Chairman of National Election Board Resigns & more –29th June 2023

Salaam salaam from BA! This is the Rorshok Ethiopia Update from the 29th of June twenty twenty-three A quick summary of what's going down in Ethiopia.

Birtukan Mideksa,the Chairwoman of the National Election Board, revealed on Monday the 26th that she had officially submitted a resignation letter to the House of People’s Representatives (or HoPR). She said, on her facebook page, that she was resigning because she needed a long break for her health. She also said that her stint as chairwoman was successful especially considering the board’s trustworthiness and efforts to help political parties. She reminded the public that she won’t be leaving with immediate effect, she will be working on unfinished issues and on transitioning to the new administration.

Did you know that Birtukan Mideksa was sentenced to life in prison more than a decade ago? That’s right, the previous regime charged and convicted the former judge with crimes against the constitutional order when she was a member of an opposition political party. She was pardoned and left for the US. A month after she went back to Ethiopia PM Abiy came to power and appointed her to the Election Board Chairwoman post.

Speaking of the Election Board, we told you last week that it conducted a referendum in the Wolayta zone of the Southern region. The referendum was held to decide whether or not the majority supported the zone being part of a new region with other zones and districts. Although the board said that results would be revealed in a day or two, it didn't announce results until Saturday the 24th. The result was a landslide in favor of creating a new region.

With a view to improving the education system, the Ministry of Education has introduced exit exams for undergrads in all fields. Previously, only law and medical students had mandatory exit exams.

This year’s inaugural exit exam has been somewhat controversial. The Ministry has said previously that those who fail (obtaining marks below 50%), will not get their degree certificate, but the issue of attending the graduation ceremony hadn’t been expressly dealt with. This past week, the Ministry of Education and other stakeholders cleared the matter. The Ministry said that it is only concerned with the certification of students and isn’t interested in the graduation ceremony.

Dr. Arega Yirdaw, the president of a renowned private college called Unity and president of the Association of Private Higher Learning Institutions, said that even if students fail their exit exam, they will be allowed to celebrate the graduation ceremony with passing students but reiterated the Ministry’s stance that they will not get the certificate.

This means the matter is up to individual institutions to decide whether or not students who failed the exam will participate in the graduation ceremony. So far, no institution other than Bahir Dar University has made passing the exit exam mandatory for attending the graduation ceremony. The University said that it is not going to give robes to students that haven't passed the exam. Because of the place graduation has in Ethiopian society and how families celebrate their childrens' prospective entry into the workforce, there are calls for Bahir Dar university to reverse its decision.

The exit exam is going to be held from the 10th to the 15th of July. The Ministry said on Wednesday the 28th that it has wrapped up preparations and is ready to administer the exam. Almost a hundred thousand students from private colleges and seventy five thousand from government universities will sit for this exam, which will be conducted online.

In other news, Ethio Telecom and the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia, the largest bank in the country, jointly revealed on Tuesday the 27th that they have partnered up to provide digital saving and loans services to the public. The companies have been working together for the past two years because the bank would allow its users to deposit and transfer using the Telebirr app. Telebirr and the new partnership will help expand services. The duo have introduced loans of up to fifty thousand birr or 1,000 dollars for entrepreneurs and employees paid through Telebirr.

Speaking of Ethio Telecom, Firehiwot Tamru, its Chief Executive Officer, presented the company's nine month executive report to the government development enterprises affairs committee of the HoPR. She said that the company has more than eighty million subscribers, adding that the company's payment processing software Telebirr has garnered more than thirty million users and was used for transactions reaching almost four hundred billion birr or about eight billion US dollars. The Committee asked her questions, two of which were on indispensable matters - the issue of restoring telecom access to war-stricken areas and the limited internet availability. The CEO said that her company has been working on restoring services in war stricken areas and in some of them, services have already been restored.. She also said that internet restrictions have been put in place by another government entity and not the company and as soon as the government gives the green light, restrictions will be lifted.

Recall that many social media sites including Facebook, Tiktok, Telegram and YouTube don't work without using a VPN. The restrictions were put in place about five months back in relation to the showdown between the government and the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church which was resolved peacefully. The restrictions haven't been lifted ever since.

More news regarding Telecom companies as Safaricom, Ethiopia's first and only private telecom services provider, hired its new CEO, Wim Vanhelleputte. The new CEO has considerable experience. Recall that former CEO Anwar Soussa left the company after two years.

Ethio Telecom's CEO was not the only woman who sat before the HoPR recently. On Tuesday the 27th, The Federal Auditor General Meseret Damtie also presented her report on certain entities. She said that her office has confirmed that there have been 'broad and many' irregularities in entities audited. The Auditor General said that the office identified nineteen federal government institutions with flagrant issues in their balance sheets including the Federal Ethics and Anticorruption Commission, the Information Network Security Agency and ten universities. House members posed to her an essential question; they asked her if the numerous mega-projects initiated by the PM had been audited. The Auditor General responded that her office isn't primarily mandated to audit projects of the PM but added that if the House requests so, these projects can also be audited.

Electric vehicles (or EV) are becoming popular in the capital very fast. However, there are only a few charging stations. Many EV owners use private charging ports at home. Recently, the petroleum and energy authority announced that it has drafted a directive which mandates the government to provide a charging station every fifty kilometers on the same side of the road. The authority said that the drafting process has been completed and all that's left now is to deliberate and promulgate the directive. To that effect, starting this week, the authority will discuss the matter with government and private stakeholders.

Although the majority of Ethiopians are Orthodox Christians, there's also a sizable Muslim population. Wednesday the 28th was Eid Al-Adha holiday and it was celebrated all over Ethiopia. In the capital, many Muslims went to the Addis Ababa Stadium to celebrate the holiday. That morning, commemorating Eid Al-Adha and so as to add further vibrance, the military fired cannons nine times.

That’s it for this week! Thanks for joining us!

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Ciao!