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Month: June 2020

NO GASOIL! WHY?

Posted on by Web Master

Ethiopia is no stranger to the shortage of fuel. But drivers have lately been greeted by a sign that reads “No Gasoil” at gas stations, referring to a type of fuel that is often available even when benzene is scarce.

Drivers used to the general availability of gasoil, which accounts for two-thirds of the petroleum imported by the country, have been perplexed by the sudden dip in supply. It has not been any different for the oil retailers that have found this occurrence an unexpected new challenge they hope is only temporary.

“I’ve no idea what happened and what to do,” said a driver who had been looking for the fuel at gas stations in Addis Abeba for several days, without success.

The authorities ascribe the shortage to the dedication of the Sululta Strategic Reserve Depot beginning early this month to only benzene, which is periodically scarce and causes most of the fuel shortages in the city. Meanwhile, a two-day road blockage between Djibouti and Ethiopia caused by a cargo truck accident over a week ago made matters worse.

How the Enterprise failed to plan ahead for a shortage occurring when they began filling the Sululta Strategic Reserve Depot with only benzene was perplexing to Alemayehu Geda (Prof), an economist and university lecturer at Addis Abeba University’s Faculty of Business & Economics. He stressed that this would have a heavy impact on construction projects and transporters of agricultural products.

In its attempt to address the shortage, the Ethiopian Petroleum Supply Enterprise authorised oil companies to load gasoil from the fuel depot for retailers in Awash beginning June 25, 2020.

Gasoil Shortage Irks Drivers, Gas Stations

Posted on by Web Master

Over the last week, main roads of the capital were crowded and the traffic was heavy since most of the roads were blocked by long queues of vehicles at gas stations to fill up on gasoil.

On the evening of June 26, 2020, one of Total Ethiopia’s gas stations located in Temenja Yaz on Sierra Leone Street was also unusually full, packed with cars waiting their turn.

Most drivers did not know what was really going on with the supply of gasoil, but they have been spending extended hours in long-distance queues. Since early last week, the city has been struck with a gasoil shortage following right on the heels of the recent benzene shortage.

The 24-year-old Birhan G. Kaidan is one of the drivers who queued at Total’s station to fill up his tank. He drives a minibus taxi that gives service to the employees of the state giant Ethio telecom.

Since he could not get gasoil, Birhan did not give service to Ethio telecom’s employees for two days in a row. He also had a scheduled field trip outside of the capital but was forced to cancel because he ran out of fuel.

“I still have no idea what happened and what to do,” he said.

Birhan, who has been serving Ethio telecom for the past three years, has never experienced a shortage of gasoil this acute before.

“This is the first time I spent a long time in the oil queue to buy gasoil,” he said.

Zewdie Worku, a 42-year-old father of four children, is another citizen of the capital who has fallen victim to the gasoil crisis. Zewdie had been leaving his house in the morning starting from last Tuesday to fill his tank.

The taxi diver, who covers his and his family’s costs from his income, is waiting at least five hours a day to fill his fuel tank.

“It’s been seven months since I started working as a driver,” said Zewdie, “and the current situation is making me hate the job.”

Both the users and the oil retailers believe that the latest shortages are exceptional.

Tewodros Yeshiwas, managing director at Gomeju Oil Ethiopia, says that this is the first time his company has experienced such a shortage of gasoil.

His company has operated with 69 stations, 2,000 employees and 219 trucks since 2016.

Even when there is a shortage of any type of fuel products, the problem is temporary, according to Tewodros.

“But I don’t understand why the Enterprise did not extract the gasoil from the nearest reserve and distribute it as soon as possible,” he said.

The Ethiopian Petroleum Supply Enterprise is the only company authorised to import petroleum. It imports benzene, jet fuel, gasoil, kerosene and light and heavy black diesel and distributes the petroleum to close to 30 oil retail companies across the country. During the first half of this fiscal year, Ethiopia has imported two million tonnes of petroleum products with a value of 35.3 billion Br. This represents a 16.5pc annual expansion in the volume.

“The demand for gasoil is high since many projects, heavy machines and vehicles are in dire need of it,” said Tadesse Hailemariam, CEO of the Enterprise.

The Enterprise and the Ministry of Trade & Industry state that the latest shortage has occurred after the government dedicated the Sululta Strategic Reserve Depot to benzene only. The Depot, which has the capacity to hold 60,000 cubic metres of fuel, used to hold all types of fuel.

Filling the Depot began on June 1 and is planned to be finished by July 30, and it is expected to serve as a reserve for three months, according to Tadesse.

On a daily basis, an average of 300 fuel trucks are deployed from Djibouti carrying different types of petroleum. And 15 to 20, which have a carrying capacity of 45,000lt of benzene each, go to the Sululta Depot.

The Enterprise claims that the filling of the Strategic Depot is not the only reason for the shortfall. Officials there say the problem also lies with the backwards logistics system that the country uses.

The two-day road blockage at a border crossing between Ethiopia and Djibouti last week due to a cargo truck accident was another cause of the shortage, according to Tadesse.

By June 24 and 25, the Enterprise had resumed imports and supplied 18.1 million litres of gasoil. Of the total four million tonnes of petroleum the country imports a year, about 65pc is gasoil and 13pc is benzene.

The government is working on increasing the number of depots in the country to boost the reserve, according to Eshete Asfaw, state minister for Trade & Industry.

In addition to the Djibouti and Awash depots, the government opened depots at Kombolcha, Gonder and Bahir Dar on June 27, 2020, as part of an effort to alleviate the problem of the supply shortage, according to Eshete.

There are people who are trying to take advantage of the situation, according to Eshete.

“We found out that there are also people who took advantage of this opportunity by engaging in illegal business,” said Eshete.

