking the city’s master plan.

Ethiopia Maps Out Digital Payment Strategy

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The board of the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) is set to approve the National Payment Strategy, a three-year game plan that lays out infrastructure to enable users to make financial transactions using the accounts and payment instruments issued by financial institutions.

The strategy, which has been in the making for the last four months, is part of the ongoing reform of the financial sector and the development of the country’s digital payment system. The document outlines four pillars: infrastructure, adoption, regulation and innovation. These pillars are crafted to be implemented in three years as the way forward for tapping into digital retail payment solutions.

With just 45.4pc telecom penetration, Ethio telecom, the state telecom operator, is at the top of the strategy’s to-do list.

“We’re counting on the privatisation and also the unwavering effort of Ethio telecom to cement 100pc penetration in the country and provide cheaper service,” said a source close to the case.

Ethio telecom, which is counting down the months to privatisation, reached 45.6 million telecom service users as of the first half of this fiscal year. From its total customer base, one million of them use fixed telephone lines, while 22.7 million and 44 million use data and mobile calling services, respectively.

The infrastructure for interoperability, a system that enables financial and non-financial institutions to work with or use the parts or equipment of another system, has only been fully realised with ATMs. Point of Sale (PoS) interoperability and mobile account-to-account transfer have yet to be adopted.

Eth-Switch S.C., an entity owned by a consortium of all banks including the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) that was established in the capital seven years ago, is currently working on PoS and mobile account-to-account interoperability.

Eth-Switch has finished the pilot of PoS interoperability, which was rolled out in Shoa Supermarket, Fresh Corner, Yod Abyssina and Unity Park, according to Yilbes Addis, CEO of Eth-Switch S.C.

“We’ve submitted documentation to the central bank to get its blessing to roll out nationwide,” he said, “whereas for the mobile channel of interoperability, we’re preparing documents to submit to the NBE to commence piloting.”

Meanwhile, the central bank is wrapping up its part of passing the bill for the Payment System Operators directive that outlines the legal framework for the interoperability of systems.

From the total services provided by government offices, 175 of them are in the pipeline to be under e-gov. So far, 70 services have been adopted by 10 public offices excluding digital payment transaction options in their systems.

The strategy aims to adopt the value of digital transactions not only for e-gov but also for tourism payments and cross-border remittances. In the last few months, laws relevant to e-transactions and payment instrument issuers were legislated as the first steps toward governing digital transactions.

“So far, many tech entrepreneurs were operating by finding holes in the closed system,” said a source close to the case. “Now the government is working to create the necessary legal framework to enable the systems.”

The Ministry of Revenues is currently drafting the e-receipt and e-signature directives as part of the financial reform. In addition, the recently issued directive that limits cash withdrawals from banks was also one of the long-term action plans of the strategy under the pillar of regulation.

Supporting new innovations and ideas is the last step of the master plan, which will be accomplished by working with existing fintech companies in the country.

Earlier this year, the central bank officials had called upon the first workshop comprised of existing fintech companies, bankers, microfinance institutions, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Innovation & Technology, and the Ethiopian Cash Working Group to underscore the current challenges to digitising retail payments.

Ethiopian Cash Working Group, which was re-established in 2016, is a forum of stakeholders of over 20 United Nations agencies, donors, nonprofits and government representatives that are implementing cash-based interventions for humanitarian efforts in the country.

The workshop, which collaborated with the Better than Cash Alliance, listed many challenges to Ethiopia’s progress toward adopting fintech, including the inconsistency of the internet, the requirement that government accounts be capped to the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia, and restrictions caused by certain legal frameworks. The Better than Cash Alliance, based in the United Nations, is a global partnership of over 75 governments, international organisations, and companies that advocate for the transition from cash to digital payments to advance the Sustainable Development Goals. The Central Bank has been a member of the Better Than Cash Alliance for the last three years.

