The flagship airline Ethiopian Airlines has asked staff to take their annual leave in the coming weeks to help it cope with the impact of the coronavirus from low percentage of passengers.
The airline has offered a special leave scheme to most of the employees in a specific set of time starting from this week on.
Even if as international airlines have canceled their flights to China amid fear over the corona virus, Africa’s largest air carrier, Ethiopian Airlines, has refused to do so. “The airline is seeing a 20% decline in demand, the corona virus is a huge challenge” said Tewolde GebreMariam, CEO of Ethiopian Airlines Group on African Aviation week that was held last week in Addis Ababa. The outbreak of the virus demonstrates the resilience of the industry, not just passengers also cargo flights especially to China have been declining.
Due to the high spread of the virus there is a worldwide fear of travel and governments are banning their citizens to move from one parts of the world to the other.
“At such times the air line take this kind of options and helps to minimize the effects, as the situation remains dynamic, our flight schedules may change at short notice to comply with regulatory directives or operational requirements. At all times, we aim to provide the updated information to our esteemed customers as early as possible,” the airlines stated.
Change fees are not applicable to tickets issued anytime for travel from March 1onwards until June 30. If there is a difference in the airfare or applicable taxes, due to the reissue/rerouting of the ticket, the additional amount will need to be collected. Customers can change their booking to travel on/or before December 31, 2020, the airline said in a statement.
Air traffic routes between Africa and Asia grew by five per cent in 2019 – more than the global average. Now, African carriers fear a shortfall of more than $400m (352,3m euro) due to the disruption of services to China alone, a direct result of the Coronavirus outbreak.
Raphaël Kuuchi, vice-president for Africa of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), said that “initial estimates indicate that $400m could be lost” by the continent’s airlines, based on data gathered “in the second week of February” and due solely to the cancellation of services to China.
The data were made public during the Aviation Africa Summit, held 4–5 March in Addis Ababa.
The Coronavirus epidemic has forced almost all African airlines – with the exception of Ethiopian Airlines – to stop flying to China.
Airlines all over the world are hit hard by coronavirus in the past few weeks. The effects are also estimated to wipe out up to USD 113 billion in worldwide revenues this year, a trade group said, a new blow to the industry.
It has been almost 20 years since the aviation industry faced such an existential threat. After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, global air travel plummeted, and it took years for airlines to fully recover. Today there are worries that the coronavirus could have a similarly disastrous impact.
“At the end of last week, we started seeing very sharp declines,” Gary Kelly, chief executive of Southwest Airlines, said on CNBC. “It has a 9/11-like feel.”
The aviation industry was already grappling with the worldwide grounding of Boeing’s 737 Max, which has been out of service for a year after two deadly crashes. Losing that one plane sapped some airlines of expected growth, forced them to cancel thousands of flights and resulted in billions of dollars in losses.
The more fundamental issue posed by the coronavirus – that large swaths of the traveling public may simply stay off planes for the foreseeable future – is a far greater threat. Though still in its early stages, there are concerns that a prolonged disruption could do lasting economic damage. Commercial aviation, like the internet, is part of the connective tissue of the global economy.
Ethiopian Airlines asked employees to take their annual leave
ECA estimates billions worth of losses in Africa due to COVID-19 impact
The Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) on Friday warned the unfolding coronavirus crisis could seriously dent Africa’s already stagnant growth with oil exporting nations losing up to US 65 billion in revenues as crude oil prices continue to tumble.
Speaking at a press conference, ECA Executive Secretary, Vera Songwe, said having already strongly hit Africa’s major trading partner, China, COVID-19 was inevitably impacting Africa’s trade.
She said although a few COVID-19 cases have been reported in some 15 countries, the crisis was set to deal African economies a severe blow.
“Africa may lose half of its GDP with growth falling from 3.2% to about 2 % due to a number of reasons which include the disruption of global supply chains,” said Songwe, adding the continent’s interconnectedness to affected economies of the European Union, China and the United States was causing ripple effects.
