Category: Business

Africa should boost investment in human and financial capital to accelerate its sustainable industrialization and economic growth, acting Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa Antonio Pedro said.

Pedro made the remark at the 43th Southern African Development Community (SADC) Ordinary Summit of the Heads of State and Government in Luanda, Angola.

Noting that human and financial capital were key drivers for sustainable industrialization, Pedro said much of Africa was off track to meeting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) despite the region having endowments to rescue the SDGs and achieve Agenda 2063.

African countries should align their education systems with market and societal needs, he urged.

Equally, he said governments must invest in science, technology, and innovation to move away from the resource extractivism model that characterizes most of Africa’s mineral-rich countries and escalate value chains to avoid the middle-income trap.

According to him, the impact of the global shocks of conflict, climate, food, and energy crises as well as heightened tensions call for a strong African position within the global geopolitical economy.

“Business as usual will not deliver the SDGs and Agenda 2063 nor the future we want. We need a paradigm shift in our approach to accelerate the pace of industrialization, achieve an impactful structural transformation, and meet our goals.”

Pedro challenged African leaders to establish an ecosystem for transformational change and leadership that brings together the government, the private sector, and other stakeholders in quality dialogues and co-creation of home-grown solutions.

“The time we devote to creating an enabling environment for Foreign Direct Investment should equally be spared into creating an adequate environment for domestic investors, big and small, because the emergence of a strong and competitive small and medium-sized enterprise sector will create the jobs we need for the youth,” said Pedro, calling for industrial policies to be at the center of development policies.

In addition, he stated African countries must move beyond aid and broaden finance to enhance productive capabilities by mobilizing more domestic resources through pension funds which are attracted to bankable projects.

Noting that carbon credit markets can support industrialization in Africa, the acting Executive Secretary of ECA said at 120 USD a ton of CO2 sequestrated, Africa can generate 82 billion USD a year, more than what the continent receives from Overseas Development Assistance.

Source: Ethiopian News Agency

Faithful at ACK St. Philips Korisai parish within Malaba area of Teso-North Sub County are a worried lot after thieves broke into the church and stole property worth Sh150, 000.

Rev. Gabriel Muzungu said the thugs broke the window through which they accessed the vicarage where the electronics and food items that were part of Sunday harvest offertory were stored and stole them.

The incident is the second attempt at the church by thugs who seem to target musical instruments in places of worship and school laptops meant for digital literacy programmes.

‘Early this morning I was informed that the vicarage had been broken into by unknown people who made away with items including musical instruments and foodstuffs worth around Sh150,000,’ said Rev. Muzungu.

The parish curate, Rev. Videlis Ekaiti, said it’s disheartening that now places of worship are the main target as the thugs no longer have respect for God.

The vicarage that was broken into by the thieves at ACK St. Philips Korisai parish

She appealed to traders dealing in second-hand electronics in the neighbouring areas to report to the police in case they receive speakers, microphones, pianos, or any of the things the church lost.

The parish chairperson said cases of insecurity are rampant in entire Teso North sub-county, with the main target being electronics, including school tablets.

‘In the last month, four churches have been broken into and over 10 schools have lost laptops and tablets in a similar narrative,’ she claimed, appealing to the police to improve on night patrols to mitigate cases of insecurity in the region.

Source: Kenya News Agency

The Ethiopian Coffee and Tea Authority announced that over 11 million USD has been secured from spices export in the concluded Ethiopian Fiscal Year (EFY).

Coffee, Tea and Spices CEO at the authority, Fikadu Adefris told ENA that due attention was given to spices development in the fiscal year.

As a result, over 790,000 tons of spice was produced by cultivating 443,859 hectares of land.

The 75,000 tons of spices production in the year has exceeded that of the previous year, and 11.6 million USD secured by exporting 6,693 tons of spices, he said.

Ethiopia exported its spices to Saudi Arabia, India, United Arab Emirates, Europe and other countries.

In order to increase the productivity of spices, guidelines and technology packages that enable to manage from seed to production levels have been prepared and implemented, he stated.

According to the CEO, the country plans to earn over 16 million USD by exporting 9,342 tons of spices in this fiscal year.

In Ethiopia, more than 1.5 million farmers are engaged in the production of spices.

Source: Ethiopian News Agency

Ethiopia is a strategic partner for Indonesia in all kinds of cooperation, and the number of Indonesian companies interested in engaging in the country has been increasing, Indonesia’s Ambassador Al Busyra Basnur said.

In an exclusive interview with ENA, the ambassador said “I see the light in the sky that the future economic cooperation between Ethiopian businessmen and Indonesian businessmen and Ethiopia and Indonesia in general is going to be great.”