After three more workshops, the governing bank went on to hire Boston Consulting Group, which is a global consulting firm that advises on value creation strategies and innovations, to craft a three-year master plan. The company submitted the plan to the central bank earlier this month.

Although a strategy is a good first step taken by the government, the real work rests upon the existence of systems, infrastructure and regulations, according to Noad Solomon, an independent fintech consultant with a decade of experience.

“The factors of people settlement, establishing use-cases, awareness creation and the readiness of institutions should also be addressed,” Noad suggested.

No One Knows

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If there is a social media page that has everyone’s attention these days, it belongs to Lia Tadesse (MD), minister of Health. Appointed to the position in the middle of what is perhaps the most challenging of times for public health, she has performed her job as well as anyone presented with weak health infrastructure and few professionals could.

Throughout the pandemic, her messaging has been clear, her outlook has been positive, and she has held her head up high even as politics and the usual social media outrage machine has been working in overdrive. She deserves all the support she can get.

Unfortunately, the situation has become dire in Ethiopia. Just when we thought we were in the clear, the pandemic has given us reason to pause. At first, it seemed that the pandemic would barely affect Africa. The first two months did not result in an exponential increase, but the virus is now spreading steadily.

It is not clear if the number of cases is going to explode after this. But the data is interesting.

Take last Thursday, for example. One hundred cases were reported, the highest number the nation has reported in a day. It was well over 10pc of the total, which was then at 831. This was after testing almost 5,000 people a day and a total of 100,000 individuals. If that number was not way below the number of people that need to be tested to draw a meaningful conclusion about the reach of the virus, the number of tests conducted thus far would be impressive. It was about a third higher than the number of people Kenya had tested, although that country has twice Ethiopia’s population.

What is interesting is that the number of patients in intensive care remains extremely low. There was just one by Thusrday, well below what has been witnessed in other countries. The nation also seems to be bucking the trend of the two to four percent case fatality rate of COVID-19. Seven individuals have sadly passed away as a result of contracting the virus. This means, as of Thursday, the virus has a 0.8pc mortality rate here.

There is also another interesting detail, and it has to do with the nature of a purported community spread. Early high case mortality rates are usually attributed to, in the absence of an elderly population, an undetected but broad spread of the virus. Ethiopia has not suffered a high fatality rate. Whenever this has happened, it has been attributed to large numbers of asymptomatic cases. Only widespread and random testing, including antibody tests, can prove this is the case though.

Testing is all the more important since the number of COVID-19 victims without proven contact with people that have a travel history or a person with the virus have increased. Some of these individuals have died without being detected. A case in point was the 70-year-old resident of Addis Abeba, who went to a hospital to be treated for a different health condition. She was randomly treated at the hospital and was found to have COVID-19. By the time her results had come back, she had passed away. Earlier in the week, another person had died in a similar manner.

Both of them were detected randomly. This shows that there could be the sort of spread across at least Addis Abeba that should worry many people. It could also be used to show that the disease is not as infectious and fatal in the country – perhaps due to the proportion of young people in the population – as was first assumed.

The point is that no one really knows. Not yet. Anyone who claims to understand the state of the spread of the virus is lying. There is not much known about the nature of the virus, and there is not much data collected in Ethiopia to make any conclusions about how far it has spread in the country. This is why, even today, it is better to err on the side of caution and practice the preventive measures the health professionals are suggesting. The best policy for combating what we do not know is to be extra careful until we figure out what is going on.

Ministry Writes Construction Protocol

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Construction owners should prepare temperature testing equipment, regularly disinfect the working area and shared equipment and let employees work in shifts, according to a draft protocol prepared by the Ministry of Urban Development & Construction.

The seven-page construction workplace protocol, which was sent to the COVID-19 National Ministerial Committee formed for the prevention of the potential spread of the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) earlier this month, also mandates that building owners prepare an emergency room, facilitate transportation services for the employees and supply employees with personal protective gear and sanitation materials.

The protocol was drafted to protect workers from COVID-19, assure the safety of the community at large, and keep the environment free from the impact of the virus, according to Lakew Abeje, public relations and communications head at the Ministry.

