Construction on the fibre-optics East African Submarine Cable System (EASSY) project has been launched on Thursday to connect 21 African countries to each other and the rest of the world with high-quality Internet and international communications services.
It is reported that the cable would be installed by Alcatel-Lucent along the sea-bed off Africa’s east coast. It was expected to be operational by the first half of 2010.
“We are pleased to work with the Eassy Consortium in laying this new cable that will expand communications capabilities and help reduce the digital divide in the region,” said Alcatel-Lucent submarine network activity president Etienne Lafougère.
The supply contract for installation of the cable was now in force. The funds were provided by the consortium of 25 telecommunications operators, of which 19 were African companies.
The operators of the system were Bharti Airtel Limited of India, Botswana Telecommunications Corporation, British Telecommunications, Dalkom of Somalia, Djibouti Telecom SA, Etisalat of the United Arab Emirates, France Telecom, Mauritius Telecom, MTN of South Africa, Neotel of South Africa, Saudi Telecom Company, Comores Telecom, Sudan Telecom Company, Tanzania Telecommunications Company, Telecom Malagasy, Telecommunicacões de Mocambique, Telkom Kenya, Telkom SA Vodacom of South Africa, Zambia Telecommunications Company, Zanzibar Telecom, Uganda Telecom, U-Com Burundi SA, Office National Des Telecommunications of Lesotho, Lesotho Telecommunications Authority, and Gilat Satcom Nigeria.
Five major development finance institutions, namely the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the African Development Bank, the Agence Française de Développement, KfW of Germany, and the European Investment Bank, were partnering to provide the project’s long-term loan financing of $70,7-million, with $18,2-million coming from IFC.
The $247,1-million balance of the project cost, would be provided by the Eassy consortium members.
“This is a very important milestone toward implementation of the Eassy cable, which will transform the telecommunications landscape in the region. It will provide Internet and other communications access for 250 million Africans and substantially reduce costs for consumers and businesses,” said IFC director for global information and communication technologies Mohsen Khalil.
The cable would run 10 000 km from Africa’s southern tip, around the African horn, and into the Red Sea, connecting South Africa, Mozambique, Madagascar, Tanzania, Kenya, Somalia, Djibouti, and Sudan.
The IFC indicated that consumers along Africa’s east coast typically paid between $200 and $300 a month for Internet access via satellite.
These prices created a barrier to usage and restricted economic activity and growth. Once the Eassy cable was in place, prices for international connectivity were expected to drop by two-thirds at the outset, and the number of subscribers would increase rapidly.
Because the project would give open access to service providers, prices would fall further as volume and competition increased. This was expected to stimulate the development of new knowledge-based industries, call-centers, and similar ventures. Educational and health activities in the region would also benefit from access to low-cost Internet.
In a separate initiative, the World Bank was assisting with the implementation of regional distribution networks to connect landlocked countries in East Africa to each other and the Eassy cable, helping maximise access.
Another 13 adjoining countries would also be linked to the system as terrestrial backbone networks were completed through the broader World Bank initiative, and these included Botswana, Burundi, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Chad, Ethiopia, Lesotho, Malawi, Rwanda, Swaziland, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
Construction on the fibre-optics East African Submarine Cable System (Eassy) project, which would connect 21 African countries to each other and the rest of the world with high-quality Internet and international communications services started on Thursday.
The cable would be installed by Alcatel-Lucent along the sea-bed off Africa’s east coast. It was expected to be operational by the first half of 2010.
“We are pleased to work with the Eassy Consortium in laying this new cable that will expand communications capabilities and help reduce the digital divide in the region,” said Alcatel-Lucent submarine network activity president Etienne Lafougère.
The supply contract for installation of the cable was now in force. The funds were provided by the consortium of 25 telecommunications operators, of which 19 were African companies.
