
Fortune News | Oct 03,2020
Apr 6 , 2019
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (PhD) has marked his first year in office with a speech made early last week at Millennium Hall. Televised live, he was not received in euphoria as the case was when he was sworn in before parliament on April 2, 2019. It appears that the honeymoon for Abiymania has come to an end. He is now as much subjected to criticism as there still are many applauding his work and words, gossip observed.
Such is a development that might have put a toll on him, for the Prime Minister lately makes evident his frustrations as he becomes ever more defensive over his administration’s record to date, gossip sees. His audience can easily discern when he tries to lash out at some of the remarks people make over their concerns, reservations or opposition to his ways of governance.
Judging by his recent statements last week, it may be about time for the Prime Minister to develop the art of saying something without necessarily meaning much, a trait politicians often equip themselves with, claims gossip. Abiy’s most confusing, if not controversial, part of this speech was his claim that he helped the nation generate 13 billion dollars in only seven months, of which more than half was used by the private sector. He also took pride in calling such forex mobilization “unparalleled” in the country’s history.
What might have prompted him to make such claims now, and the accuracy of his statement, was the subject of interest near and far.
His governor for the central bank, Yinager Dessie (PhD), alarmed the nation a while back after he told MPs that the level of forex reserves were falling - covering just two and a half months of imports - and that the economy would suffer from a crunch soon. He warned that unless something significant happened to reverse the situation, the country would be forced to allocate all its forex to the import of medicine and oil.
The Prime Minister might have made this claim hoping to calm a market that was in panic mode. Nonetheless, the conflicting messages that come from the top man in government and the most crucial person stirring the economy reveal how much the administration’s officials are not in tandem, claims gossip. It merely exposes the lack of coordination between them in their messaging, gossip says.
Neither is it clear what keeps the governor up at night to ring such an alarm, since the forex crunch in the economy is nothing new, and there were far worse moments than this, according to gossip. A couple of years ago, the country’s forex reserves had dwindled as low as covering only three weeks of import bills, claims gossip. However, if he is to respond generously to demands from the nation’s commercial banks, and in particular from the state-owned Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE), there is no doubt the reserves will plummet quickly.
Despite Yinager’s determination to tighten the purse, he is under huge pressure to fulfill CBE’s steady demand for forex. CBE has high exposure in letters of credit it has been issuing, causing panic in official circles due to a risk of default on its commitments, gossip disclosed. Never mind that Ethiopia requires no less than 20 billion dollars to pay for the completion of its many public projects, including its largest dam that has so far consumed 3.4 billion dollars, which is over 600 million Br more than budgeted initially, claims gossip, though only 66pc of the massive project has been completed to date.
The Prime Minister took the risk of pinning himself down to specific numbers, which made it harder to account for the breakdown, claims gossip. Indeed, the World Bank has committed 4.5 billion dollars to support Ethiopia’s economy, while the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development has made one billion dollars available in a time deposit and two billion dollars in foreign direct investments. What is left is forex revenues that may have been generated from exports, remittances and services. But it is hard to see the numbers add up to what the Prime Minister would have wanted the nation to believe, claims gossip.
PUBLISHED ON
Apr 06,2019 [ VOL
19 , NO
988]
Fortune News | Oct 03,2020
Fortune News | Nov 16,2019
Fortune News | Apr 17,2021
Radar | Nov 13,2021
Fortune News | Mar 13,2021
My Opinion | Sep 06,2020
Radar | Apr 16,2022
Fortune News | Aug 27,2022
Radar | Oct 16,2021
Photo Gallery | 63995 Views | May 06,2019
Photo Gallery | 55877 Views | Apr 26,2019
Fortune News | 50933 Views | Jul 18,2020
Fortune News | 50517 Views | Sep 01,2021
Dec 24 , 2022
Biniam Mikru heads the department of cabinet affairs under Mayor Adanech Abiebie. But...
Jul 2 , 2022 . By RUTH TAYE
On a rainy afternoon last week, a coffee processing facility in the capital's Akaki-Qality District was abuzz with activ...
Nov 27 , 2021
Against my will, I have witnessed the most terrible defeat of reason and the most sa...
Nov 13 , 2021
Plans and reality do not always gel. They rarely do in a fast-moving world. Every act...
Jan 21 , 2023
Eyob Tekalign, state minister for Finance, took to social media platforms last week t...
Jan 14 , 2023
The longing for normalcy and a semblance of individual and collective security in Eth...
Jan 7 , 2023
The hallmark of Ethiopia's contemporary leaders could be a fascination with grandeur...
Dec 31 , 2022
A change of guards in 2018 gave Ethiopians hope for better circumstances from the pre...
Jan 21 , 2023
Fewer couples tied the knot in 2022 than the year before; the post-pandemic environment could be attributed to over 12,000 more married coup...
A women's rehabilitation and skill development centre foresees construction as Mayor Adanech Abiebie laid...
Contractors are apprehensive about buying a policy from insurance companies as the requisite for collateral is half the performance bond. Af...
Jan 21 , 2023
Two federal offices of the highest stature saw newly appointed young leaders installed last week. Parliam...