“It was drafted taking into consideration the Ethiopian Building Code Directive, which sets certain conditions guaranteeing the safety of employees and the overall standard of the workplace environment,” said Lakew.

Contractors are also obligated to ensure the availability of water and sanitation stations for the workers while making sure to avoid or find alternate ways around congested working conditions. This is in addition to providing enough working materials and reducing crowding on the transportation services for workers.

Raising awareness of the virus is another important component of the protocol. Contractors are expected to prepare posters and audio-visual supported messages aimed at creating awareness about methods of protection and prevention against COVID-19. Designating a temporary quarantine area for keeping workers that exhibit symptoms while the health authorities are contacted is also among the duties given to contractors.

The draft of the new protocol, which took two weeks to be outlined, has been sent to the Ministerial Committee to ascertain whether it is in line with the state of emergency, according to Lakew.

“The Ministerial Committee is also expected to come up with fines for offenders of the Protocol,” Lakew told Fortune.

The protocol’s implementation will be jointly monitored by the Construction Works Regulatory Authority and the Ministry, according to Lakew.

The responsibilities outlined in the protocol also apply for workers on the construction site.

Primarily, the protocol outlines basic health guidelines that need to be adhered to such as washing hands and abstaining from handshakes. While workers are expected to take the temperature tests, they are also expected to calmly follow instructions given by the project health officers in the case that a worker tests positive for the virus.

Safety officers, mandatory at every construction site, are tasked with monitoring employees that are absent and ensuring that those that have the virus are given enough support.

Their roles relate to collaborating with supervisors and health authorities and creating an information link regarding the health status of employees. Consultants participating in construction work are required to inform their employees of COVID-19, provide necessary materials like hand sanitiser and masks and supervise the work to ensure that the guidelines are updated and followed.

This will play a significant role for the sector in two particular ways, according to Bizuayehu Sitotaw, architect and president of the Ethiopian Consulting Engineers & Architects Association.

“It can boost the confidence of those engaged in this sector through a sense of safety,” he said. “It’ll also help retain jobs since employees can continue working with the knowledge that there are safety measures being taken where they work.”

Though protocols are not binding, this protocol can be mandatory if it is implemented alongside the state of emergency, which outlined laws about public gatherings and using personal protective gear, according to Zemichale Messay, a lawyer and legal adviser.

Tigray Regional State Rolls out New Structure

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The Tigray Regional State government has begun undertaking structural reforms by shrinking public offices and decentralising its top-down structure.

Hoping to increase the efficiency of the regional government, coupled with procedural reforms within the ruling party and the decentralisation of power, the Regional State is set to roll out reforms until the end of this fiscal year.

The restructuring has affected all levels of government starting with kebeles, which are the lowest government organs and are designed to facilitate administration for up to 5,000 people. It also redesigned the functions of government institutions by decentralising power and empowering and specialising government structures at the lower levels of the regional government.

The functions of weredasused to be determined by the State Council, which determined a uniform structure for the regional and weredalevels. The new State Council legislation only provides standards but allows weredasto determine their own structure, according to Seble Kahsay, head of Tigray’s Public Service Bureau.

Most weredashave also been reconfigured. The 52 weredasin the region have now been restructured into 94 weredasand cities. The restructuring brings together the weredasbased on natural resources of the areas, population size, historical and cultural contexts, as well as the choice of the people of the area.

The restructuring will also be redesigning offices at all levels. The highest number of offices at the weredalevel has been reduced from 24 to 11.

Every position under those of the political appointees, such as directors and team leaders, has newly set minimal standards, and examinations will take place to fill these positions. Accordingly, the Regional State’s Public Service Bureau has over 3,000 open positions at all levels, according to Seble.

“Previously, restructurings would allow people in their former positions to continue if they fulfilled the new requirements, but we’ll be doing things a bit differently,” said Seble. “We’re opening up all positions for merit and competition-based assignments.”