Issues related to a logistics system is also another problem that is causing a supply shortage, and it will never be resolved unless a consistent strategic solution is sought, according to Tadesse. Currently, there are 121 fuel stations in the capital.

There are various reasons behind the occasional fuel shortages, according to Tadesse Girma, secretary-general at the Ethiopian Oil Companies Association. The Association, which was established in August 2017, has seven members including NOC, Libya Oil, Total Ethiopia, Yetebaberut Beherawi Petroleum, TAF Oil, Kobil Ethiopia and Gomeju Oil.

Many trucks are stranded at Djibouti waiting for their turn to load; however, beginning Thursday, June 25, the Enterprise authorised oil companies to load gasoil from the Awash fuel depot, according to Tadesse of the Association.

Serkalem GebreKirstos (PhD), an expert in the petroleum industry for more than a decade, argues that both of the reasons mentioned by the authorities are not sufficient causes for the fuel shortage in the capital.

Serkalem explains that the problem is typically the result of supply chain issues.

“How much demand and supply will be met should be thoroughly studied,” said Serkalem.

After Dukem reserve depot, which costs 140 million dollars and has a capacity to hold 300,000 cubic metres, becomes operational, the country’s reserve capacity will be boosted to 60 days from the current 36 days, according to Alemayehu Tsegaye, communications director of the Enterprise.

The Enterprise had to plan ahead that a shortage could occur when they were considering filling the Sululta Strategic Reserve Depot, according to Alemayehu Geda (PhD), an economist and university lecturer at Addis Abeba University’s Faculty of Business & Economics.

“The shortage has a major impact on heavy trucks, construction projects, as well as trucks that serve agricultural purposes,” said Alemayehu.

Serkalem also recommended that the Ministry of Trade & Industry, the Ministry of Transport and the Enterprise itself should work together to improve the supply chain and its facilities.

With Cat out of Bag, Better to Double Down on Statehood

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In the popular imagination, Ethiopia’s current federal organisation was the brainchild of leaders of an assortment of highly ideological liberation movements whose prime objective it was to reject the prevailing socio-political construction. It is the view at least in some quarters of the political aisle.

But the importance of instituting a political system that expresses the country’s socio-cultural diversity dates back to at least the military-Marxist regime, which established the Institute for the Study of Ethiopian Nationalities, in the early 1980s. Many of its experts went on to advise on the drafting of the 1987 Constitution – through a commission established a year earlier – culminating in studies on the question of “nations and nationalities.” What the Institute had to offer was, nonetheless, given little heed by the military government which was uninterested in sharing political power.

Notable is how even a regime strongly vested in maintaining a unitary state realised that the quest for self-determination by lingo-cultural groups had to be addressed. It was an aspiration initially ignited by the student movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s. To this day, it remains a significant issue of political power contention.

Even the successors of the military government, the EPRDFites, seemingly conscious of the Gramscian conception of cultural hegemony, failed to live up to the expectations they set before them. They oversaw the drafting of Ethiopia’s most radical Constitution, ratified in 1995.

It instituted a federal system, which took input from studies such as the one carried out by the Institute, arranged along lingo-cultural fault lines. More importantly, it identified “nations, nationalities and peoples” as sovereign, which exercise their rights through their representatives, and a right to self-determination for any community of people that ask for it.

Like that, Ethiopia became not a nation-state – or a confederacy because of the relatively wide range of powers afforded to the federal government – but a multi-national state.

The fight over a state for a nation has been on the retreat since, given way to forces that fight for nations for a state.

Ironically, the EPRDFites were not as restrained in their exercise of power as they imagined anyone controlling the federal government should be under the Constitution. On the surface, there was a country with carefully delineated powers shared, not devolved, between the federal and regional governments. Below the surface though, it was a state where political power was centralised through a party structure, informed by a Maoist tradition of democratic-centralism.

The Prosperity Party inherited this inherent contradiction. And it has a leader under Abiy Ahmed whose ambition appears to be driving in the reverse gear of redrawing the political discourse. He seems to be determined to fight for a state which can have a nation. Contrary to the EPRDF mantra of “multi-national unity,” his is “Hibre-Hagerawiunity,” the latter an oxymoron to say pan-nationalist unity. In the semantics lies a full cleavage of views on how the Ethiopian state should be constructed and reconstructed.

Most importantly, Abiy and his political allies – having ridden a wave of protests against, at least in part, a lack of representation – were faced by “nations, nationalities and peoples” that had been waiting their due constitutional right to statehood for the past quarter of a century. The epicentre of these demands for statehood has been the Southern Nations, Nationalities and People’s Region (SNNPR), the most diverse multi-cultural state in Ethiopia for representing 56pc of lingo-cultural groups.

It was in this region that calls for statehood have been loudest. Over the past two years, 10 of the 11 zones have demanded statehood status through their respective councils. With the success of the Sidama Zone in becoming a Regional State, the demands are bound to be more durable.

Chief among these, by virtue of the steps it has already taken to realise statehood, is the Welayta Zone, which through its Council established an office that oversees the preparation of a regional flag and the drafting of a Constitution. It was a decision that came as the relationship between the regional government and the Zone’s Council became heated.

Representatives of the Zone had withdrawn themselves from the Regional State’s Council earlier this month in protest against the suggested reorganisation of the Southern Region into four as not a satisfactory enough response. With a formal letter having been sent from the Welayta Zone Council to the Regional State, a referendum to decide upon statehood is yet to take place.

These are demands that are unlikely to abate, especially following the results of the outcomes of Sidama Zone’s quest for statehood. With the formal transfer of power between the regional government and the new Sidama State having taken place, momentum for a major reorganisation of the Southern State has been set.

Unfortunately, what the bid for statehood has demonstrated is that the administration of Prime Minister Abiy prefers to see what is at least a carefully shepherded process to statehood. It was a long and combative process the Sidama Zone had to go through to become a Regional State, which was an effort that could have been expended more constructively to agree on details such as border delineation, budget and asset-related matters.

