The Ethiopian Ministry of Defense (MoD) is expected to officially inaugurate a huge headquarter facility that is located at its Tor Hayloch headquarter commonly known as the Old Airport.
The facility that rests on a 13,000 square meters plot has been under construction for over a decade, meanwhile it was stated that the facility would be finalized within few years when the project commenced about 13 years ago.
Under the direction of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, long delayed public projects and buildings are seeing finalization and inauguration, and the new HQ is a beneficiary of this.
MoD has already moved to the new facility from its previous head office which was located at the heart of Addis Ababa around National Theater; however it is yet to be officially inaugurated.
On the inaugural ceremony top government officials are expected to attend the event including air show by the Ethiopian Air Force.

Diasporas, faithful diplomats to taste exquisite specialty coffee in VIP event

An extraordinary event is being organized to raise foreign currency from very few diaspora community members, who came back to Ethiopia following the call of the Prime Minister.
The VIP event which only targets to serve about 250 members of the diaspora will provide a blissful tasting experience of the extraordinary expensive Ethiopian coffee at a reasonable price.
The organizer of the VIP testing event said that Ethiopians in the Diaspora that took the challenge to come home for Genna holiday will be invited to test the most expensive coffees that won the presidential award in the Second Cup of Excellence (CoE) 2021.
It is recalled that when he was at the battle front, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed invited the Diaspora and friends of Ethiopia to come and celebrate Genna (Ethiopian Christmas) in Ethiopia on the aim to counter the fake news campaign from the prominent main stream media of the west and western powers pressure against the government and the country.
Through ‘the Great Ethiopia Home Coming Challenge’ Abiy invited one million Ethiopians and friends of Ethiopians to come for the holiday season to show their solidarity for Ethiopia.
As per the invitation, the Diaspora community has been coming in masses to Ethiopia and the government and others have also facilitated different events and visiting sites including areas affected by the terrorist group, who committed severe public and private property damage besides huge humanitarian crime on its expansion to Afar and Amhara regions.
In relation to ‘the Great Ethiopia Home Coming Challenge’ Wild Coffee Ethiopia, which is a value added coffee exporter and the first to sell roasted coffee on foreign currency as per the permit from National Bank of Ethiopia, is facilitating an event for the diaspora to test high quality coffee on the aim to raise fund.
Gezahegn Mamo, CEO of Wild Coffee Ethiopia, told Capital that his company has some of the five presidential winning coffees that exceeded the 90 point plus mark on the Second CoE 2021.
“Initially we had planned to provide the tasting experience of these five most expensive coffees to selected diplomatic communities that reside in Ethiopia,” he said.
“As per the plan, 150 diplomatic community members were to participate and pay USD 100 per person to taste the five coffees, but the plan was put on hold due to the western countries campaign to leave the country for security reasons,” stated Gezahegn.
He said that the rate that was offered for the taste is incomparable with the usual price for such high quality coffee, “The main target of the event was to promote the level of Ethiopian quality coffee and to contribute the revenue secured from the event to those who are displaced by the conflict.”
“It is recalled that a single cup of coffee that won the presidential award in the first COE 2020 was sold for 65 pounds in a café at London. This shows how much the value of coffee we offer for taste,” Gezahegn explained.
Now the plan has changed its course and aimed to thank the Diaspora who struggled for Ethiopia’s sovereignty.
Wild Coffee’s CEO said that as per the program on the event that will be held on Sunday January 16 about 250 Diaspora members shall be participating to taste the top five top coffees at the price of USD 50 per person.
“We will also invite about five diplomatic mission based in Addis Ababa that supported Ethiopia at the international stage,” he added.
Top diplomats from Turkish, Russia, China, Eritrea and India embassies are expected to be part of the VIP coffee testing event as guest of honors, “we want to thank these countries for their strong solidarity.”
On the event that will be held at Wild Coffee’s coffee testing café located around Bole Olympia senior government officials are also expected to attend.
Gezahegn said that the revenue collected from the event will be transferred to the government on the purpose to support the displaced community. He said that a limited number of tickets will be available at the testing café starting from early this coming week.
Wild Coffee Ethiopia engages on value added coffee export. Its product is sold to over 10 countries and recently it has become one of the very few coffee exporters who trade their bean on Alibaba’s ecommerce platform.
On the 2021 CoE, 1,848 competitor’s samples have been submitted and top 150 samples have passed for the second stage and 40 of them made appearances in the final top round.
From the top 40 specialty coffees, the first 30’s have achieved 87 points and above to trade their bean on international online auction on allianceforcoffeeexcellence.org that was held on July 7.
On the international online auction Ethiopian coffee has registered new world records.
The highly anticipated auction that gathered 188 buyers from 33 countries saw bids for over 4,000 times for more than nine hours to secure the sought-after winning coffees.
Out of the 40 finalists, five coffee lots scored 90 points or more, earning the highest recognition in the competition, the Presidential Award.
The 2021 CoE Ethiopia has set a new record with an average price of USD 32.12 per pound and with total proceeds of USD 1.96 million, which is a record for the Cup of Excellence competition globally.
The winning coffee was sold at an online auction for USD 330/ per kilogram to Saza Coffee of Tokyo, Japan.

Ministry of Trade and Regional Integration (MoTRI) concludes its discussion with the private sector to get their view on goods and services that shall be categorized on the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
The final discussion with the private sector representatives has been held a week ago. Before the discussion commenced with the private sector, the government has been engaged on identification process for goods and services that shall be opened on the free trade scheme for African countries, which shall be opened gradually as well as other sectors that would be totally closed.
Mussie Mindaye, Director General of Trade Relation and Negotiation at MoTRI, said that almost all of the comments that came from the private sector were aligned with the government’s selection and identification of sectors.
He said that there were some different comments that came from the private sector which will be included on the government proposal and would be tabled for the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM).
“We will conclude the final document which will be sent by next week to the chairperson of the steering committee, Mamo Mihretu, Senior Advisor and Chief Trade Negotiator in the Prime Minister’s Office,”Mussie told Capital, adding, “The chairperson, is responsible to submit the document for final approval.”
National Macroeconomic Committee led by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed is the body that will give the final decision on the document.
Mussie expressed his expectation that the document will be approved very soon. “The country shall not be stated as late to come up with tariff offer of products and services since there are countries that have not yet finished the identification process,” he opined.
So far 27 countries have come up with their tariff offers, while trading has not yet begun.
According to Mussie, further discussion regarding some issues like rules of origin of goods, percentage of value addition, revenue and food security will be held starting from January 17 to ten days at Accra, Ghana, which is the seat of AfCFTA secretariat.
The African Union AfCFTA is committed to eliminate tariff and non tariff barriers on trade in goods as well as facilitating free movement of services across the continent.
As per the agreement that member countries signed, the free trade scheme states 90 percent of goods and services tariff will be eliminated in five years for developed countries and ten year for developing economies that included Ethiopia.
The seven percent of sensitive goods and services selected by countries shall be opened gradually. Three percent of goods and services shall be included under excluded lists so that countries are not expected to make the tariff zero.