The regional and zonal level restructuring is expected to be completed by the end of June. The bureau offices will mainly be undertaking the role of lawmaking, policy design, research and capacity building.

Experts close to the process indicated that the regional government is considering abolishing zones altogether.

Tesfaye Aregaw, assistant professor of management and development studies at Meqelle University and research team member for the restructuring effort, argues that the outdated former structure triggered the new changes.

The former structure is nearly 25 years old and, in addition, the formation of weredaswas exclusively based on population size. According to him, weredaswere formed on the mere requirement that they have a population of 100,000 people.

“It didn’t even clearly stipulate why the number was chosen,” he said. “The structure and form of weredaswere also uniform in all places. They weren’t designed to utilise the potential and natural resources of the area.”

Weredaswere disproportionate in size, and the distance people had to travel to receive service varied dramatically, according to Tesfay, who also mentions a lack of coordination among weredasas another important factor that led to poor administration.

In developing the new structure, the Regional State took into consideration the experiences of the federal systems of Nigeria, Canada, Germany and India and developmental state models such as Rwanda, South Korea and Vietnam, according to Tesfay.

“We’ve tried to study how these systems have evolved and designed a system that is appropriate for Tigray,” said Tesfay.

Assefa Fissha (PhD), a constitutional law lecturer at Addis Abeba University who had conducted a study on local administration in Tigray, says the principle of the last restructuring in 2001 mostly informed the national strategy on local administration and reducing administrative costs.

“The restructuring that took place in 2001 reduced the number of weredasin Tigray from 81 to 35,” he said. “Four weredaswere brought down to one in some areas, while two were folded into one in most places.”

The reform made it difficult for people to receive basic services in nearby areas; people would need to travel long distances to attain IDs and pay taxes, according to Assefa.

“After the federal system was put into place, it was clear that the structure wouldn’t allow for sufficient decentralisation in terms of delivery of public service and increasing local-level accountability,” he said.

Assefa highlights that structural arrangements in Tigray did not encourage accountability among leaders that were appointed by and answered to the political party.

Zones also became political entities that would directly determine the effectiveness of the weredas. While they may have been effective in providing some services, they did not represent the important cornerstones of modern and democratic systems that could deliver on development objectives, according to the lawyer.

The leadership of cities was also centralised, and city administrations and service provision was undertaken by one entity. The study indicated that the cities in the state would exhibit better progress if leadership was more decentralised at sub-city levels.

With the new reform, kebelesare central in the provision of services in the region with the hope of increasing efficiency, according to Seble.

“Moving forward, we’re working to ensure most services can be provided by the kebele, while the weredaand zonal levels will be focused on capacity building, support and follow up with the kebeles,” said Seble.

Kebelesin the rural areas were previously administered by volunteers that operated the stations in their spare time. The new system has made them into permanent hired positions by the Regional State.

Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) is also undergoing a reform that includes how appointments and leadership positions are attained within the party structure, as well as political appointments for government positions. Leadership at both the weredaand zonal levels are done by members of the respective area.

“Members at the kebelelevel send representatives to the zone, and the weredalevel elects the leadership,” says Abraha Amha, head of Rural Public Relations for TPLF. “Previously, assignments were done by the TPLF office or politburo depending on the position.”

Leadership positions attained by political appointment at the weredalevel in the past would be presented to the Council for approval. The procedure now gives weredasthe responsibility of nominating no more than three party members and the appointment of the head. The weredacabinet will later be appointed by the head of the wereda.

Heads at the zonal levels are still nominated by the general assembly of the party. All positions have been refilled according to the new procedures, and some 32 of the 94 positions at the zonal level have been filled by new appointees.

About 557 of 1,357 positions at the weredalevel have new appointments within both the party and government structures, according to the party.

The party believes this is an important step in bringing about more democratisation and accountability within the party and government, according to Abraha.

