ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA — Forty years ago, the Ethiopian Telecommunications Board (precursor to today’s ETC) was viewed as a progressive government utility agency providing critical services. It even had a robust marketing department putting out ads such as the one below that were humorous and not at all like the image that today’s ETC usually fosters. In fact, today ETC has probably only been recently surpassed by EEPCO as the state utility company that Ethiopians most love to hate. Isn’t it time to open up the field to new players?
If the economy is a motor propelling the country forward, communications is a lubricant to make the journey efficient. When it comes to Ethiopia, the lack of ICT development causes severe friction inside the engine.
Ever since the EPRDF led government took over, the country has experienced a surge of public investment in various infrastructure projects such as energy, transportation, telecommunications etc. Though the overall case for liberalized markets are clear, experiences such as China’s have shown us that wise public infrastructure investment in different infrastructural developments often result in trickle down to the poor.
But perhaps the most shortcomings are present in the telecom sector. Lacking a policy framework to promote both physical and human capacity, the state telecom monopoly has left the country years behind most of the world in both telephony and internet penetration.
As technology is dominant in the sector, private initiative is crucial in identifying the less costly and more efficient products to supply through competition. This calls for an integration of the private sector in the telecommunications development policy and framework. It should also focus on delivering efficient services through removing bureaucracy from the system and provision of services to the grassroots level. It is crystal clear that the quality and accessibility of information technology has a huge impact on the whole economy starting from pulling investment to facilitating growth inside, creating jobs, raising public income and more.
The government has recently reaffirmed its intention to keep the status quo in telecoms for a long time to come. In instances where the state practices a monopoly over a certain sector, procuring the necessary financing tends to be difficult, often requiring questionable loan provisions such as exclusive supplier agreements, and can come at the expense of other sectors.
The rationale given by the Ethiopian government to keep ETC isn’t holding water. Mismanagement, corruption, inefficiency and ineffectiveness cannot be excused for plans of rural expansion and stability that have not come. Privatization with regulation and taxation appear a much better route to achieving targets and garnering revenue.
The Internet, introduced in Ethiopia in 1997, is a case in point. The number of subscribers still stands as one of the lowest in simple and per-capita magnitude anywhere in the world while, according to research by Samuel Kidane (PhD), the potential Internet user base (basic e-mail and some web-browsing) is as high as high as 250,000 in the city of Addis Ababa alone.
This is a potentially big market capable of sustaining a continued growth and also capable of generating significant revenue that could guarantee a strong foothold for Internet in Ethiopia.
However, the state of Internet penetration in the country hasn’t shown much improvement for the past 5 years. Even the long awaited upgrading of the national Internet infrastructure, when completed, will increase the subscriber base to only 12,500, a fraction of the potential market size.
Telecom monopolies used to be commonplace on the continent. But now almost all African countries seem to have learnt their lesson and allow competition in the communications space. Ghana for example has licensed as many as 40 ISPs, Malawi 24, with Egypt boasting 40 and Kenya, a long believer in telecom monopoly finally agreeing to license a staggering additional 50 players in the ISP industry.
But the real kicker when evaluating Ethiopia’s experience is that the last African country to get connected to the net and world’s worst failed state, Somalia, boasts multiple service provider and better infrastructure than much of the continent. Samuel asks, if ISP industry could thrive in an environment as difficult and challenging as in Somalia – in the absence of a government – then why is it that Ethiopia, a country with one of the oldest telecom monopolies and most experienced telecom technical and management labor force, is wasting such an opportunity and valuable time in its endeavor to develop?
Some may say that its about the over 3 billion ETB in revenue that the government is loath to relinquish such direct control over. Others may believe it’s mostly about ideology. In any case, it does not appear likely that the embrace of open communications technology which in part propelled Obama’s recent victory, is likely to be seen here for quite some time.
WAUSAU, Wisconsin (Wausaudailyherald.com) — A Wausau West High School teacher this summer wants to make graduation a little more special for students on the other side of the globe.
Choral director Phil Buch has asked local graduates to donate their commencement gowns so that students in Ethiopia may wear them. Buch has collected 30 gowns since June 1, with a goal of 75.