It was a failing on the part of the Prime Minister’s administration that statehood questions could not be approached with a sense of goodwill instead of, at worst, hostility and, at best, detachment. They are legitimate constitutional issues and a healthy exercise of the right to self-determination that require reasoned discourse and a proper response.

The concern from encouraging demands for statehood is understandable. There exists a legitimate fear that such trends encourage and reinforce the centrifugal forces within the Ethiopian state, endangering stability and the viability of the state. But state disintegration was arguably a far bigger threat in most of the latter half of the 20th century when Ethiopia was a unitary state. No less than 27 unitary states formed in the world since 1945 have come to collapse, a far cry compared to only four countries formed under multi-cultural (ethnic) federalism, and five others which had mixed federalism with a unitary form.

Heterogeneous societies do not lend themselves smoothly to national cohesion; that much is taken for granted. But lingo-cultural diversity is not a core cause for a state’s collapse. It is instead the diverging conceptions of the character of the state, which heterogeneity can only add fire to when the various groups are not afforded political representation and economic equity within the polity. When this occurs, they resort to rejecting the state.

There is another argument, though flawed, against demands for statehood: it poses an administrative headache. Many regional states do indeed mean more paperwork, civil servants and government offices which cost money and further layers of bureaucracy.

But the protection of the rights of citizens was never going to be cheap. If there is an agreement that any cultural and political community has the right not only to preserve and protect its identities but a right to choose its sovereignty, then this is the necessary cost for the country to pay. If one of the essential grounds for the existence of a state is the administration of justice, then it should not be baulked at when it needs to invest resources to meet these demands.

Does it mean that federalism – and Ethiopia’s federalism in its current conception – is an infallible system for the political organisation of the Ethiopian state?

Certainly, it should not be. The ease with which centrifugal impulses could be provoked and incensed by political elites for their bids for power is worrying. But the response cannot be to frustrate such a right to self-determination – this would be throwing out the baby with the bathwater.

The rational response could be to double-down on federalism and multi-party democracy, both of which went unrealised even by a regime that preached their importance. The multi-national character of the state ensures the right to sovereign choices by the “nations, nationalities and peoples” and provides a check on the power of the federal government.

A pluralistic democracy nurtures the competition of ideas. It is crucial to allow the voices of minorities within regional states to be heard as well as for the development of an uncoerced and healthy sense of collective destiny and national consciousness.

Allowed to continue with the current internal contradictions of a multi-national state in theory but a de facto unitary state in practice, where power is dispensed from the centre, stability will continue to be at stake. But a federal structure that respects and fosters democratic contestation for political power is the most persuasive case for the preservation of the Republic.

New Formula Arises for Regional State Infrastructure Appropriation

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Universities and upcoming infrastructure projects, including roads and irrigation channels, will be built in the regional states based on the new draft formula proposed by nine federal public offices.

The draft formula, which was tabled to the House of Federation for approval this month, measures the technical, financial, social and environmental impacts, as well as the accessibility and political viability, of the new projects before they begin. Points are given to each project under certain parameters and graded out of 100.

The procedure will replace the existing practice of institutions approving new infrastructure projects according to their own criteria.

Ethio telecom, Ethiopian Airlines, the Irrigation Development Commission, Ethiopian Roads Authority, Ethiopian Electric Power, Ethiopian Electric Utility, the Ministry of Science & Higher Education, Ethiopian Railways Corporation, and the Industrial Park Development Corporation are the institutions that tabled their draft formula to the Budget Subsidy & Joint Revenues Standing Committee of the House.

Early this month, the Federation, having received the draft formula from the institutions, held the first hearing session to discuss the proposals from the offices. They have been developing the formula for the past year.

So far, the public offices have been approving projects using their own plans even though the law states that they need to prepare a formula to get approval from the House of Federation, according to Yakob Bekele, senior programme manager at the Forum of Federation, which is helping the House of Federation on this project.

“There were gaps in the process since the regional states highly pressured the institutions,” he said, “and others haven’t developed any kind of criteria.”

However, two years ago, the House conducted an assessment on the standards for the allocation of development projects. After doing the assessments, the House directed the institutions to craft a formula and tabled it for approval.

The offices are expected to submit reports of newly approved projects each month to the Federation, and the House will evaluate their performances quarterly, according to the new procedure.

Before this change, public offices approved projects using their own procedures. For instance, Ethiopian Electric Power has been reviewing a feasibility study and master plan study before approving projects, according to Ashebir Balcha, CEO of Ethiopian Electric Power.

With the new proposed formula, EEP will mainly measure three parameters to approve new projects. The technical aspect, population size of the project site and other projects in the proposed project area will be measured out of 100 points.

While approving new irrigation dam projects, the Irrigation Development Commission will weight five parameters such as the political, social and environmental impact of the project on the area, the job opportunities the project will open, and the availability of water resources in the project area.

This is a progressive step from the government on the valuation of infrastructure facilities, according to Amebaw Dametew, an independent consultant on public administration for over two decades.

“But with the exception of basic facilities like roads and electricity, projects should be handled focusing on cost and feasibility,” Amebaw recommended.

The House of Federation has also tabled a draft proclamation that proposes the establishment of a Commission that will regulate a fair distribution of infrastructure facilities across the regional states. The bill, “Provide a System for the Determination of the Division of Federal Subsidies & Joint Revenues,” was tabled to the parliament in January.

The Commission will also oversee the subsidy budget for the regional states as well as administering the division of joint revenues. The Commission will also be in charge of the preparation of the regional state subsidy budget formula and carry out a follow-up activity on the equitable distribution of the infrastructure facilities.

