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African businesses set to drive transformational agenda across continent

Staff Reporter
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At the margins of the EU-Africa Business Forum, the International Trade Centre (ITC) signed a partnership with the Africa Business Council (AfBC) to empower African enterprises especially women and youth.
Through this partnership ITC’s One Trade Africa programme will support the AfBC in its mandate to coordinate business support organisations across the continent and provide better services to the private sector. African enterprises will also gain access to practical information, knowledge and skills to improve competitiveness and their ability to access new opportunities using the AfCFTA among others.
During the signing ceremony, ITC Executive Director Pamela Coke-Hamilton underscored ITC’s commitment to enabling micro, small and medium sized enterprises (MSMEs) participation in the new single market.
‘Today’s institutional agreement with the AfBC is a big step towards empowering the African private sector to shift from trade and investment potential to concrete business transactions. We are fully committed to translating economic opportunities into commercial partnerships for African firms, in particular SMEs, to generate profits and decent jobs. AfBC and ITC will join forces to ensure that the private sector is driving the transformational agenda of Africa,’ said Coke-Hamilton.

 

ECA publication to spotlight breakthroughs of African female scientists

Staff Reporter
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A new publication ‘Earth, Oceans and Skies: Insights from selected, outstanding African women scientists’ by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) will spotlight African female scientists whose contributions seek to address some of the most critical challenges of the UN’s Decade of Action leading up to the year 2030.
ECA announced on International Day of Women and Girls in Science, marked on 11 February 2022, that it would release its highly-anticipated publication in March 2022 at the ongoing Dubai Expo in the presence of government officials, business leaders, academics, women’s rights campaigners and members of the public.
From exploring the depths of the ocean to studying the vastness of space, the publication features dozens of autobiographies of selected scientists including female doctors, engineers and scientists from Africa whose research and discoveries are helping to tackle complex global challenges.
The publication offers unique insights into the careers of African female scientists who are pushing the boundaries of science, technology and innovation. It aims to enable more young girls to enter and thrive in the field of science, a domain where Africa, in general, and women, in particular, are disproportionately underrepresented. About 2.4 per cent of the world’s scientists are from Africa, with women representing only 30 per cent of the continental figure.
Announcing the publication, Keiso Matashane-Marite, acting Chief of the Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Section in ECA’s Gender, Poverty and Social Policy Division, said: “African women have been making considerable contributions to science for millennia. ECA is playing its part in spotlighting a few selected areas that respond to the urgency of delivering on the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.
“Next month, ECA will join the global annual celebration of women’s achievements with the launch of this publication. The women featured in the publication embody the pioneering spirit and their stories create a mosaic of individual journeys interwoven with the historical, political and socio-economic contexts that influence the science, technology and innovation discourse in Africa.”

Capitalism and democracy

Alazar Kebede
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Capitalism and democracy