Wausau residents Dan and Grace Esterline plan to take the gowns with them during one of their frequent mission trips to Ethiopia later this year. The Esterlines have traveled to Ethiopia since 1966 to teach theology, English and first aid.
Graduates at the Ethiopian Kale Heywet School of Mission will wear the gowns in ceremonies next spring. Other schools in the northeastern African country also will receive gowns, depending on the number of donations, Grace Esterline said.
This is the first year the Esterlines have asked Buch to help collect gowns, which will be much appreciated by students who cannot afford them, said Wausau West graduate Zeru Shiferaw.
Shiferaw, 18, emigrated from Ethiopia to the United States in 2002 with his parents and three brothers.
Ethiopia is one of the world’s poorest nations, with a per-capita income of about $700, Shiferaw said. Students at Wausau West paid $25 for their gowns this year.
“Instead of just sitting in the closet collecting dust and filling up space, it’s going to be used and appreciated by some grateful individuals,” Buch said.
Wausau West’s Wakong Lor donated the gown he wore to graduation this year — a garment that already has a lot of miles on it. It already was put to good use by some of his seven siblings, including sister Mai Ying Lor, who wore it last year.
Wakong Lor, 18, heard about the gown drive during his time in Buch’s concert chorale class. Buch also encouraged West’s 460 graduates to give their gowns after their graduation rehearsal last week.
Lor said he spoke to his cousins to see if they, too, could donate their gowns.
“I’m … just so willing to do the most I can to give back,” he said. “I understand the importance of being on the other side and receiving and how happy I would be.”
The mission school director was grateful to hear about the donations, Esterline said.
Next fiscal year’s budget shows a deficit of 10 billion birr, Sufian Ahmed, the Minister of Finance and Economic Development, told parliament Thursday. The Government was asking parliament to approve a 64.5 billion birr budget for 2009-2010 fiscal year which starts in July.
Sufian said that the revenue that the government was able to collect stood at around 54.1 billion while its expenditure would be 64.5 billion birr, showing a deficit of 10.4 billion birr.
The Government expects to fill the gap in the budget from both local and foreign sources.
Sufian said that the government was hoping it would secure a loan of 3.9 billion birr from foreign financial sources while the rest, 6.9 billion birr, would come from local sources.
He added that the 10.4 billion birr that the government was going to borrow was 1.5 percent of the GDP and would not contribute to inflation or affect local borrowing.
Some MPs raised their concern whether it was possible to secure foreign loans at a time of global economic crisis.
Sufian argued that Ethiopia often borrowed from multi-national institutions such as the World Bank, and that these institutions were not that much affected by the global crisis.
“Moreover, the World Bank grants loans or direct assistance every three years, the current period extending from 2008-2011”, Sufian said.
Other institutions like the EU had a five-year grant programme, according to the minister.
Sufian said that donor countries like Britain would not reduce their assistance since PM Gordon Brown had pledged more assistance and even urged other big economies not only to maintain the amount of their assistance to poor countries but also to increase it significantly.
According to Sufian, the flow of foreign direct investment (FDI) would not show any significant variation in the coming budget year since, in the first place, it was low.
He said that the concern right now is that remittance money could significantly reduce it. Ethiopians living abroad are seriously affected by the economic crisis.
Of the total budget, nearly 14.5 billion birr is allocated for recurrent expenditure while the capital expenditure stood at 29.1 billion birr.
The rest, 20.9 billion birr, is allocated for subsidy appropriation to the various regional administrations.
The biggest subsidy goes to Oromia regional state and amounted to 6.8 billion birr while Amhara regional state came next with 4.9 billion birr.
The smallest subsidy goes to the Addis Ababa City Administration with nearly 114 million birr.
ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA — The 32 defendants who are accused by Ethiopia’s tribal junta of plotting to assassinate government officials appeared at the Lideta district court in Addis Ababa, the same kangaroo courtroom where Teddy Afro’s sham trial was conducted.
General Asaminew Tsige, one of the accused, asked the judge why himself and four other people were held in solitary confinement in Kaliti.
He said that their human rights are being abused and asked the court to the measure. The judge said that it wasn’t a court matter but rather an administration matter.
Also apart from five defendants all the 27 others don’t have a legal representation. The court today agreed to have them represented by two lawyers, despite unwillingness from one of the three judges, and an aggressive opposition from the prosecution.