Accountable to the Federation, the Commission will have a seven-member committee selected from the House of Federation, higher educational institutions and civil society institutions.

The bill will introduce a specific purpose subsidy that is a conditional transfer intended to provide incentives for the regional states to undertake specific programmes to achieve an identified objective.

“We expect the parliament to legislate the bill before the end of the fiscal year,” said Gebru Gebrselassie, communications director at the House of Federation.

For the upcoming fiscal year, the Ministry of Finance has proposed 176.4 billion Br in subsidies for the regional states. The proposed budget is 37.5pc of the total federal budget, and it is 1.1 percentage points higher than the share given in the current federal budget.

The five-year budget formula for regional subsidies also expired this fiscal year; however, the House of Federation has extended the formula for two more years due to difficulties collecting input data from the regional states, according to Gebru.

“The political insecurity in the country has contributed to the delay of the new budget formula,” Gebru said.

The regional states budget subsidy formula is drafted considering the nine regional states and two city administrations. But, lately, Sidama Zone has split from the Southern Nations, Nationalities, & Peoples’ Region (SNNPR) to become the 10th regional state.

“The issue of Sidama is being handled by the Office of the House of Federation. Nothing has been decided yet,” Gebru added.

Authority to Step Up Telecom Liberalisation to Next Stage

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The Ethiopian Communications Authority is set to send a request for qualification (RFQ), the next step to issuing two new telecom licenses, this August. The RFQ will be sent to the companies that will be screened from the 12 companies that have shown interest in joining Ethiopia’s telecommunication market.

Last week, the telecom and radiofrequency regulatory body received interest from a dozen companies including prominent global telecom operators to secure full-service telecommunication licenses in Ethiopia. Nine of the companies are telecom operators, while two are non-telecom operators and the remaining submission was incomplete.

The Global Partnership for Ethiopia, a consortium of telecom operators comprised of Vodafone, Vodacom and Safaricom; Etisalat; Axian; MTN; Orange; Saudi Telecom Company; Telkom SA; Liquid Telecom; and Snail Mobile are the telecom operators that submitted an expression of interest for the licenses. Kandu Global Telecommunications and Electromecha International Projects are the two non-telecom operators that showed interest.

The companies responded to the call from the Ministry of Finance and the Authority for the submission of expressions of interest for the issuing of two new full-service telecommunication licenses. In their documents, the companies submitted information on their organisational structure, financial status, global operating footprint, details of countries of operation and the number of mobile phone subscribers, among others.

“We’ll thoroughly go through the documents provided by the companies and will pick companies that will be able to take part in the next process,” said Balcha Reba, director-general of the Authority. “The next stage will be a more technical and rigorous screening process.”

The Authority then will launch a request for proposal (RFP) for the companies that make it past the RFQ stage to pick the two winning companies, which will get a 15-year license that will enable them to provide combined services for mobile, internet and fixed calling along with Ethio telecom.

It should be no surprise that many companies interested in joining the telecom sector of the country, according to Terrefe RasWork, a telecommunications engineer who has worked for the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) for over three decades.

“Without a doubt, Ethiopia has a large population that would be lucrative for these companies to tap into,” said Terrefe. “The issue is how much will they pay for it in these dire times.”

Clearly, the companies would pay more if economic conditions were safer. The current political situation could also potentially affect the value of the licencing fee, according to Terrefe.

The expert recommends that the liberalisation process take place after the election is held and the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is contained throughout the world.

As part of ending the state monopoly of the telecom industry, the government has established the Ethiopian Communications Authority as an independent regulatory body that will be mandated with issuing two new telecommunications licenses and regulate the sector. Since its establishment, the Authority has been bracing itself for the liberalisation process by hiring companies to advise on the procedure and legislate new laws.

Along with the Ministry of Finance, the Authority hired the International Finance Corporation (IFC) as a transaction advisor for the licensing process. IFC also took on board four international consultants in charge of the technical aspects; taxes and auditing; and the legal and communications issues.

The Authority has also drafted five directives that enable the regulatory body to license companies, handle dispute resolution, governing consumer rights and protections, regulating the quality of service and the issuing of numbers.

The three full-service license holders, including Ethio telecom, will be privileged with a range of spectrum across multiple frequency bands. They are required to commit to reasonable tariffs, universal accessibility and teledensity targets.

Theft Leaves Bole-Lemi Industrial Park in Dark

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An incident that caused damage to power transmission towers left 22 companies operating in Bole-Lemi Industrial Park without electricity. Residents of Summit Condominium, Bole Arabsa, Goro, ICT Park, Gerji Weregenu and Gerji Kazanchis also went dark due to the power interruption.

A transmission tower collapsed after burglars attempted to steal equipment from it, according to Mogos Mekonen, communications director at Ethiopian Electric Power.

“A high voltage power transmission tower, capable of carrying 132KV, fell apart and caused further damage to another tower,” Mogos said.

The Industrial Park, which runs on 25MWh of power a day, is now without any direct power. Factories operating in the Industrial Park are using backup generators to stay operational for the time being, according to Tinsae Yimam, general manager of the Park.

Shints ETP Garment Plc, a Korean textile company that started operations in October 2015, is one of the factories that is suffering from the power disruption. The company is currently using a generator to deal with the power supply shortage.

“The generator doesn’t generate enough power, and our factory couldn’t fully operate,” said Tesfayesus Yitbarek, HR manager at Shints.

Shints occupies five sheds in the Park, two of which serve as finishing rooms, another two as computer-aided design and automatic fabric cutting sites, while the last one serves as a warehouse. The factory, which exports to Europe and the United States, has decreased its working hours and its production due to the power supply shortage. It also has reduced the operation of its finishing rooms.

The problems became more complicated following the diesel shortage in the capital since the generators require fuel, according to Tinsae.