The operators of the system were Bharti Airtel Limited of India, Botswana Telecommunications Corporation, British Telecommunications, Dalkom of Somalia, Djibouti Telecom SA, Etisalat of the United Arab Emirates, France Telecom, Mauritius Telecom, MTN of South Africa, Neotel of South Africa, Saudi Telecom Company, Comores Telecom, Sudan Telecom Company, Tanzania Telecommunications Company, Telecom Malagasy, Telecommunicacões de Mocambique, Telkom Kenya, Telkom SA Vodacom of South Africa, Zambia Telecommunications Company, Zanzibar Telecom, Uganda Telecom, U-Com Burundi SA, Office National Des Telecommunications of Lesotho, Lesotho Telecommunications Authority, and Gilat Satcom Nigeria.
Five major development finance institutions, namely the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the African Development Bank, the Agence Française de Développement, KfW of Germany, and the European Investment Bank, were partnering to provide the project’s long-term loan financing of $70,7-million, with $18,2-million coming from IFC.
The $247,1-million balance of the project cost, would be provided by the Eassy consortium members.
“This is a very important milestone toward implementation of the Eassy cable, which will transform the telecommunications landscape in the region. It will provide Internet and other communications access for 250 million Africans and substantially reduce costs for consumers and businesses,” said IFC director for global information and communication technologies Mohsen Khalil.
The cable would run 10 000 km from Africa’s southern tip, around the African horn, and into the Red Sea, connecting South Africa, Mozambique, Madagascar, Tanzania, Kenya, Somalia, Djibouti, and Sudan.
The IFC indicated that consumers along Africa’s east coast typically paid between $200 and $300 a month for Internet access via satellite.
These prices created a barrier to usage and restricted economic activity and growth. Once the Eassy cable was in place, prices for international connectivity were expected to drop by two-thirds at the outset, and the number of subscribers would increase rapidly.
Because the project would give open access to service providers, prices would fall further as volume and competition increased. This was expected to stimulate the development of new knowledge-based industries, call-centers, and similar ventures. Educational and health activities in the region would also benefit from access to low-cost Internet.
In a separate initiative, the World Bank was assisting with the implementation of regional distribution networks to connect landlocked countries in East Africa to each other and the Eassy cable, helping maximise access.
Another 13 adjoining countries would also be linked to the system as terrestrial backbone networks were completed through the broader World Bank initiative, and these included Botswana, Burundi, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Chad, Ethiopia, Lesotho, Malawi, Rwanda, Swaziland, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
(Reuters) — China will invest 5-billion Yuan to build Ethiopia’s first industrial park, part of a plan to help the Horn of Africa nation mimic the Asian giant’s rapid economic growth, an Ethiopian minister said.
Up to 80 Chinese companies involved in textiles, leather and manufacturing construction equipment are expected to invest in the industrial zone being built at Dukem, 37 km (23 miles) east of the capital Addis Ababa.
“The construction of the industrial zone will help Ethiopia emulate China’s 20 years of accelerated development,” Trade and Industry Minister Tadesse Haile told Reuters on Friday.
Due to be built on a 5 sq km (2 sq mile) plot over the next five years, the China-Africa Development Fund is financing the project.
China is investing heavily in Africa and has won favour among many governments who prefer its no-strings-attached policy towards aid, in contrast to Western governments that usually place conditions on its donations.
China sees Africa as a key frontier for selling its goods and acquiring resources like oil and metals to help feed its fast growing economy.
Ethiopia has forecast economic growth of nearly 11 percent in 2008 after expanding at an official rate of 10 percent annually for the last five years.
The country of more than 80 million remains one of the world’s poorest and depends on agriculture for half of gross domestic product, 60 percent of exports and 80 percent of total employment.
CFTC to Send a Delegation to Ethiopia to Provide Technical Assistance to the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange Authority
Washington, DC – The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced today that it will be sending a delegation of senior staff to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to provide technical assistance to the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange Authority (ECEA).
“We are pleased to be able to assist the recently-established ECEA in developing and implementing its regulatory regime in overseeing the soon-to-be-launched Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECEX),” said CFTC Acting Chairman Walt Lukken. “We are delighted to share the CFTC’s experience and knowledge with the ECEA in this exciting undertaking.”