Once two of the three judge made the decision, 15 minutes were given for the lawyers to consult their clients.
Strangely enough, two cameras were rolling at the time close enough to record the voices of the defendants and their lawyers, clearly violating their privacy.
After less than five minutes of consultation between the lawyers and their clients, one police officer who was guarding the prisoners protested to the judges. He told the judges that there was no reason why the defendants needed to be allocated time to speak to the lawyers.
Surprised by the outburst from the officer, one of the judges told him off, telling him that it was the defendants’ constitutional right, then adding: “if you don’t allow this in court, what is it like in prison?”
The officer kept quiet, and the crowd cheered and clapped. To which the pro-government judged told off the crowd for showing its emotions. That is a kangaroo court in action.
The other interesting part in the hearing this morning is that the defense lawyer of Berhanu Nega’s cousin Getu Worku asked for a private doctor to inspect her client. She added that the report would be kept as evidence.
Reuters managed to speak to several family members who said their loved ones were tortured. One of them had to be hospitalized after an injury to his penis due to the torture. Col. Biraa might have performed her specialty on him. She is a sadistic Woyanne intelligence officer whom Meles assigns to get any information out of suspected military officers.
The judges denied access to a private doctor, saying that the prison doctor should be enough.
The lawyer for Ato Tsige Habtemariam, the 80-year-old father of Ginbot 7 Secretary General, tried to get bail for his client. It was not denied, as the judges admitted that the health of the man and his age made it a special case, despite strong opposition from the prosecution. The prosecutor said that once freed Ato Tsige could be in touch with Ginbot 7 (his son in particular).
Next hearing is Friday, June 26.
Out of the 32 who appeared in court today, 14 are military military officer.
Also today, representatives from the Germany and American embassies were present at the hearing.
Addis Ababa, ETHIOPIA (The Reporter) — Electric power outage is becoming one of the most devastating problems in contemporary Ethiopia. It appears to be routine practice living without light every two days, where the power sources are dominantly depend on rain-fed dams.
The Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation (EEPCo), in its latest announcement, disclosed that power will be interrupted for 18 hours per shedding day for 15 days between June and July. The new schedule, which divided the nation in two groups and covers cities, towns, kebeles as well as villages, is now starting to be implemented from June 9 to July 7. Many fear that if the rain would not fall and the dams continue running short of water, the whole country would face a complete blackout. Currently, all major manufacturing firms are disconnected from the national power grid, and EEPCo told flour mills and other manufacturing firms across the nation to use electric power economically only during less power load. This time the corporation, which is already in a power crisis, is idly waiting for the rain instead of searching for other alternative sources of electric power. Its officials are too busy in telling stories about incomplete hydropower stations.
Addis Ababa, the seat of the federal government and many international organizations could not escape the frequent power shedding due to acute shortage of power. While the untapped hydropower potential of the country stands at 30,000 MW, the total installed capacity of the national grid from hydropower, diesel and geothermal sources is only 870 MW.
According to official figures, the national electric power demand gap is an alarming 120 MW, while the annual power demand growth is going up by 16 percent.
In response to the current world economic crisis which is putting a big pressure on developing economies, the World Bank (WB) is set to increase its assistance to Ethiopia to USD 1 billion, World Bank Country Director for Ethiopia and Sudan Ken Ohashi said yesterday.
In a roundtable discussion he held with local journalist, yesterday, Mr. Ohashi said that the amount of money to be available to Ethiopia is 30 percent more that what the Bank was initially contemplating.
The money will be available starting from the beginning of July, which is the start of the next fiscal year for the World Bank.
Mr. Ohashi said that the Bank is seriously considering to increase the amount of financial resources available to African countries who are beginning to feel the pinch from the current global economic crises.
He said that it was unfortunate for African countries to suffer from the crisis which was not of their own making.
Ohashi said that it was up to each African country to take measures extricate itself from this problem.
The World Bank assistance alone cannot bring change, he noted.
“Unfortunately, the burden of adjustment falls on the African countries themselves,” he said.
He added that inflation in Ethiopia seemed to go down compared to twelve months before.
“Last July, the inflation was out of control as it stood at 64 percent. This time it is not at least out of control,” he said.