“Factories within the Industrial Park aren’t obtaining enough oil for the generators,” said Tinsae. “If it weren’t for some reserves in their tanks, the factories would have stopped operations entirely.”

Shints Garment Plc, which needs 2,500lt of oil a day for its generator, is on the verge of halting production because of the oil supply shortage in the market.

“We’re still operating, but we may not continue production beyond Monday,” said Tesfayesus.

The garment factory, which produces sportswear and outdoor clothing, has shut down its kitchen and is sourcing food from outside for its 4,700 employees, according to Tesfayesus.

“We’re incurring losses since we’re spending more money to purchase food at higher prices,” he said.

Amidst the power and oil supply shortage crisis, the management of Bole-Lemi Industrial Park wrote a letter to all oil retail companies in the capital to give priority to supplying the factories with oil, according to Tinsae.

The Industrial Parks Development Corporation has communicated with Ethiopian Electric Power to deal with the problem, according to Shiferaw Solomon, the deputy CEO at the Corporation.

“We’ve agreed with the EEP to fix the electric transmission line by replacing the damaged towers with alternatives to resume the flow of electric power supply to the Park,” said Shiferaw.

The transmission and substation operation maintenance team of Ethiopian Electric Power has deployed crew members to the area to replace the fallen metal towers with wooden poles.

“We’re now installing wooden poles to temporarily connect the transmission line to restart the flow of electricity to the area,” said Mogos. “It’s expected to be completed by Monday or Tuesday.”

Throughout the country, there are 20,000Km of high voltage power transmission lines.

Yemisirach Tadesse, a direct conflict prevention director at the Institute for Security Studies, recommends massive surveillance by the security apparatus to prevent such crimes.

“The police officers should cooperate with the local communities to protect these towers that are located far away,” Yemisirach said.

Danish Firm to Assess Ethiopia’s Road Mgmt System

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NTU, a Danish consultancy company, has secured a contract to conduct a road traffic control and emergency response pilot study for 71 million Br.

The Ministry of Transport hired the company mid-June to lead a road safety and post-impact care project at five selected corridors in four regional states. The corridors are located in Amhara, Tigray, Oromia, and Southern Nations, Nationalities & Peoples’ regional states and cover a total road network of 500Km.

The study includes asphalt roads that stretch from Addis Abeba to Fiche, Addis Abeba to Adama, Hossna to Butajira, Bahir Dar to Enjibara, and Meqelle to Fireweyni. Each segment covers 126Km, 84Km, 96Km, 112Km, and 81Km, respectively. All of the segments are two-lane roads except the Addis Abeba-Adama road, which has six lanes.

NTU, a company that provides consulting within the engineering, economic, planning and management fields, is expected to deliver the project in 18 months. The consultant will also provide capacity building training to traffic police, create publicity and awareness campaigns, promote safer behaviour among road users, and improve post-crash response and care services.

The purpose of the study is to enhance traffic law enforcement and thereby change the behaviour of pedestrians, cyclists and motorists, and to assess the impact of the improved post-crash care facilities on the rate of fatal accidents, according to Yonas Belete, national road safety council officer at the Ministry.

“The project aims at bringing well-coordinated and integrated road safety measures,” he said. “The results will be used as benchmark performance measures to design a national road safety rollout programme.”

The piloting test project is also committed to enhancing the level of cooperation between different road safety agencies, i.e. first responders, healthcare professionals and the local community.

It is about the capacity building of the road safety stakeholders and the transfer of road safety knowledge to the National Road Safety Council under the Ministry and to other participating partners. The overall objective of the study is to identify policy and institutional regulatory gaps in the sector through collecting study samples from a variety of locations in the country to actualise a national solution that can be adopted at a later stage.

The study comprises four main tasks to be accomplished in the corridors. The first task includes the enhancement of road safety regulations, identifying inadequacies in policy and regulatory tools to optimise the policy and regulatory instruments.

For the second task, the company will engage with the public and create awareness campaigns in support of traffic law enforcement. The third task involves the monitoring and evaluation of road safety enforcement enhancements; publicity and awareness campaigns; and improvements to post-impact care and safety improvements. Improving post-impact care is the fourth task of the study.

“We’ve recognised that we need to rapidly expand and improve the quality of the road network with high road safety standards to promote further economic growth,” said Yonas.

The number of vehicles in Ethiopia is small but the country experiences a high number of traffic accidents, argues Shiwaye Mersha, lecturer of urban transport management at Kotebe Metropolitan University. She adds that there is a gap between awareness of the law and the implementation of road safety regulations.

Currently, there are 1.75 million vehicles in Ethiopia, two-thirds of which are located in the capital.

The project should emphasise the awareness creation, capacity building, and strict enforcement of traffic laws and regulations, the expert recommends.

“Driving licenses should be availed to candidates upon learning advanced skills,” recommended Shiwaye.

Most of the traffic accidents are attributed to human errors caused by a lack of skills on how to deal with and follow the traffic safety rules, according to her.

“Once given a driving license, the status of drivers’ skills should occasionally be evaluated,” she said.

Marking the roads is another step being considered for the project as a way to reduce potential accidents by making drivers cautious, according to Shiwaye.

In the last nine months of the current fiscal year, traffic accidents claimed 350 deaths in Addis Abeba with 1,510 serious and 680 slight injuries.

Last year, 40,871 road accidents occurred nationwide, causing 4,597 deaths, 7,408 serious injuries and 5,949 slight injuries. These accidents damaged property worth 872.9 million Br.

Globally, road traffic crashes cause 1.35 million deaths a year and 20 to 50 million non-fatal injuries, with 93pc of fatalities occurring in developing countries. Road traffic accidents cost three percent of countries’ annual GDP.

Ministry to Institutionalise Building Permit Process

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The Ministry of Urban Development & Construction has drafted a proclamation that proposes the establishment of an executive organ in all urban centres to approve building plans, supervise approved building plans, and inspect building construction.

