ETHIOPIA: A Cabinet Shuffle & more – 24th Oct 2024

Salaam salaam from BA! This is the Rorshok Ethiopia Update from the 24th of October twenty twenty-four. A quick summary of what's going down in Ethiopia.

Let’s kick off this episode with news from the Ministers’ quarters. Around two weeks ago, we reported that Ambassador Taye Atske-Selassie became Ethiopia’s president. His appointment as president meant a cabinet shuffle. He used to be the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

On Friday the 18th, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed appointed Minister of Justice Gedion Timotewos as the new Minister of Foreign Affairs, replacing Taye, and named the Investment Commission’s Commissioner Hana Araya-Selassie as the new Minister of Justice. She had only served as the Commissioner for six months before this appointment. She used to be the CEO of the Ethiopia Postal Service. Well, who’s going to replace her at the Investment Commission? That would be her former deputy Zeleke Temesgen, who had worked at the International Labor Organization and the House of Federation.

After this reshuffle, on Tuesday the 22nd, Abiy arrived in Kazan, Russia, to participate in the sixteenth BRICS summit, which ran until Thursday the 24. This will be Ethiopia’s first-ever BRICS summit since joining the bloc of emerging economies early this year.

Prime Minister Abiy used the occasion to hold bilateral talks with the leaders of some of the member countries, most notably, Russian President Vladimir Putin. PM Abiy said that he admires Russia’s resilience in maintaining a strong economy while fighting a war. He added that Ethiopia is committed to strengthening relations with the country. Putin said that relations between the two nations have continued to grow stronger and that trade volume has increased over the years. He additionally revealed that Valentina Matviyenko, the Chairman of the Russian Federation Council, will head to Addis Ababa for a work trip next month.

The National Electoral Board was in the news this week as on Tuesday the 22nd, it revealed that it had suspended eleven political parties for failing to audit, not supporting female members, and not following procedural rules. Suspended parties didn’t operate at the federal level but at the regional level. The parties won’t be able to engage in legal activities until further notice. Their members will also not be eligible for elections.

The Board sent a letter to the Joint Council of Political Parties urging it to ensure that the suspension is complied with and prevent suspended parties from partaking in the Council for the time being.

The board’s busy week continued as it announced price increases for its services on Tuesday the 22nd. Previously, the board charged one hundred birr (which is less than one US dollar) for a temporary recognition certificate, and now political parties will have to pay 15,000 birr (that is, about a hundred and twenty US dollars). They used to pay two hundred birr (less than two US dollars) for a complete recognition certificate, and now it costs thirty thousand birr (which is two hundred and fifty US dollars).

The Joint Council of Political Parties didn’t like these price increases, saying they would potentially limit citizens’ right to associate and that the board didn’t discuss this with political parties.

Politics aside, it was an eventful week as the Ethiopian Investment Holdings signed an agreement with Dodai, a Japanese manufacturing firm, to initiate a study on building battery swap stations for electric motorcycles. The project is predicted to be worth around thirty million US dollars with the battery swap stations available around Addis. Dodai is currently engaged in the Ethiopian market, having already sold a thousand electric bikes, with plans to sell ten thousand this year. Recall that the government has banned gas vehicle imports, including motorcycles.

Speaking of business partnerships, Hotto, a local restaurant, announced that it had made a deal with the British Butler Institute, an industry leader in butler and hospitality training. The deal aims to improve the skills and professionalism in Ethiopia’s hospitality industry. An executive chef and partner at Hotto restaurant said the shortage of skilled workforce has curtailed the hospitality industry’s growth.

The lead trainer at the British Butler Institute expressed his excitement over the deal saying that this agreement will not only benefit Ethiopia but other countries in the region, such as Kenya and Rwanda. He added that he noticed staff training has lagged behind and hasn’t kept up with the pace of the opening of new hotels and restaurants.

In other news, there was a fire incident on Monday the 21st in the city’s busy market district Merkato. Fortunately, no lives were lost, but about nine people sustained injuries and there was significant damage to property. The Addis Ababa City police said they would be teaming up with the federal police’s forensic investigation team to determine what caused the incident. Eyewitnesses told media outlets that a stove caused the fire but nothing conclusive has been announced thus far. The city police also revealed that it has detained over thirty individuals who allegedly took advantage of the incident and attempted to loot stores.

Ethiopian Airlines announced on Tuesday the 22nd that flights to Liberia’s capital, Monrovia, would resume on the 30th of November. Flights to the West African city were paused recently, but starting next month, the carrier will resume flying there three times a week. The airline is currently operating flights to over a hundred and forty destinations across the world.

Another state-owned enterprise with an important announcement this week is Ethio Telecom. The company announced on Sunday the 20th that Bahir Dar, the capital of the Amhara region, will now have access to 5G internet. This means that 5G is now available in six cities across the country, which the company dubbed an achievement accomplished by a few countries in the world. Recall that, last week, the company began offering ten percent of its stake to the public via its own superappTelebirr, with a single share going for three hundred birr (which is a little over two US dollars).

Almost four years ago, a two-year war broke out in northern Ethiopia, which ravaged the Tigray region. Even though the war ended two years ago, the region’s business community continues to suffer. The federal government granted a grace period for the repayment of loans that businesses in the region took out before the war started despite businesses asking for all debts to be canceled. In two months, this grace period will end, and the region’s commerce chamber said this week that it would ask the prime minister to provide a plan to bail businesses out. The chamber mentioned that it previously discussed the issue with the PM, who commissioned a committee to seek solutions. The chamber said it is not satisfied with the works of this committee so far.

Speaking of loans, the government has been an active borrower from international institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (or IMF) and the World Bank, especially since the government put the macro-economic reform program in place. On Friday the 19th, the IMF announced that it approved a loan worth almost three hundred and fifty million US dollars. The IMF said in a statement that the loan would help Ethiopia balance its payment needs.

This loan is part of a broad finance arrangement that amounts to almost three and a half billion US dollars.

And to close this edition, some sports news. FIFA revealed the world ranking of national teams on Thursday the 24th. Sadly, the Ethiopian national football team has slipped even further behind to a hundred and forty-eighth position, going back three points compared to last month. This position has been the worst in the past six years and is, in part, the result of losing two qualifier matches to Guinea back to back a week ago.

Aaand that’s it for this week! Thank you for joining us!

Thanks for tuning into the Rorshok Ethiopia update. You can find us on your Spotify, Apple podcasts and all the other platforms as the Rorshok Ethiopia Update.

Ciao!