Kinfe Hadush, public administration lecturer at Meqelle University and member of Salsay Wayne Tigray, a political party in the region, strongly argues that positions at the wereda executive level should be professionalised.

“The ruling party should only be given a majority within the weredacouncil to oversee sound and effective leadership,” he said. “This would also increase accountability. It is important to emphasise the importance of empowering permanent and professional positions to be held within the weredacouncil.”

This transition to the new weredastructure, choosing the capital and naming titles, has brought with it some controversy, including protests that were held in different parts of the Regional State, including two main disputes this past week in Shire and Wajirat.

Amdom Gebresilassie, public relations head of the opposition Arena Party, says the restructuring was a result of wide discontent in the region but was done in a hurried manner to tame dissatisfaction and was therefore not able to achieve its goal.

“TPLF claims the restructuring is based on the research of intellectuals,” he said, “but we haven’t seen the research outputs or discussed the direction. You have to understand your illness before you can find a solution.”

Top Water Seals 20-year Saudi Arabian Deal

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Abebe Dinku Water & Non-Alcoholic Beverages, a bottler of one of the newest waters, Top Water, has closed a 20-year deal with a Saudi Arabian company to export water.

Abebe Dinku signed the deal with Al Naba Jeldi Water Company last month and has geared up to ship the first batch of bottled water. The firm is expected to deliver the supplies as soon as Saudi Arabia lifts its lockdown. Al Naba Jeldi Water Company, a subsidiary of Al Naba Commerical Enterprises, was established in Najran, Saudi Arabia, in 1999 and has its plant located near Najran’s valley.

Before inking the deal, the two parties completed a three-month testing and sampling process. The agreement was to export bottled water in 350ml and 600ml sizes with the first shipment, which is worth one million dollars. The first batch of the delivery will consist of 10 40-foot containers filled with 1,000 of the 350ml size and 6,668 of the 600ml size bottles.

“We opened a letter of credit (LC) to ship the first batch,” said Abebe Dinku, founder of the company, “but due to the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19), we haven’t been able to ship the first batch since Saudi Arabia has closed its ports.”

Established with an investment of 273 million Br in Tatek Geffersa Nono Wereda of Burayu town, 18Km north of the capital, the company operates with 512 employees. It can produce 126,000 bottles of water an hour.

“We were also asked to supply a 200ml size,” said Shimelis Ajemma, marketing manager of the company. “With the current moulds we have, we aren’t able to bottle 200ml.”

The company ordered a new 200ml size mould two weeks ago, according to Shimelis, who said they expect it to be delivered in two months.

“The export benefit isn’t much compared to the local sales, but it has its own perks since it will give us foreign exchange, and value added tax (VAT) and excise tax are also completely revoked if a bottler is engaged in exporting,” he added.

The bottler has also received a new order to ship bottled water to Oman last week, and the management sent a pro forma invoice to the company, according to Shimelis.

“We’re waiting for their response,” said Shimelis.

Earlier this year, South Spring Water also embarked upon a deal to export bottled water to England with a value of one million dollars at the first shipment. Bottled by Garanba, South Spring Water was established with an investment of 410 million Br in Aregobena Wereda of Sidama Zone with 310 employees and can produce 16,000 bottles of water an hour.

A few months ago, the Ethiopian Bottled Water, Soft Drink, Fruit & Vegetable Processing Manufacturing Industries Association, upon the request of bottlers, sent a letter to the Business Diplomacy Directorate of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to accelerate the export of bottled water to neighbouring countries. Currently, there are close to 97 bottlers operational in the country.

The rising competitiveness of the burgeoning bottled water industry has to look for another market abroad, according to Zewdie Shibere (PhD), assistant professor at Addis Abeba University’s School of Business & Economics.

“It’s a commendable effort from the bottlers since the venture is a source of foreign exchange,” Zewdie said. “But bottlers should also move to a more environmentally sustainable model of bottling water to have a long-run chance in the business.”

Shifting to glass or plant-based plastics are the way forward for the future of bottled waters, recommended the expert.