The organs will be set up in every urban centre that has a population size of 2,000 or more inhabitants and with more than 50pc of its labour force primarily engaged in non-agricultural activities.

The construction sector has been embroiled in massive corruption problems, implementation inefficiency, construction completion delays, poor construction quality and wasted resources, according to Teweodros Tegegne, bureau head of construction industry working improvement at the Ministry.

With the existing proclamation, a building officer appointed by an urban administration is mandated to deal with building approvals and inspections. The Ministry identified this as a loophole since power is concentrated in the hands of the building officer, leading to corruption and inefficiency.

The amended bill, which was drafted in collaboration with 36 professional associations, transfers the powers and duties from persons to institutions.

“Institutionalisation will significantly transform the recurrent challenges to the sector,” said Tewodros. “The building officers were also hesitant about giving decisions, fearing the negative consequences of their decision-making.”

City administrations and regional states can also draft regulations, protocols and directives in harmony with the proclamation, according to the bill, which consists of 10 parts and 52 articles.

“As long as there are different contexts related to capacity and other factors, there should have been asymmetrical considerations,” Tewodros said. “This draft allows flexibility and decentralisation.”

Regional states can determine the nomenclature and structures of the executive organ. The regulatory organ will constitute a building officer and necessary staff and different organisational structures.

The flexibility and power decentralisation is for the advantages of lower tiers of authorities, because they allow efficiency, according to Tesfaye Temesgen, communications officer at Oromia Urban Development & Housing Bureau.

“It promotes local understandings of local matters since it permits urban administrations to determine service fees and fines,” said Tesfaye.

Amanuel Teshome, president of the Ethiopian Architects Association, said that the bill should have been professional-centred rather than transferring all the powers to the executive organ.

“The building officer should instead be given enough power to deliver its duties,” he said. “The institution orientation of the draft undermines the significance and professions of the individual.”

The sector annually issues 50,000 to 60,000 building construction permits and building occupancy permits throughout the country.

The bill gives two years of validity of approved designs for buildings not exceeding two-storeys and three years of validity for buildings with more than two-storeys not exceeding 12m heights. It provides five years for public or institutional buildings, factory or workshop buildings with a height of more than 12m. The existing law gives a blanket five years of validity for all construction projects.

New grievance hearing boards will be formed in every urban centre. After hearing the cases and looking into them, the draft bill mandates that the board make final decisions on such issues. Currently, grievances are being appealed to the mayor’s office.

The preamble of the draft does not enumerate the main reasons for the amendment found by consolidated studies, according to Baymot Tsegaye, an architect and urban designer for more than a decade.

“Properly conducted studies should be completed before amending or changing the existing proclamation,” he said. “It failed to incorporate minimum service standards to clients regarding design review, plan approval, and construction commencement issuance.”

The draft lacks a provision that deals with contracts between the client and designer that describe the scope of the work, service fees, and delivery time, according to the expert.

“The presence of terms of a contract between the client and the designer would expose the identity of the designer and avoids government authorities from pressuring the clients to award them with the design,” said Baymot. “Absence of terms of a contract will result in informal and unethical practices in the sector.”

Designs of urban planning criteria, hazard protection and health and safety should have remained in the hands of government institutions, and detailed architectural design and planning should go to private consultants, according to Baymot.

“The design or plan review should be given to independent consultants,” recommended Baymot. “There may be a conflict of interest by the authorities who may pressure the owners of the construction project to award the project to their affiliates.”

The expert recommends that the draft should set the minimum service fee to review, approve the building design and issue construction permits.

“Hence, the contractor may deal with the authorities by offering them something of value in return for allowing the contractor to construct a building at a lower quality than specified in the design contract,” he said.

“The draft should outlaw charging service fees that are less than input costs, as it resulted in low quality of service provisions and unfair competition in the past,” said the expert. “Eighty percent of the buildings in the capital are privately owned; henceforth the impact of such problems will pose great challenges.”

Baymot also urges that the designer be made to supervise and inspect the construction of the building.

Bole Road Gets Eight Traffic Lights

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The city’s Road Traffic Management Agency has installed eight new traffic lights on African Avenue (Bole Road) with the goal of regulating traffic congestion through the corridor.

The Addis Abeba City Road Traffic Management Agency finalised the construction and installation of the traffic lights last week hoping to improve the traffic flow and safety of pedestrians on the road. The lights are part of the 40 traffic lights and 10 variable message displays procured by the Agency at a cost of 158 million Br last year.

Of the total installed traffic lights on Bole Road, four of them were installed at the underpass entrance and exit from Olympia to Wollo Sefer. The remaining four traffic lights were installed on the roads that will connect driveway entrances in front of Flamingo Restaurant, Mega Building, Fantu Supermarket and Millennium Hall. The project was fully funded by the City Administration and took 15 days.

Sysproen Systems & Project Engineering Plc worked on the procurement and installation of the signals and traffic lights. Sysproen Systems was hired for the project last year. Haverim Construction General Contractor worked on the civil works after being hired three months ago.

Before launching the project, the Agency hired two consulting firms, United Consulting Engineering Plc and G & Y Consulting Engineering Plc to study, design and supervise the project 10 months ago.

The project was initiated since Bole Road accommodates a large number of vehicles, is a gateway to the Airport, and is the site of frequent traffic accidents in the area, according to Semere Jelalu, deputy director-general at the Agency, which hired 1,300 first degree holders through the Addis Abeba City Public Service & Human Resource Development Bureau.

“With the increasing number of vehicles in the country,” said Semere, “it’ll help to improve traffic flow and road safety in the city.”

The Agency is also in the process of removing trees and flowers on the island of that road that may obstruct the view of the landscape along the pedestrian crosswalk, according to Semere.