She said the continent would need up to US 10.6 billion in unanticipated increases in health spending to curtail the virus from spreading, while on the other hand revenue losses could lead to unsustainable debt.
COVID-19, Songwe said, could reduce Nigeria’s total exports of crude oil in 2020 by between US 14 billion and US 19 billion.
The ECA estimates COVID-19 could lead to Africa’s export revenues from fuels falling at around US 101 billion in 2020.
Remittances and tourism are also being affected as the virus continues to spread worldwide, resulting in a decline in FDI flows; capital flight; domestic financial market tightening; and a slow-down in investments – hence job losses.
Pharmaceuticals, imported largely from Europe and other COVID-19 affected partners from outside the continent, could see their prices increasing and availability reduced for Africans.
With nearly two-thirds of African countries being net importers of basic food, shortages are feared to severely impact food availability and food security.
Furthermore, negative consequences are expected to worsen, if COVID-19 develops into an outbreak in Africa.
In addition, a decline in commodity prices could lead to fiscal pressures for Africa’s economic power houses such as South Africa, Nigeria, Algeria, Egypt and Angola.
Stephen Karingi, Director of the ECA’s Regional Integration and Trade Division said there, however, was an opportunity the Continent could take advantage of as trading within the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is set to commence this July.
“The intra-African market could help mitigate some of the negative effects of COVID-19 through limiting dependence on external partners, especially in pharmaceuticals and basic food,” said Karingi, adding diversifying economies away from fuel-driven was vital beyond COVID-19.
He emphasized the need for the continent to urgently implement the AfCFTA as he urged African countries who export drugs to prioritize selling on the African market.
The ECA, in a presentation on the economic effects of the COVID-19 on Africa, suggests African governments could review and revise their budgets to reprioritize spending towards mitigating expected negative impacts from COVID-19 on their economies.
As a safety net, the think tank is urging governments to provide incentives for food importers to quickly forward purchases to ensure sufficient food reserves in key basic foods items.
Karingi said fiscal stimulus packages are also crucial if the continent is to weather the COVID-19 storm which has now claimed over 5,000 lives globally and infected 139,637 people.
Report: It will take 140 years for Africa to achieve gender parity at the current rate of progress
Africa could add USD 316 billion to GDP by 2025 or 10 percent of current GDP if the countries work to progress and advance gender equality, according to a research on advancing women’s equality in Africa conducted by the McKinsey Global Institute in association with McKinsey & Company in Africa entitled the power of parity.
According to the research Africa’s progress towards gender equality is not moving fast enough and that this is potentially costing the continent in lost growth, but advancing women’s equality in Africa could deliver a significant growth.
The research finds that if every country were to match the progress toward gender, however, this is a distant possibility as progress towards gender parity appears to have stalled or even gone backwards on the continent.
As stated on the research, based on data obtained from 39 countries across Africa including Ethiopia on the way governments are leading in helping to advance gender equality, it will take 140 years for Africa to achieve parity at the current rate of progress.
The report stressed that a concerted and coordinated effort from all stakeholders is needed. “The public sector could do on the following five key areas for action to empower women and reinvigorate progress towards parity. Invest in human capital, create economic opportunities, leverage technology, shape attitudes, and enforce laws, policies, and regulations.”
“We believe that there is a real opportunity for governments in Africa to take the lead here. Creating pathways for African women in the workplace and in society to assume a more equal and fulfilling role is a major priority,” further reads the report.
Currently, women account for more than 50 percent of Africa’s combined population, but in 2018 they generated only 33 percent of the continent’s collective GDP.
The research shows that countries that have put deliberate strategies in place to advance gender equality have done well, for example, Ethiopia, Rwanda, and South Africa have clear targets for gender balance in their cabinets.
