Planting Millions of Trees & more –20th July 2023

Salaam salaam from BA! This is the Rorshok Ethiopia Update from the 20th of July twenty twenty-three A quick summary of what's going down in Ethiopia.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed launched a campaign entitled ‘Green Legacy’ in which reportedly, billions of trees are planted. This year’s edition plans to break the record of most planted trees in a day by planting five hundred million seeds in twelve hours. Tuesday the 18th was the big day, many went out and planted. By the end of the day, the Prime Minister proclaimed in a statement that the people have ‘made green history’. He said that more than five hundred and fifty million seeds were planted and thanked everyone that participated.

On that note about the Prime Minister, when he came to power, he promised sweeping reforms. One of these reforms had to do with media freedom and freedom of expression. Fast forward five years into his reign, and most prominent social media outlets have been blocked and only work through VPN clients. These also include apps like Telegram, YouTube, Facebook, and Tiktok. The restrictions were put in place in February this year during the schism between self-proclaimed Church leaders and the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. Although the issue was resolved in a few weeks, the restrictions persisted. It felt like Abiy had turned his coat. On the afternoon of Monday the 17th, the government lifted the restrictions. Citizens don’t know why the government kept the restrictions for about five months or what kindled this change of heart.

Speaking of the media and freedom of expression, the office of the Ethiopian Insider was burgled into and robbed. The government frequently puts the online news outlet under pressure because of its reports. The alleged robbery happened on the night of Sunday the 16th. The thieves took three new digital cameras, lenses, laptops, and a smartphone. The company said it had called the nearest police stations and officers are conducting an investigation. Ethiopian Insider suspected that certain entities that have been consistently pressuring the outlet, organized the robbery.

Now, a peculiar story…

These past few months, a new trend in the crime scene has emerged. Criminals kidnap individuals, take them to rural areas and ask their families to pay a huge ransom for the abductee. Some kidnappers get away with it and others get caught. But the news from Dessie, a city in the Amhara region, is peculiar. An individual, with his accomplices, staged his own kidnapping and asked his own family to pay the ransom - five hundred thousand birr or ten thousand US dollars. His family asked for the assistance of the police immediately. The police found the man orchestrating the show in a hotel room with his accomplices and arrested the abductee’s partners.

The university exit exams, which the Ministry of Education organizes, were held last week and results were revealed on Sunday the 16th in an online portal. Seemingly every time such national exams are held, there are lots of controversies. The latest came on Sunday the 16th when the online portal showed that students who’d gotten more than fifty percent as having failed the exam. The Ministry resolved the issue a day later on Monday the 17th and such students had their status changed to ‘pass’. Some students were also told through the portal that their results haven’t been revealed - a shortcoming of the online system.

Government universities did well as two-thirds of their students passed the exam whereas private colleges fell short with only seventeen percent of their students passing the exit exam. The Ministry of Education said that it will take legal measures against institutions that give out degree certificates to students that haven’t passed the exam. The Ministry’s PR head said that degrees given to students that have failed the exam will be considered false and invalid.

This month has been very busy for universities. They prepared to administer the exit exams, somewhat successfully conducted, and are now holding graduation ceremonies. On Wednesday the 19th, the Dire Dawa University held its ceremony and on the next day, on Thursday the 20th about twenty universities are set to hold their respective ceremonies. On Sunday the 23rd, just days after the graduation ceremonies, the universities are set to welcome twelfth-grade students to administer this year’s university entrance exam.

Let’s go back to the internet restrictions for a minute. On Tuesday the 18th, just a day after internet restrictions were lifted, Ethio Telecom, a public telecom services provider revealed that it had raked in more than seventy-five billion birr or one billion, five hundred million US dollars during the twenty twenty-two twenty twenty-three fiscal year that ended last month. Its Chief Executive Officer said that the company has attained its goal for the year and a little more - gross revenue was a hundred and three percent of what was planned. Revenue jumped by more than twenty percent compared to last year.

The CEO also talked about Telebirr, a payment processing app that Ethio Telecom developed and owns. She said that the number of Telebirr users has increased to about thirty-four million, their total transactions adding up to almost sixty hundred and eighty billion birr or more than ten billion US dollars. Although the company is turning over a profit, the government is actively working on selling a sizable chunk of the company to investors.

While Ethio Telecom is reaching its goals, other sectors are not doing so well…

Ethiopia is one of the biggest coffee exporters in the world. The country earns thirty percent of its entire foreign currency through coffee exports. But Ethiopia hasn’t been able to replicate the success of Ethio Telecom in terms of revenue this time around, although the Ethiopia Coffee and Tea Authority planned to make one point eight billion US dollars by selling three hundred thousand tons of coffee, The country only managed to sell two hundred and forty thousand tons making one point three million US dollars. An official at the Authority blamed the underwhelming results on the international market.

If you’ve ever been to Addis and wanted to hitch a ride, you’ll know that international ride apps such as Uber and Lyft don’t work. Instead, you must have used local copycats such as Ride and Feres. Since their inception, the government has considered vehicles working through the app as rentals and has been levying value-added and turnover taxes. However, on Tuesday the 18th, The Addis Ababa City Revenue Bureau revealed that it will not be levying turnover and value-added taxes on these vehicles anymore. Why? Because these vehicles are helping alleviate the shortage of transportation alternatives and they should be financially encouraged.

And for our final update, we're gonna tell you about an artist that many people admire. We are talking about the beloved and prominent singer and songwriter Ijigayehu Shibabaw also known as Gigi. She is one of the most respected female artists in Ethiopia. Heartfelt lyrics coupled with her beautiful voice have melted the hearts of many. Although she currently lives abroad and has left the Ethiopian music scene, her influence remains. The Injibara University revealed on Thursday the 20th that it has awarded Gigi an honorary doctorate. The university's president said that respecting and recognizing Gigi's works is to respect Ethiopia, its history, and patriots that she so vividly captured in her songs.

We've put a link in the show notes of a collection of her songs on YouTube so you can see/hear for yourself why many love her songs.

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

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Ciao!