“The redevelopment will reduce the risk to pedestrians,” Semere told Fortune. “It will also avoid long queues while vehicles make U-turns.”

The Agency is also working on the modification of the roundabouts at Goro, Ayer Tena, Tor Hayloch, Diaspora and Africa Union at a cost of 330 million Br.

The project aims at replacing roundabouts that have been causing heavy traffic woes and congestion, according to Semere.

Currently, the Agency is working on the redevelopment of four squares in the city out of five projects.

“This modification is being done for the sake of safety and operational inefficiency,” said Jiregna Hirpa, director-general at the Agency. In the current fiscal year, the Agency has installed over 20 traffic lights in the city.

Last year, 4,597 people died and a total of 873 million Br in property was lost to damage. More than half of all road traffic deaths are vulnerable road users such as pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists. The capital has a total of 613,638 registered vehicles.

The Agency has been undertaking different activities to ensure regulated traffic flow by placing traffic lights, speed breakers, fences, and other facilities on busy and high-speed roads by entering into different agreements at various times with traffic signal installation, road painting and civil work contractors, according to Semere.

Shiwaye Mersha, a lecturer at Kotebe Metropolitan University’s Department of Urban Transport Management, believes that modifying and installing traffic lights can alleviate the problem temporarily but is not a long-lasting solution.

Shiwaye adds that the government should also focus on training for drivers and traffic police as an option to alleviate the problem.

“The government should also work on road management,” she recommended.

Ex-Investment Commissioner Opts to Join Intergovernmental Org

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Abebe Abebayehu, ending two years at his post as commissioner of the Ethiopian Investment Commission and a total of five years of public service, is venturing into the intergovernmental sphere.

The seasoned investment chief is weighing offers from intergovernmental organisations for the sake of what he says is his next endeavour – supporting reform by working under these kinds of organisations.

“I share the vision of the Prime Minister,” said Abebe, “Although I’m weighing options, I’m just changing the side of the table. And I’ll continue to support the government.”

Abebe, a career lawyer, first began his journey in public service as the deputy commissioner of the Investment Commission under the leadership of Fitsum Arega, who is now serving as Ethiopia’s ambassador to the United States. Later on, he moved under the wing of the Office of the Prime Minister as a senior legal advisor.

Two years before, he took the helm as chief of the Commission after replacing his former boss, Fitsum. During his stint at the Commission, one of his legacies was the recrafting of the six-year-old investment law, which has been credited with loosening the chains around the investment environment. The law was approved by the parliament earlier this year.

The new investment law opens the doors for public-private partnerships in the areas of international airport transport service, imports, export power distribution through the integrated national grid system and postal services with the exception of courier services. It has also allowed the partial engagement of foreign investment for the provision of logistics service, air transport services, inland public transport and freight transport.

“He has led the re-doing of the investment law and regulation, which has changed the tables of the investment environment,” said Anteneh Alemu, deputy commissioner of Investment Commission.

Parallel to this, the new investment regulation, which has been tabled to the Council of Ministers for final approval, is one Abebe’s achievment.

“To a certain degree, we’ve automated the service delivery service including the one-stop-shop window service,” said Anteneh. “This has done wonders in simplifying the investment procedure and communication.”

“I’m very proud to say the Commission has the largest pool of technical experts that provide support to the growth of investments,” said Abebe. “I was lucky to have them behind my back.”

Abebe has expressed that he has no regrets he would pinpoint specifically.

“I leave with my head high,” he said.

Before his journey in public service, he worked at the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, where he took up the task of founding a secure public-private dialogue in Ethiopia.

His career journey started out as a lecturer in law at the School of Law & Governance at Addis Abeba University, the school where he finished at the top of his class and was awarded with the Chancellor’s Gold Medal Award. He has an LL.M in International Trade & Investment Law from the University of Western Cape, South Africa and an LL.M in Energy Law & Policy from the University of Dundee, United Kingdom.

The seat he has left behind has now been taken by perhaps the youngest government official, Lelise Neme, the outgoing CEO of the Industrial Parks Development Corporation of Ethiopia (IPDC) who is now the new EIC commissioner.

Lelise, who is often the talk of the town for assuming a top position at a young age, has served a total of two years as the director-general at the Office of Oromia Industrial Development Agency and as deputy CEO of the Oromia Industrial Park Development Corporation.

She studied at the School of Civil & Environmental Engineering at Jimma University and soon after her graduation assumed the position of a lecturer at the same university.

Shiferaw Solomon, the deputy CEO of the Industrial Parks Corporation, has said that her leadership style is unparalleled and well above the stereotypical judgement for people her age.

“She is living proof that if young people are empowered to lead, they can lead,” he said.

Her biggest achievement in her post as the chief executive of the Commission was operationalising seven of the 11 industrial parks in the country.

“She isn’t far from IPDC, and I’m sure she will excel in her next endeavour. Last week, her position was assumed by Sandokan Debebe, director-general at the Technology Innovation Institute that was established last year.

Sandokan, a PhD candidate at Addis Abeba University, received two second-degrees in food science & human nutrition and business administration. Before joining the Institute he served as a founding member of the Ethiopian Biotechnology Institute and the Ethiopian Space Science & Technology Institute. He also served as deputy director-general for the Ethiopian Biotechnology Institute.

He has served as a board member for Ethio telecom, director for the Ethiopian Intellectual Property Office, director for the Science & Technology Information Center, and a lecturer at the Addis Abeba Science & Technology Information Centre.

Wood Processing Plant Sets Foot in Debre Tabor

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A Chinese company is set to build a wood processing plant in Debre Tabor town, 324Km from the capital, with an investment of five million dollars.