For the first time in human history, a system that can be called capitalist is dominant over the entire globe. Such a system is conventionally defined as consisting of legally free labor, private ownership of capital, decentralized coordination and pursuit of profit.
One does not need to go far back into the past, or to have a great knowledge of history, to realize how unique and novel this is. Centrally planned socialism was only recently eliminated as a competitor. And nowhere in the world can be found un-free labor playing an important economic role, as it did until some 150 years ago. Such is the hegemony of capitalism as a worldwide system that even those who are unhappy with it and with rising inequality whether locally, nationally or globally have no realistic alternatives to propose.
“De-globalization” and a focus on the “local” is meaningless because it would do away with the division of labor, a key factor of economic growth. Surely, those who argue for “localism” do not wish to propose a major drop in living standards. Forms of state capitalism, as in Russia and China, do exist, but this is capitalism nevertheless in which private profit motive and private companies are dominant.
Increasing inequality of income, however, undercuts some of capitalism’s mainstream ideological dominance by showing its unpleasant sides which is the exclusive focus on materialism, a winner-take-all ideology, and disregard of non-pecuniary motives. But since no ideological alternatives currently exist and even less, political parties or groups to implement them, the hegemony of capitalism looks pretty unassailable. Of course, nothing guarantees that it would look like that to the coming generation, for new ideologies can be invented. But this is how it looks to a reasonable observer today.
One of the most basic principles of democracy is the notion that every citizen’s preferences should count equally in the realm of politics and government. A key characteristic of a democracy is the continued responsiveness of the government to the preferences of its citizens, considered as political equals. But there are a variety of good reasons to believe that citizens are not considered as political equals by policy-makers in real political systems.
Research findings shows that wealthier and better-educated citizens are more likely than the poor and less-educated to have well-formulated and well-informed preferences and significantly more likely to turn out to vote. They are much more likely to have direct contact with public officials, and much more likely to contribute money and energy to political campaigns. These disparities in political resources and action raise a profound question. In a political system where nearly every adult may vote but where knowledge, wealth, social position, access to officials, and other resources are unequally distributed, who actually governs?
One aspect of political inequality is the disparity between rich and poor citizens in political participation. Studies of participatory inequality seem to be inspired in significant part by the presumption that participation has important consequences for representation. Inequalities in activity are likely to be associated with inequalities in governmental responsiveness.
Meanwhile, statistical studies of political representation have found strong connections between constituents’ policy preferences and their representatives’ policy choices. However, those studies have almost invariably treated constituents in an undifferentiated way, using simple averages of opinions in a given district, on a given issues, or at a given time to account for representatives’ policy choices. Thus, they shed little or no light on the fundamental issue of political equality.
The sustainability of democratic capitalism is already a different question. Note first that these two words – democracy and capitalism – were not often combined in history. Capitalism in the absence of democracy has been a common feature throughout history. This was the case not only in Spain under Franco, Chile under Pinochet, or the Congo under Mobutu, but also in Germany, France and Japan. It even occurred in the United States via the exclusion of blacks from the body politic and in England with its severely limited franchise based on ownership of property at levels sufficient to include only the elite.
Thus, it does not take huge leaps of imagination to see that capitalism and democracy can be decoupled. And inequality can play an important role in that. It already does so by politically empowering the rich to a much greater extent than the middle class and the poor. The rich dictate the political agenda, finance the candidates who protect their interests, and make sure that the laws that are in their interest are voted in (not in our country).
The American political scientist Larry Bartels finds that United States Senators are five to six times more likely to listen to the interests of the rich than to the interests of the middle class. For the poor, there is no discernible evidence that the views of low-income constituents had any effect on their Senators’ voting behaviour. Both democracy and the middle class are being hollowed out.
In effect, it is not for nothing that since Aristotle, and more recently since Tocqueville, the middle class was seen as the bulwark against nondemocratic forms of government. It was not by some special moral virtue, embodied among the “middlemen,” that a person who has, for example, ceased to be rich and become middle-class would suddenly prefer democracy.
It is simply that the middle class had an interest in limiting the power of the rich so that they would not rule over them and of the poor so that they would not expropriate them. Large numbers of a middle class also meant that a lot of people shared similar material positions, developed similar tastes and tended to eschew extremism of both the left and the right. Thus, the middle class provided for both democracy and stability. All of this is under attack by rising inequality. The middle class in Western democracies is today both less numerous and economically weaker relative to the rich than it was 20 years ago.

ELECTRIC MOBILITY

Staff Reporter
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ELECTRIC MOBILITY

While electric vehicles (EVs) have only recently begun to challenge the internal combustion engine (ICE) for the future of our roads, EVs have been around for over a century. The long history of EVs has been one of many twists and turns.
The history of electric cars can be broken up into five distinct periods: the early pioneers of electric mobility (1830-1880), the transition to motorized transport (1880-1914), the rise of the internal combustion engine (1914-1970), the return of electric vehicles (1970-2003), the electric revolution (2003-2020), and the tipping point (2021 and beyond).
The growth in electric mobility, more so in 2021 and beyond especially passenger electric vehicles, has been profound. From whichever metric you measure it-EV sales, EVs on the roads, government EV mandates, EVs as a percentage of all vehicle sales, or simply vehicle manufacturers making electric mobility pledges-it’s undeniable that governments, society, and consumers see electric mobility playing a large role in the future. Ethiopia itself is closely following suit, with the likes of Marathon Motor Engineering, a joint venture between Hyundai Motor Company and Olympic Champion Haile Gebreselassie, assembling the all-electric Hyundai Ioniq.
Now this space is seeing a new entrant in the form of Green Tech Ethiopia who officially has become the second entrant in the electric cars market in the country. As the firm enters the market, it is indicated that in addition to electricity, the cars Green Ethiopia is importing can also use solar energy.
In order to have a deeper insight into the firm’s initiatives on this market, Capital drew links with the company’s Managing Director, Fitsum Deresa for an inside look at the firm’s activities. Excerpts;

Capital: What are the areas that Green Tech works on?
Fitsum Deresa: Green Tech Ethiopia is a private share company that is part of the greater mother company of Green Tech Africa. Our work focuses on green energy in various African countries mainly in east Africa starting from Ethiopia.
It is difficult to protect the environment and make changes to one’s country without working hand in hand. Thus, we are working with different companies across the countries including Kenya, Djibouti, Rwanda, Burundi, and Ethiopia to achieve these lasting changes.
By way of simple definition, green tech refers to a type of technology that is considered environmentally friendly based on its production process or its supply chain. Green tech, an abbreviation of green technology can also refer to clean energy production, the use of alternative fuels, and technologies that are less harmful to the environment than fossil fuels.
Thus, our firm works to promote products or services that improve operational performance while also reducing costs, energy consumption, waste, and negative effects on the environment.

