Commentaries | May 23,2021
Fist bumps were in order late last week between Eyob Takalign (PhD) (left), state minister for Finance, and Takele Uma, minister of Mines & Petroleum and head of the institution that oversees the mining sector, which has been a boom for federal treasuries over the past year. The occasion was the renovation of the Ministry’s headquarters in the neighbourhood commonly known as Wessen, as part of a revamping of federal agencies.
Takele gave a tour of the headquarters to members of the media and federal officials, including Motuma Mekassa (centre), former minister of Mines & Petroleum. The occasion was rounded off with recognition for the federal agency employees and blood donation by Takele for the National Defense Forces, a familiar sight these days, mainly by government officials.
The Ministry also released a sector report, showing a surprisingly impressive performance over the past two years. While mining remains heavily traditional and inefficient, with artisanal workers accounting for nearly all mined gold, the government has succeeded in formalising part of it. Within two years, exports from mining grew by around 2,000pc to account for a sixth of the 3.6 billion dollars in export revenues. In the first month of this fiscal year, the sector secured 38.5 million dollars, a third higher than the 29 million dollars from mining for the entirety of 2019.
The Ministry would like to see this success replicated and more. The strategies it has identified are facilitating a market for mining products on the Ethiopian Commodities Exchange (ECX) and developing industrial mining. The major roadblocks are the civil war in the north, particularly in Tigray Regional State, one of three top gold producers, and alarming levels of political instability across the country. Poor infrastructure and stubborn levels of informality are not helping either.
PUBLISHED ON
Sep 02,2021 [ VOL
22 , NO
1114]
Commentaries | May 23,2021
Editorial | Dec 19,2021
Commentaries | Dec 19,2021
Radar | Jun 19,2021
Year In Review | Sep 10,2021
Fortune News | Dec 19,2021
Radar | Jun 19,2021
Fortune News | Dec 25,2021
Viewpoints | Oct 30,2021
Editorial | May 23,2021
November 27 , 2021
Against my will, I have witnessed the most terrible defeat of reason and the most sa...
November 13 , 2021
Plans and reality do not always gel. They rarely do in a fast-moving world. Every act...
October 16 , 2021 . By HAWI DADHI
Residing in a country with no capital market, an organised marketplace for trading se...
August 28 , 2021 . By HAWI DADHI
The streets of Addis Abeba are as varied as they are many, although too many of them have yet to be named. From the narrow alleyways of the...
January 15 , 2022
Foes and friends of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (PhD) agree that his administration is...
January 7 , 2022
There has not been much research to put a number on high costs wars inflict on Africa...
January 1 , 2022
It is a norm to emphasise grand structural changes to address the myriad political pr...
December 25 , 2021
In the words of Herbert Hoover, the 31st president of the United States, it is older...
Put your comments here