ETHIOPIA: IGAD on Agreement & more – 25th Jan 2024

Salaam salaam from BA! This is the Rorshok Ethiopia Update from the 25th of January twenty twenty-four A quick summary of what's going down in Ethiopia.

Ethiopia’s agreement with Somaliland to get an outlet to the Red Sea continues to be the hottest topic. Last week, we told you that the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (or IGAD) was going to convene and discuss the matter. Well, after the meeting that took place on Thursday the 18th, the organization issued a statement expressing ‘profound concern’ over the situation between Ethiopia and Somalia. The IGAD also said that Somalia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity should be respected, adding that any agreement should be subject to the country’s consent. It called for dialogue and a peaceful resolution while prioritizing East Africa’s stability.

The US also participated in the meeting through the Special Envoy to the Horn of Africa Ambassador Mike Hammer, who agreed with the IGAD. He also stressed that no action should be taken on Ethiopia’s peacekeeping troops in Somalia that were deployed to fight against the terrorist group Al Shabab. He said that this disagreement between Somalia and Ethiopia might be a fertile ground for Al Shabab to amp up its activities and recruit more people. He also said that the disagreement would destabilize the whole region and urged for a peaceful resolution. Ethiopia didn’t participate in the meeting, citing a congested schedule.

Speaking of Ethiopia’s schedule, some government officials were in New Delhi, India, to participate in the BRICS Chamber of Commerce and Industry assembly. At the event, Ethiopian Airlines received the Corporate Sustainability Award for its consistently impressive results. Recall that Ethiopia and a few other countries including the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, joined BRICS on the 1st of January.

The Airline was in the news again as it revealed that it will add Safaricom’s M-Pesa as a payment method soon. This will allow the company’s clients to pay for tickets and other purchases through the app. The company’s officials told the media that Ethio Telecom’s Telebirr will remain a payment alternative as per their agreement signed a while ago and that M-Pesa will be an additional payment solution. Ethiopian Airlines CEO Mesfin Tassew and the CEO of Safaricom Ethiopia Wim Vanhelleputte are expected to make this official and sign an agreement this week. Recall that M-Pesa, Safaricom’s mobile money service, began operating a few months ago after it obtained a license from the National Bank for a pricey hundred and fifty million US dollars.

The Ethiopian Capital Market Authority announced on Thursday the 18th, the issuance of its first-ever comprehensive legislation that will regulate capital market service providers. The Authority’s Director General dubbed the directive a significant milestone in the development of the capital market. The law includes matters such as activities that require a license, how to obtain a license, and what licensed service providers can, can’t and must do. The authority’s director general also said that preparations are almost done for the capital market to begin operating, with the Ethiopian Security Exchange set to start the provision of services in a few months.

Moving on, on Monday the 22nd, The Ethiopian Roads Administration said that from the total amount of cement supply it needs for road construction in the current budget year, it has only managed to get fourteen percent. The director also told the committee that the administration got less than forty percent of the fuel it needed to work on road projects. He explained that the Administration couldn’t procure the supplies in the required amount, adding that the only hope was to wait on the soon-to-be inaugurated Lemi Cement Factory. The administration explained that it has more than two hundred projects all over the country but that twenty-five of its project offices have been suspended due to security concerns.

Another government entity, Ethio Telecom, also presented its report this week. Frehiwot Tamiru, the company’s CEO, presented its half-year report on Tuesday the 23rd. She said that even though it has been a tough competition ever since Safaricom entered the market, her company is in the lead ‘by all criteria.’ She added that the company’s customer base is still growing and that it has raked in an impressive eleven billion birr or almost two hundred million US dollars in just six months - a fourteen percent jump in net profit compared to last year and a one hundred and thirty-seven percent execution rate. But it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows; the CEO said that there were numerous challenges over the past months, including service restrictions owing to instability in some parts of the country and accidents and theft on network infrastructure.

There were a few shuffles in the cabinet here and there this past week. The Ethiopian Investment Commission’s Commissioner and her two deputies were replaced, making this shuffle the fifth time officials in these positions have been replaced over the past six years. The commissioner who has served for three years in the position has been named the new director of the Environmental Protection Authority. Who’s been appointed as the new commissioner you ask? The former CEO of the government enterprise EthioPost. Since no one was appointed as the CEO of EthioPost, the deputies of the former head of the company are acting as interim CEOs

Next up, The Committee to Protect Journalists or CPJ, has published a report ranking countries based on the incarceration of journalists, and Ethiopia has ranked third in Africa next to Eritrea and Egypt, with eight journalists in custody at the moment. It was reported that all eight journalists were arrested last year after reporting on the unrest in the Amhara region. Following the CPJ’s report, on Tuesday the 23rd, the Ethiopian Mass Media Professionals Association issued a statement urging the government to immediately release media professionals under custody with their rights intact.

On a related note, it’s been a tragic few weeks for the journalist community of Ethiopia as it lost two prominent figures. Asfaw Meshesha, who was a renowned TV and radio show presenter, passed away on Saturday the 13th in Washington where he was hospitalized. Asfaw is especially remembered for his show ‘Life in America’ in which he documented the lives of Ethiopians living in various parts of the US. His funeral was held on Monday the 22nd at the Holy Trinity Cathedral in Addis.

Sadly, he wasn’t the only journalist who passed away recently.

Another respectable figure, Genene Mekuria, a sports journalist, died on Tuesday the 23rd at the age of fifty-nine. He is known and celebrated for his knowledge of Ethiopian sports history. He has served for over forty years on various radio and TV stations. A few years ago, the Confederation of African Football gave him the CAF Golden Order of Merit Award; the only journalist from East Africa to receive the award. His funeral was held on Wednesday the 25th.

In Ethiopia, if you want to carry out business, you’ll need a license, which you’ll have to renew every year if you want to keep doing business. Well, it looks like some people in Addis Ababa aren’t following the renewal rules. According to the city’s trade bureau, only seventy-two percent of all businesses in the city have managed to renew their licenses for the current fiscal year - a significant number when you take into account that almost four hundred thousand businesses in the city are expected to renew their licenses. Moreover, only 72% renewed their licenses even with the bureau granting an additional ten days for renewal, which elapsed last Friday, the 19th. The Bureau said that it is going to take legal and administrative actions against persons who haven’t renewed their business licenses.

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

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