Ministry of Trade and Regional Integration (MoTRI) drafts a proclamation to amend a two decade old controversial law for the establishment of the chambers of commerce. The description document that Capital reviewed indicated that membership will be mandatory for businesses, and companies, who have multiple branches throughout the country, and failure to do so will mean removal from being a member of the city chamber.
The chamber of commerce and sectorial association establishment proclamation 341/2003 which was last ratified two decades ago has been criticized by different stakeholders. Multiple papers and studies have been developed on the aim to improve the proclamation and government on its end has also facilitated several discussions to better the proclamation.
The description document which was issued by MoTRI also acknowledged the same and cited that the document read that prior to and after ratification of the proclamation, it did not get consent from the business community hence the stir of controversy.
Organization structure, membership, representation, powers and duties, were some of the areas that were identified as sources of debate.
The document added that the proclamation should be amended on the consideration of the sector benefit, the global situation and economic growth.
In order to solve the challenges and make the chambers fruitful and helpful to the economic growth and congruent with government policies and other laws, the new coming proclamation has been drafted.
The draft highlighted that the various controversial points in the current proclamation will be addressed.
For instance, it said that membership should be mandatory for all business operating in the country. Currently, that is not the case.
However, in the Derg era chamber membership was a mandatory, while it was left open in the emperor and EPRDF reign.
The description document argues that non-mandatory membership has affected the chamber in terms of capacity, revenue and in terms of contribution to the economic sector, while those who are not members of the chamber benefit equally to members, which is unfair.
“If the membership is made mandatory all members will benefit fairly and chambers will be a firm and strong arm for the business community,” the document read.
It added that a strong chamber with inclusive membership mutually benefits the government since it is easy to communicate with the business community through a single umbrella regarding dissemination of new policies, laws and regulations.
Strong and organized business representation will also be developed and provided for constructive input on government laws.
The formation of a council has also been recommended on the draft proclamation. The document described that the establishment of a council will be implemented under a national chamber which shall have a potential to solve problems mentioned regarding representations.
The document has also recommended for the chamber of commerce to be established independently and the business community or individuals to be members directly on the city or woreda chamber while regarding companies’ membership, a detailed directive is to be ratified by MoTRI.
However, it has been recommended for companies to become members on either city or woreda chambers that they operate in; and that for companies who have branches in more than one region to be a member on the national chamber.
The document has also recommended for the sectoral association to be formed as a separate entity.

Study indicates highly regulated financial sector and unfavorable collateral policy as major barriers in mobilizing private and public climate finance.
The study titled ‘Landscape of Climate Finance in Ethiopia’ prepared with the support of FSD Africa, the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, and UK Aid has been presented in a knowledge series event hosted by FSD Ethiopia on Thursday March 24, 2023.
As indicated on the report, Ethiopia has a highly regulated financial sector, with limited access to foreign banks and investors and has high collateral requirements and limits to how much companies can borrow. This makes taking loans extremely inaccessible to small-holder farmers and agriculture SMEs, who are vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. As the report further cites, the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) has issued a new directive to ease out the requirements, but uptake has been slow.
Even though it has one of the lowest shares of GHG emissions in the world (0.04% in 2019), droughts and desertification are the most destructive natural hazards in Ethiopia, with climate models predicting 1.5-30°C warming by 2050. Projects show that drought-induced impacts on agricultural productivity could reduce Ethiopia’s GDP by up to 10% by 2045.
Also due to high risk low returns, high transaction cost, high interest rates, lack of risk mitigation solution there is a lack of bankable projects in these sectors and appropriate financial products.