Wu Ke Song Wood Products will process plywood and chipboard, sheet lumber made from real wood and resins that are heat pressed into flat usable sheets. It will have a capacity of processing 2,000Sqm of wood a day and is expected to supply value-added products to the local and international market.

For the construction of the plant, the company signed a 70-year land lease agreement with Debre Tabor City Administration two weeks ago. The plant will process wood products, mainly plywood and chipboard, from raw material that will be sourced locally.

The company leased the 30,000Sqm plot of land for 54.45 Br a square metre and paid half of the value up front, according to Chen Shuren, one of the four owners of the company, which is expected to create 150 to 200 jobs.

The construction of the plant will be started as soon as a contractor is hired, according to Chen, who has already contracted architects from the City Administration to work on the design of the plant.

The company intends to import machines from China after finishing the construction of the plant. The owners also plan to commence operations within the completion of the construction of the plant.

“There are not many investments in Debre Tabor, so this project will encourage businesses to invest in the area,” according to Agmasie Gebeyehu, industry and investment office leader at Debre Tabor City Administration.

Wu Ke Song Wood Products will be the second large-scale investment in the area next to Abay Industrial Development S.C., a public-private firm established with four billion Birr in capital raised from close to 400 founding shareholders that is also constructing a timber processing plant in Debre Tabor.

At the industrial park in the area, there are 47 different projects that have a total initial capital of 829 million Br. The companies received land last year to produce flour, sponges, animal fodder and detergents, among other products. The companies are expected to create job opportunities for over 4,000 local people.

Out of the total projects, the industrial park has now eight fully operational factories engaged with the making of flour, detergent, sponge, animal feed and wood products.

“Debre Tabor is an ideal place to source raw materials for plywood and chipboard wood products,” said Agmasie.

In the last fiscal year, the national forest coverage was estimated to be 17.4 million hectares. The highest forest base areas, which cover 93.5pc of the total area, are found in the Amhara, Oromia, and Southern Nations, Nationalities & Peoples’ regional states.

The new dry port in Wereta, in northern Gonder of Amhara Regional State, is a good opportunity for the company to export its products, according to Chen. The dry port, which was built for 90 million Br, is anticipated to help facilitate Ethiopia’s trade with Sudan. It will rest on three hectares of land and be able to accommodate 1,000 containers at once.

Getie Andualem (PhD), a marketing expert and an associate professor at Addis Abeba University, believes that the company will be beneficial in terms of getting raw materials and manpower.

Getie fears that the electric power shortfalls across the country might be a problem for the factory.

“It’ll encourage local investors to venture into this sector, as well as bring about technology transfers,” he added.

Pensioner’s Agency Switches Payment to Banks

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The Addis Abeba Region of the Public Servants Pensioners Agency has terminated its contract with the Ethiopian Postal Service Enterprise for the monthly payments to pensioners. The Agency will now be using seven banks to provide the service.

Close to 24,000 out of the total 160,000 pensioners are receiving their payments through the Enterprise’s 31 offices, an arrangement that has been in place for over two decades. The payment of pensioners in Addis Abeba will now be carried out by seven banks – the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia, Bank of Abyssinia, Hibret, Awash, Oromia, Addis and Dashen banks – as of July.

The change has been made with the goal of reducing queues and protecting pensioners from exposure to the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) by minimising the need for close contact between people, according to Tamirat Gashaw, Addis Abeba Region Head of the Agency, which has over 750,000 registered beneficiaries countrywide.

The pensioners will be notified through 120 professionals at the Agency who have been working to create awareness of COVID-19 since April. The deployed professionals are working on-site at the 31 offices of the Postal Service.

The pensioners will have an account in any one of the listed banks, and their pension payments will be directly deposited into their account.

The Enterprise has now put up posters notifying pensioners of the transfer of payments after this month, according to Ziyen Gedlu, communications and international relations chief officer of the Enterprise, which will continue providing the same service in the Oromia and Southern Nations, Nationalities, & People’s regional states.

“It was a social responsibility more than a profit-driven venture,” she said.

The Agency, in collaboration with the Ministry of Innovation & Technology, has also launched its pilot e-service to benefit federal government pensioners over a month ago. The e-service provides primarily online registration of new users of the pension scheme under the Agency.

Previously, newly hired public servant pensioners were required to apply for their registration through their physical presence or a representative.

Once the form is filled, public servants can send it online using the e-services platform and get their identification number, according to Sisay Emeru, director of registration and pension entitlement at the Agency.

The Agency has started the service with 34 federal government offices as a test in Addis Abeba. Another service offered digitally is the change of address of the pensioners payment station. The Ministry of Innovation & Technology has, including the services by the Agency, availed up to 100 services online, with over 70 more ready to go live. It is working with institutions to speed up and ease different services to users.

“Initially, we’re approaching institutions and offering this platform,” said Bethlehem Bedilu, assistant director of government services and applications development and administration at the Ministry. “Now, service providers are taking the initiative and asking to have their clients access services through the platform.”

Following the application of an institution, it takes a maximum of one month to have the services online, according to Bethlehem.

“This is setting aside the internal network and infrastructure set-up requirement of the organisations,” she said. “Our job is to study the workflow of the services provided and integrate it with the system.”

The Ministry is planning on upgrading the platform once e-transactions like online payments and document authentication are added in the coming year.

While it is commendable that these services will be availed to the pensioners, it raises the question of whether or not there are enabling environments for the pensioners to make use of them, according to Getnet Tadele (PhD), professor of sociology at Addis Abeba University.

“This requires not only the know-how to navigate the sites but having the right devices that can access it,” he said. “We’ve got to make sure pensioners can use it with assistance.”

As COVID-19 has and will continue to bring to light the gaps in the social security system, the government has a significant role to play in ensuring that pensioners get the support they need at this time, according to Getnet.

“The interventions should also be aligned with the specific socioeconomic needs of the pensioners,” he said.