Ambassador Basnur added that he has done his best to engage with more Ethiopian businessmen and also Indonesian businessmen to connect them through various ways.

According to the ambassador, there are a lot of Indonesian companies and businessmen coming to visit Ethiopia and many of them are interested to invest in the country, especially in the pharmaceutical, food and beverage sectors.

At the same time, many Ethiopian businessmen are traveling to Indonesia and “I am very happy to see their interest and spirit to encourage economic cooperation between our two countries,” he added.

The ambassador revealed that last year, for instance, about 80 Ethiopian businessmen went to Indonesia to visit the Indonesian trade expo and the Ethiopian delegation was the largest ever delegation from African countries.

Ambassador Basnur also said that Indonesian companies will be visiting Ethiopia next month. The companies come to invest and trade with the second most populous country in Africa.

Praising the ever strengthened relation between the two countries, he stated that his role as the Ambassador of Indonesia is to connect the people, businessmen and the countries.

Commenting on the business environment and the economic reform in Ethiopia, Ambassador Basnur said that “I really appreciate the policy taken by the Government of Ethiopia and the economic programs.”

He believes that the policy opens wide and great opportunities for foreign businessmen to come to Ethiopia to invest and the role of industrial parks is really good.

“Opening up the economic sector is really timely, and it is an important decision taken by the Government of Ethiopia. Indonesia will participate and I will inform all Indonesian businessmen about the great opportunity in Ethiopia to increase bilateral economic cooperation and also investment.”

Indonesia imports cotton, leather, spices, and coffee from Ethiopia, while Ethiopia imports soap and detergent, palm oil and its derivatives, paper, yarn, electronic devices, margarine, and furniture products, among others.

Diplomatic relations between Ethiopia and Indonesia started in 1961.

Source: Ethiopian News Agency

The Ethiopian Investment Commission has signed an agreement with China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) to invest in Jimma Industrial Park.

Higher officials from the Commission, Industrial Parks Development Corporation and the Embassy of China visited Jimma Industrial Park on Wednesday.

Jimma Industrial Park is one of the public-owned industrial parks that is intended to host multi-sector investment projects and is accessible to both domestic and foreign businesses.

During the occasion, Ethiopian Investment Commission has signed an agreement with China CCECC to invest in the Park.

According to the agreement, CCECC will screen and process the raw coffee and export it to international markets.

This project aims to catalyze the transformation of the sector and provide decent jobs, the commission indicated.

The higher officials also planted seedlings at Jimma industrial park.

CCECC entered the Ethiopian market in 2012 and now is participating in various mega projects including industrial parks in the country.

Source: Ethiopian News Agency

Ethiopian Airlines has made a 10-percent cargo discount effective this month in order to support and boost the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) in the continent, the CEO said.

The CEO, Mesfin Tassew, told ENA that the airlines made the discount which will take effect in August, 2023 to support and boost the implementation of AfCFTA.

Further discount could also be introduced based on the market and agreement, if deemed necessary, he added.

Noting that airlines are enablers of people-to-people connectivity and economic integration, he stated that Ethiopian made the incentive to improve overall connectivity in Africa.

Mesfin pointed out that Ethiopian is a Pan-African carrier connecting the people of the whole African continent more than any other operating airline in Africa.

As the major aim of AfCFTA is to improve people-to-people connectivity and economic integration, African countries should make progress towards its effective implementation and increase intra-African trade in the continent, he said.

According to the CEO, the air transport among African countries is lagging behind both in terms of passenger and cargo transport when compared to the rest of the world.

It is when African countries allow the agreement for the movement of people and goods that social relations and trading activities will improve, he noted.

The air transport volume in Africa is still very low when compared to the rest of the world.

Ethiopian has been working with the belief that the airline is an African airline since the old days, the CEO pointed out, adding that the airline is doing this as a big continental responsibility.

“Therefore, we have to do our part so that the trade between African airlines, not only in people to people but also goods, grows. So we gave the incentive to facilitate and help this. We have given this special discount because we want to help the business community and governments. Depending on the situation, we may sometimes give further discount based on agreement.”

The Ethiopian Airlines Group, particularly through its unrivaled Ethiopian Cargo & Logistics Services network, provides a freight transport service to 60 plus destinations in Africa, it was learned.

More than half of the destinations are served with a mix of freighter aircraft, ensuring the safe and hasty transportation of goods within and beyond the continent, according to the CEO.

As a proud pan-African airline connecting the continent, Ethiopian Airlines Group has announced offers of special cargo rates boosting Inter-African trade.

Coupled with the active implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), seamless Air Cargo Service would present an opportunity for a range of businesses, including Small and Medium enterprises (SMEs).

Source: Ethiopian News Agency