“In Africa, women are more active as economic agents in Africa than anywhere else in the world. They perform the majority of agricultural activities, own a third of all firms and in some countries, make up some 70 percent of employees according to African Development Bank report. They are central to the household economy and the welfare of their families, and they play a vital,” the report states.
However over and above their income-earning activities, yet across Africa women face an array of barriers to achieving their full potential, from restrictive cultural practices to discriminatory laws and highly segmented labor markets.
In related development, the annual Ring the bell event in Ethiopia was held at Addis Ababa Hilton hotel on March 13, 2020. Due to the corona virus spread the participants from abroad were not able to come to the event.
Ethiopia ranked 114 out of 128 countries on rule of law
26th out of 31 in the Sub-Saharan Africa Region
The World Justice Project (WJP) released the WJP Rule of Law Index 2020, an annual report based on national surveys of more than 130,000 households and 4,000 legal practitioners and experts around the world.
The WJP Rule of Law Index measures rule of law performance in 128 countries and jurisdictions across eight primary factors: Constraints on Government Powers, Absence of Corruption, Open Government, Fundamental Rights, Order and Security, Regulatory Enforcement, Civil Justice, and Criminal Justice. The Index is the world’s leading source for original, independent data on the rule of law.
Ethiopia’s overall rule of law score decreased 5.6% in this year’s Index. At 114th place out of 128 countries and jurisdictions worldwide, Ethiopia improved six positions in global rank. Ethiopia’s score places it at 26 out of 31 countries in the Sub-Saharan Africa region and 16 out of 19 among low income countries.
Significant trends for Ethiopia included an improvement in the factors measuring Constraints on Government Powers, Open Government, and Fundamental Rights, and a deterioration in the factor measuring Order and Security.
Denmark, Norway, and Finland topped the WJP Rule of Law Index rankings in 2020. Venezuela, RB; Cambodia; and Democratic Republic of the Congo had the lowest overall rule of law scores—the same as in 2019.
More countries declined than improved in overall rule of law performance for a third year in a row, continuing a negative slide toward weakening and stagnating rule of law around the world. The majority of countries showing deteriorating rule of law in the 2020 Index also declined in the previous year, demonstrating a persistent downward trend. This was particularly pronounced in the Index factor measuring Constraints on Government Powers.
The declines were widespread and seen in all corners of the world. In every region, a majority of countries slipped backward or remained unchanged in their overall rule of law performance since the 2019 WJP Rule of Law Index.
Regionally, Sub-Saharan Africa’s top performer in the Index is Namibia (35th out of 128 countries globally), followed by Rwanda and Mauritius. The three countries with the lowest scores in the region were Mauritania, Cameroon, and Democratic Republic of the Congo (126th out of 128 countries globally).
Countries with the strongest improvement in rule of law were Ethiopia (5.6% increase in score, driven primarily by gains in Constraints on Government Powers and Fundamental Rights) and Malaysia (5.1%, driven primarily by gains in Constraints on Government Powers, Fundamental Rights, and Regulatory Enforcement).
The largest declines in the rule of law were seen in Cameroon (-4.4%, driven primarily by falling scores in Order and Security and Fundamental Rights) and Iran (-4.2%, driven primarily by falling scores in Criminal Justice). Over the last five years, countries experiencing the largest average annual percentage drop in the rule of law were Egypt (-4.6 %); Venezuela, RB (-3.9%); Cambodia (-3.0%); Philippines (-2.5%); Cameroon (-2.4%); Hungary (-2.1%); and Bosnia and Herzegovina (-2.1%).
The single biggest decline by factor over the past five years was Egypt’s and Poland’s score for Constraints on Government Powers, with an average annual decline of -8.5% and -6.8%, respectively.
“The rule of law is not just a matter for judges or lawyers,” said William H. Neukom, WJP founder and CEO. “It is the bedrock of communities of justice, opportunity, and peace. We are all stakeholders in the rule of law and therefore we all have a role to play in upholding it. The 2020 Index underscores that we have our work cut out for us.”