Capital: What kind of projects do you have currently?
Fitsum Deresa: Currently, we have three main projects and others in the pipeline.
The first one is promoting a water purification system using the Reverse Osmosis method by moving water through a semipermeable membrane to filter out and flush away any contaminants. Reverse osmosis systems are best suited for domestic use and provide a highly efficient way to purify your drinking water at home. We have started this project in Ethiopia and Djibouti which is so far successful.
The other is Solar energy. We are on our way to start the project in Ethiopia with our own fast charging shade. Additional to this in an urban area we are working on to use solar as energy starting from the municipality to the house to protect the environment, b use of efficient and renewable energy.
Moreover, in collaboration with the World Bank, we are working on rural electrification. To this end we are soon to start operation as we have already imported the necessary equipment for the project.
And recently as you have well noted, we are focusing on green transportation through the use of environmentally friendly electric cars.

Capital: What led you to delve into transportation?
Fitsum Deresa: Currently, we are actively working in Ethiopia, Djibouti, and Kenya on renewable energy. Whenever we say renewable energy there are lots of different aspects inclusive of transportation to some degree. And one of our targets to this end is introducing electric cars in Ethiopia as well as the continent.
Scientific researches have shown that 60 percent of the air pollution in the world results from gas vehicles. So, to solve the problem using only solar energies or renewable energies has limited effect. However, focusing on transition from gas vehicles to electric cars has become the main area of focus the world has narrowed to in order to lower its carbon footprint.
Similarly, for us, we are working to bring the same transition in Ethiopia, and Africa. As research shows, if we can change at least half of the gas vehicles in the country to electric cars we could be able to save half of the budget spent on gas importation. We are now working to import and deploy a huge number of electric cars in the Ethiopian market.

Capital: What type of electric vehicles are you looking into bringing to Ethiopia?
Fitsum Deresa: Currently, we have introduced six models of imported rechargeable solar and electric-powered cars with the aim to promote renewable energy in the country. From the six different electric car models so far 70 have arrived in Addis Ababa while additional 200 cars have reached Djibouti port.
The plan is also to import 5000 electric cars within the coming 5 years and we are also planning to delve into the transportation industry through our green transport initiative service.
Our plan is not only to import electric cars, we also have plans to start to an electric car assembly plant. We have reached an agreement with world-class electric car producers to this end.
In the long haul, our plan is to fulfill national demand and also to start mass export and to facilitate this vision, we are working with various partners in the industry.
We have received land in Dire Dawa and we are in talks with the city administration of Addis Ababa so within six months we will have our own assembly factory and start producing electric cars and scooters.

Capital: What kind of scheme do you have to sell the cars?
Fitsum Deresa: In order to support the middle and low-income societies and promote entrepreneurship in the country, the company has facilitated a 40/60 electric car sale package to its potential customers. The financing scheme will help all our potential customers to secure automobiles enabling them to create income streams for themselves and their families in the process. To this end, Green Tech is working with Africa Village microfinance and other banks.
60 percent of the payment will be covered by customers and Green Tech will cover the remaining 40 percent. Customers can pay 30% of their 60% ownership which is only 18 percent of the total price to purchase their cars and the remaining 70% payment will be down-paid as per the directives of the agreement.

Capital: What kind of features do the cars have?
Fitsum Deresa: Of course, the energy cost that powers the cars is a huge point in getting one of these automobiles. For instance, solar-charged electric cars can travel 60-120 kilometers. The 4-seater automobiles have a 26kWh capacity and with a full charge can be driven to a distance of 200km with only 9.10 birr while that of the minibus can be driven to a distance of 360km once its 80kWh battery is fully charged with only 28 birr. With the price of gas being sold at 31 birr per liter, this is definitely worth the interest of any prospective buyer. Similarly, the cars also present a minimum maintenance cost which is very beneficial to its future owners.

Capital: How has the government support been with regards to this new initiative?
Fitsum Deresa: The government support is really good. The minister of Transport and Logistics has also visited our office and interacted with us whilst commending our project.
Since government is pro- clean and renewable energy, with various initiatives such as green legacy, the acceptance and support are great. Moreover, when you look at the 10-year strategic plan of the transport industry one of the primary focuses is reducing he carbon footprint. Thus, we are happy to play a role in reducing emissions and we are also looking forward to engage with government departments when we start to engage on mass transportation.

Capital: What are the challenges you are expecting to face?
Fitsum Deresa: The market for green technology is relatively young, it has garnered a significant amount of investor interest due to increasing awareness about the impacts of climate change and the depletion of natural resources. However, even with opportunities of investments the shortage of foreign currency in Ethiopia is a huge hurdle. However, the ministry has promised to iron out the issues with us. Thus, with whatever challenges we may face, I believe we will get the necessary supportive structure to combat the same.

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