ETHIOPIA: Diesel Car Ban & more – 11th July 2024

Salaam salaam from BA! This is the Rorshok Ethiopia Update from the 11th of July twenty twenty-four. A quick summary of what's going down in Ethiopia.

As we talked about in previous shows, Ethiopia has banned the import of engine cars in favor of electric vehicles. However, this ban has been criticized because it hasn’t followed any legislative procedure and has come about merely as an administrative decision from the Ministry of Transport and Logistics. The Ethiopian Investment Commission is also not on board with this decision. The Commissioner sent a letter to the Ministry saying that prohibiting the import of diesel cars is not part of any law and will affect the work of investors engaged in various sectors that need diesel, including agriculture, manufacturing, and tourism. The Commissioner asked the Ministry to allow investors to import diesel cars that are essential to these sectors.

Speaking of diesel, on Wednesday the 10th, the Ministry of Trade and Regional Integration announced an increase in gas prices. They have stayed the same for the past two months, with regular sitting at seventy-eight birr or a dollar and thirty-six cents. Prices have jumped to eighty-two birr or a dollar and forty-three cents. The Ministry revises the price of gas every month, determining prices based on market forces acting both locally and internationally. The Ministry said this month’s hike was due to an increase in the international oil market.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has had a busy week as usual. He went to neighboring country Sudan, which is in the midst of a protracted civil war. He arrived at Port Sudan on the morning of Tuesday the 9th. He sat down with General Abdul Fetah Al-Burhan, the head of one of the warring parties. After the meeting, the PM’s office issued a statement saying that the two had a productive discussion. The government said that the meeting focused on finding a solution to the civil war in Sudan, which has been raging for over a year.

The next day, on Wednesday the 10th, the PM returned to Addis and attended a recognition and award ceremony that the Government Communication Service prepared. He also gave a speech on the occasion, saying that media organizations aren’t required to support the government but must inform the public of the truth and must honor the country’s national benefit. He told the media outlets present during the ceremony that the information they pass out should not threaten the integrity and security of the state. However, the event faced criticism as the outlets awarded had similar opinions to the government.

Moving on, Ethiopia is not a member of the World Trade Organization (or WTO) but it wants to be. The problem is that negotiations for the country’s admission have delayed the process because Ethiopia hasn’t implemented the economic policy reforms needed for membership. Ethiopia announced that it had entered the fifth round of negotiations, which are scheduled for September this year. The country’s representatives say that the WTO has many questions and requirements, regarding foreign currency, investment, industry parks, among others. The Ministry of Trade and Regional Integration is overseeing negotiations and plans to get Ethiopia admitted to the organization by mid-twenty twenty-six.

In other news, it has been two weeks since the residents of the Benishangul-Gumuz region in Western Ethiopia have been living without electric power. Residents are saying that because of the outage, businesses had to stop operating. What’s worse is that the Assosa General Hospital is saying that it will be forced to stop treating patients if it doesn’t get access to electric power soon. According to the CEO of the Ethiopian Electric Power, insurgent groups damaged the transmission line from the West Wollega Zone to the Benishangul-Gumuz region on Monday the 24th of June. The CEO said that rebuilding will take some time (but didn’t say how much). He added that the corporation will build temporary lines. The corporation’s PR head said that such incidents have been occurring frequently lately.

Speaking of electricity, the Petrol and Energy Authority revealed that the tariff for electric vehicles fast charging stations would be the same as the low tariff set for industries that consume less electricity. The Authority added that this tariff rate will remain in force until the new grid retail tariff rate gets approved. The new tariff rate will be determined through a directive by the Petrol and Energy Authority. The directive will also set the minimum requirements to engage in the charging station business, including technical, safety, and operational requirements.

On the economic front, the National Bank issued a new monetary policy, saying that would help control inflation. This policy introduces a fifteen percent new national bank rate at which commercial banks will borrow. According to the bank, this rate takes into account the decreasing amount of loans banks gave individuals in recent years, inflation, and the interest of banks that give loans to their customers at rates between sixteen and twenty percent. The new fifteen percent loan rate will apply to loans that commercial banks take out from each other. The bank also clarified that commercial banks are free to determine the interest rate on loans they give to their customers.

The Ministry of Labor and Skills has announced that it has prepared a directive allowing asylum seekers and refugees to get work permits. According to the directive, they can work in any field except defence, security, foreign affairs and some other similar government jobs that, because of their nature, require citizens to fill in these posts. Refugees and asylum seekers must get a work permit from the Ministry or an entity authorized to issue work permits. They must be renewed every year. The directive also allows refugees and asylum seekers to engage in business fields of their choice except for those sectors reserved for Ethiopian citizens by law.

The Ethiopian budget year is coming to a close and various governmental and non-governmental entities are issuing their yearly reports. One of them is state-owned telecom services provider Ethio Telecom. According to its annual report released on Wednesday the 10th, the company brought in over ninety billion birr or a billion and a half US dollars, meaning revenue has climbed over twenty percent compared to this time last year. The company also took in over twenty billion birr or almost four hundred million US dollars in profit, a performance that exceeded its expectations at the beginning of the year. Ethio Telecom also announced that the number of users of its e-money service Telebirr has increased to almost fifty million; and transactions through the Telebirr app have reached one point eight trillion birr or over thirty billion US dollars.

Ethio Telecom was in the news again as it announced the launching of TeleTV, an online movie platform made in collaboration with EagleLion Tech. The two companies held a press conference on Thursday the 4th where they said that TeleTV will allow users to rent movies for a couple of days via an app available in Google’s Play Store and Apple’s App Store.

And to wrap up this edition, some sports newsl The twenty twenty-three/twenty twenty-four Ethiopian Premier League ended this past week as the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia’s football team clinched its first-ever top-flight title. What’s surprising is that the team just got promoted to the Premier League this season, and the two other promoted teams were relegated back down to the second division. It was a close call for the Commercial Bank as it beat Mechal by a single point. It was not a season to remember for giants such as St. George and Ethiopian Coffee, who finished the season in fifth and third place.

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

As you must know by now, we do not only make podcasts, but also other cool projects. Right now Rorshok is developing a new app designed to help you make decisions within a group of people. Would you be interested in giving it a try? If so, please email us at info@rorshok.com. We’ll give you early access to the beta version as soon as it’s ready and the chance to help us improve it.

Ciao!