According to Ethiopia’s NDC, it requires USD 316 billion (mitigation 87% and adaptation- 13%) by 2030 to implement its NDC. Out of this, 20% will be mobilized domestically and 80% will be needed from international sources. Mitigation Costs: The updated NDC estimates that USD 275.5 billion is required to implement the mitigation targets in Ethiopia from 2020 to 2030. Out of the total USD 275.5 billion, USD 80 billion will be required in CAPEX to finance the CRGE’s four pillars
Ethiopia has established a policy landscape coupling economic growth with climate change action, focusing on low-carbon energy development, conservation of forest reserves, and practicing climate smart agriculture. It created a National Adaptation Plan (NAP-ETH) and developed a resource mobilization strategy to secure resources for adaptation. However, the current landscape of climate finance in Ethiopia is dominated by international public financiers, as private finance from domestic and international investors lags.
The Government has started to transition through the Homegrown Economic Agenda and the New Investment Law, but there is still scope for unlocking private capital through measures such as the development of capital markets, the creation of the Ethiopian Securities Exchange, and the EIH. The NBE should leverage the potential of MFIs and digital financial services to increase energy access, and report recommend government to, enable, and empower prominent public and private financial actors providing favorable collateral and lending policies, project pipelines, and capacity building for MCFs.
“Ethiopia should establish a climate budget tagging system to track domestic public expenditure and international investments, develop a climate-related expenditure tagging and tracking system, and conduct a bottom-up climate finance needs assessment,” the report recommends.
Also according to the report even though the government has a top-down approach to implementing the CRGE Strategy, there is a lack of institutionalization of the CRGE facility at the regional, woreda, and kebele levels, resulting in higher impacts of climate projects.

A delegation composed of members from the Ethiopian Customs Commission (ECC) has paid a visit to Djibouti to solve problems that have popped up in the past week with regards to customs documents.
A couple of weeks back, Capital reported that in relation to a visit led by Alemu Simie, Minister of Transport and Logistics, to Djibouti, one of the major talking topics revolved around customs documents between the duo.
The issue has now been thoroughly looked into by President Ismail Omar Guelleh of Djibouti, who has directed the case to be solved swiftly.
As per the information Capital obtained from reliable sources, a delegation led by Debele Kabeta, Commissioner of ECC, visited Djibouti from Tuesday March 21 through March 23 meeting different stakeholders including leaders of its counterpart.
The problem that impeded the incoming Ethiopian cargo from Djibouti to the center in the past few weeks was related with the request of HS Code and Area Code of Ethiopian cargo from the Djibouti customs.
Sources said that on the visit, the two sides negotiated to ease the case to enable the transport of Ethiopian containerized cargos smoothly to the country.
Sources said that the two sides have been in discussion from March 21 to 23 at the Sheraton Hotel Djibouti, and agreed on various issues including the case raised from the Djiboutian side.
On its social media, the Ethiopian Embassy in Djibouti stated that the two countries customs authorities raised a wide range of concerns on customs related issues and agreed to collaborate to improve customs efficiency.
Sources said that concerns raised from both sides have been solved following the visit of Ethiopian delegation.
Few weeks ago in order to expedite cargo going to Ethiopian consumers, Djiboutian Customs was asking for documents such as the HS Code, TIN and Area Code that the Djiboutian side claimed is part of their responsibility under a protocol signed between the two customs in the second half of the 2000s.
Experts from the Ethiopian side concurred with the argument from the Djibouti side but claimed that demanding such documents is not relevant for the Djiboutian regulatory authority since the documents are used for duty purpose for ECC.
During the latest meeting, the duo also discussed the implementation of a single document management which is planned to be introduced soon.
Recently, Commissioner Debele of the Ethiopian Customs Commission, and Rahma Omar Bogoreh, Director of Transit Department of Djibouti, told Capital that the strong relationship and cooperation between the two countries’ customs offices was one of the exemplary achievements registered on the logistics sector.
The two sides are working to introduce more strong cooperation regarding declaration and other document based works.
Rahma explained that on the new scheme, a declaration given by Ethiopia or vice versa will be used by both countries without further issuance of documents.
“We need to have similar customs procedure based on a single customs administration document,” Debele told Capital recently.