It is expected that this one-week technical assistance program, provided by the CFTC and funded by the United Nations, will assist the ECEA to successfully achieve its goals of maintaining a transparent, efficient, and financially sound futures market.
Specifically, the technical assistance will focus on the following:
• Regulatory structure;
• Product development and contract design;
• Market surveillance and compliance issues;
• Trade practice surveillance and investigation issues;
• The clearing process and the use of intermediaries; and
• Enforcement
Why doesn’t Dr Ashebir Woldegiorgis respect the will of EFF’s general assembly and instead focus on improving his dental clinics in Addis Ababa that are known for their poor service and high prices?
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BBC News
FIFA has confirmed that it will not send a delegation to a meeting on Saturday to restore sanity within the Ethiopia Football Federation (EFF). This means the internal wrangling which has affected the EFF for the past three months is set to continue. Fifa will not ratify the event because EFF boss Dr Ashebir Woldegiorgis has not been allowed access to his office.
“The president’s denial to the headquarters cannot be seen as a return to normalcy,” Fifa said in a statement.
The meeting is part of the road-map to normalize the problems within the EFF.
The EFF’s general assembly fired Woldegiorgise in January for what they said was the “dismal” record of Ethiopian football and elected Ahmed Yasin to replace him.
However, the January meeting was not recognised by Fifa who met both parties to find a solution.
Fifa and the Confederation of African Football (Caf) released the road-map last month which was agreed by both parties.
The road-map said that Dr Woldegiorgis and his executive committee are the only leadership that Fifa and Caf would recognise but that an extraordinary meeting of the EFF should be held on 29 March.
The agenda of the meeting would simply be a “motion of dismissal” of the current executive committee.
According to the EFF statutes, for this motion to be approved it would have to supported by two-thirds of the valid votes cast by the official delegates in a secret ballot.
After a long two years and five months in prison, the two Ethiopian anti-poverty campaigners Daniel Bekele and Netsanet Demissie were released from prison this afternoon.
“We are thrilled that Daniel and Netsanet have finally been released from prison. It has been a long wait for them and their families, but finally freedom and justice is theirs. The release is a testament to Daniel and Netsanet’s contributions to human rights and poverty eradication in Ethiopia, Africa and around the world, and is a vindication of civil society efforts to confront injustice.” said Kumi Naidoo, Secretary General of CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation and Co-Chair of the Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP), speaking from outside Kaliti Prison in Addis Ababa upon their release.
Daniel and Netsanet, both coordinators of GCAP in Ethiopia, were today released following recent negotiations. While they were acquitted on treason related charges in December 2007, they were found guilty on the lesser charge of “provocation and preparing incitement” and sentenced to two and a half years in prison. If they had served the full sentence, they would have been released in early May 2008.
“It is indeed a wonderful moment for civil society in Ethiopia. Two of the country’s most courageous defenders of human rights and social justice are once again free. Today, their release is being celebrated in the over 100 country coalitions of the Global Call to Action Against Poverty and CIVICUS members in more than 120 countries,” said Irfan Mufti, Campaign Manager of GCAP.
Daniel and Netsanet were the last two remaining detained in the high profile treason trial that originally charged 131 journalists, politicians and civil society leaders on a range of charges from genocide to treason. They were among thousands who were detained following protests accusing the government of rigging the 15 May 2005 parliamentary elections.
Aside from their work with GCAP, Daniel is also head of the policy department at ActionAid International Ethiopia. Netsanet is also the founder of local human rights group Organisation for Social Justice in Ethiopia. Daniel and Netsanet were instrumental in coordinating legitimate election monitoring activities by local civil society organisations during the May 2005 election.
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For more information – CIVICUS: www.civicus.org, GCAP: www.whiteband.org
Julie Middleton, CIVICUS – in South Africa: +27 82 403 6040, [email protected].
Ciara O’Sullivan, GCAP – in Spain: +34679594809, [email protected]
