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Ethiopia Launches National Business Portal

Mar 7 , 2020

The Ministry of Innovation & Technology (MINT) has launched a national business portal service, a one-stop portal for e-government services, with the main aim of facilitating business activity. Launched on March 6, 2020, the portal will provide services including issuing business licenses, processing business registrations and giving information to entrepreneurs through an online one-window service. It is designed in collaboration with MasterCard Foundation, the Ministry of Trade & Industry, the Ministry of Revenues, the Ethiopian Investment Commission and the Addis Abeba City Administration. The platform, which is initiated by the government, aims to make government services more accessible online, reducing the cost of transactions and improving turnaround time for citizens. The service is part of the economic reform agenda, which aims to streamline the process of doing business in Ethiopia, according to Ahmedin Mohammed (PhD), state minister for Innovation & Technology.

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HEFTY GREEN

Street vendors around the Shola area take a rest in the shades of the capital's newly planted trees. Upon reporting on its 10-month performance before parliament, the Agricultural Minister indicated that up to 43pc of the arable land in the country has been rendered acidic. This requires large amounts of limestone to be imported from abroad; the tight forex crunch has not allowed the Finance Ministry to fund the endeavour easily. Following the rallying call of the PM a staggering 6 billion seedl...

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DAMP DENIMS

Residents of communal houses around the Weji area hang their clothes on the fences outside. Textile manufacturing accounts for 87pc of Ethiopia's products from industrial parks. Expulsion from the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) due to the war in the North resulted in Ethiopia being expelled from the preferential trade act. Most companies choosing to rent sheds within the industrial parks do so out of a desire to access the duty-free privileges provided for African countries. Ethiopia...

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PRICY PLEASURES

Vendors put traditional beauty products from the Somali regional state for sale around Mexico. In November of last year, the Ministry of Finance banned imported goods under 38 categories, including cosmetics, packed foods, and furniture, from accessing letters of credit. The move resulted in the tripling of costs for cosmetic items like lipstick and nail polish. As Ethiopia ran a 14 billion dollar merchandise trade deficit last year due to import bills hiking by 26pc , a tight clampdown on forei...

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