Indian financial institution Exim Bank is teaming up with Indian ITME Society, to finance the African Textile Engineering Exhibition with the theme: “Prosperity for Africa through Textile Technology.” It will be held in February next year at the Millennium Hall.
The exhibition will be jointly organized by the Ethiopian Chamber of Commerce and India ITME Society.
The exhibition will showcase access to markets and new opportunities, joint ventures, international exposure, networking, access to finance and leasing.
It will display end solutions for textile, technology and engineering at a competitive price. It will also have a concurrent B2B program.
Govind Venuprasad, who co-coordinates ITC says Africa has unique and exclusive business opportunities and there are opportunities in textiles and textile technology throughout the continent.
More than 200 exhibitors from India, China, Italy, Switzerland, Turkey, South Africa, the United Kingdom, Austria, and Belgium will attend.
“The exhibition offers a huge opportunities for the textile and clothing industry based Ethiopia’s rich heritage and strong economy it has potential to become the Apparel hub of the world,” Hari Shankar, chairman of India ITME society said.
On the sidelines of the event there will be an investment seminar, financial solutions, technology displays and seminars including an industrial park visit.
“Banking institutions and non banking institutions with various financial programs will be available in addition to the Exim Bank of China,” Shanker added.
Teka Gebreyesus, State Minister of Trade and Industry, said the exhibition is timely and essential to make Ethiopia the manufacturing hub of textile and apparel as it links top textile technology firms with African countries.
The event is a high priority because as textiles is one of the key sectors that will bring about structural transformation of the economy, so better textile technology is a key catalysts of economic growth and the modern process,” Melaku Ezezew, President of Ethiopian chamber of commerce and sectoral association said.
ITME Africa 2020 is targeted to bring the table complete solutions to textile industry development in the continent through affordable technology, international exposure, skill development and investment opportunities.
India ITME Society is a non- profit organization founded to support textile technology when there was a shortage of technology some 40 years ago.
Textile Tech exhibit to showcase Africa’s potential
Hording blamed for food price spike
The Ministry of Trade and Industry says illegal traders are behind the double-digit rise in inflated prices of consumer goods. Participants at a meeting this week asked the government for a crackdown on illegal actors.
Stakeholders at the Intercontinental Hotel pointed to hoarding and shady dealers.
The Ministry held talks on a study they conducted saying that since December last year prices have been rising and by August they had gone up 15 percent, primarily due to hoarding.
“The ongoing inflation observed has no relationship with economic factors rather it is driven by economic sabotage via traders, and other actors in the supply chain,” said Fetlework Gebreegziabheir, Minister of Trade and Industry.
The study identified intervention of ‘middlemen’, a manufactured shortage of supplies of consumption goods, conducting transactions illegally and weak capacities of unions and associations as causes for the price hike on consumer goods. The participants said the government must come up with better, long-lasting solutions. 
The Ministry argues that there is no shortage of consumer goods but merchants are increasing prices pretending that there is one.
Inflation has risen with regard to both food and non-food items. However, fruits and vegetables, bread and other necessities have skyrocketed over the last few months.
“The inflation mainly hurts low-income people living in urban areas”, she adds.
The Ministry plans to alleviate the problem by controlling illicit trade, engaging more in import substitution and adequately supplying locally produced consumer products.
Representatives of the attending associations responded by urging the government to support local producers so they can make more edible oil and other vital products. They also wanted the government to prosecute middlemen and other brokers acting unscrupulously.
The government recently established a high level committee to combat the rampant inflation.
Africa’s looming drugs crisis fuelled by organised crime and poor policy
New research warns that African consumption of illegal drugs is projected to become a public health emergency.
Africa faces a substantial increase in illegal drug use, fuelled by organised crime and ineffective policy. In the next 30 years, sub-Saharan Africa will see the world’s biggest surge in illicit drug users, with its share of global drug consumption projected to double.
This is according to comprehensive new research and analysis of Africa’s drug trade, policy and future consumption trends by the ENACT transnational organised crime programme. ENACT is a partnership between the Institute for Security Studies (ISS), INTERPOL and the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime (GI), funded by the European Union. The research was released in Addis Ababa on Thursday 5 September.
It is anticipated that by 2050 there will be an additional 14 million Africans using illegal drugs, with a total of 23 million users in sub-Saharan Africa. The continent has also dominated a global expansion of non-medical use of pharmaceutical opioids, with 87% of global seizures in 2016.
East Africa will experience the sharpest increase in the proportion of its population using illicit drugs, and West Africa is set to remain the continent’s largest regional drug market.
West Africa’s role has also expanded as a global trafficking hub for drugs, particularly cocaine. The region’s drug users will more than double from about 5.7 million in 2018 to 13 million in 2050. An underground economy has developed around the production and distribution of methamphetamines, particularly in Nigeria.
Africa’s dangerous drugs phenomenon is driven by weak regulation and organised criminals operating across national borders. It is assisted by global production of cocaine and heroin to levels the 2018 World Drug Report says are the highest ever recorded.
A growing heroin economy has emerged from the international drug smuggling route down the East Coast of Africa for shipment to international markets.
Drug use threatens African health and national development, ENACT said. The drug trade, fuelled by organised crime, corrupts democratic institutions and threatens the achievement of the sustainable development goals. African consumption of illegal drugs is projected to become a public health emergency but the continent has a dramatic inability to meet demand for treatment. For example, 2017 data revealed that 40% of high-risk drug users in Nigeria wanted treatment but were unable to access it.
The African Union (AU) and its regional economic communities need to act urgently to address the drug challenge, said Eric Pelser, ENACT programme head at the ISS. ‘Illegal drug use poses a formidable law enforcement and public health problem to governments in Africa,’ he said.
Use of injected drugs like heroin risks another spike in HIV and other diseases, and the growing significance of Africa as a drug transportation hub will place enormous strain on law enforcement.
Participation in drug trafficking offers political, security and business leaders windfall profits, says GI’s Mark Shaw, an organised crime expert. ‘They can conduct electoral and security campaigns, feed patronage systems, or take a fast track to wealth and power. In turn, politicians and security leaders can offer traffickers protection or even assistance.’
African drug markets are becoming ever more sophisticated and increasingly take advantage of secure innovations such as blockchain technology, cryptocurrencies and trading platforms on the dark web.
Disproportionate harm from poor policy
African drug policy is complex and controversial, and previous attempts to respond to drug trade and consumption have done a disproportionate amount of harm with limited results.
Securitised responses have had unintended consequences. Drugs became a revenue source for terrorist organisations, national prison populations expanded and generations of young people were disenfranchised by criminal convictions for low-level drug crimes.
Continental drug markets continued to expand even as illicit crops were destroyed, drug users imprisoned, illicit labs dismantled, and drug shipments seized. There is a growing evidence base for the human and economic costs of the failing ‘war on drugs’, with health institutions and civil society voices pushing for a new direction in drug policy.
Most drugs remain illegal across much of the continent, but there is a wide discrepancy in how they are policed and controlled. The traditional consensus on full prohibition by African governments is breaking down and some states now recognise legalisation of drugs as a more effective approach, with AU and national policy makers tackling Africa’s drug challenge with evidence-based policies which include law enforcement, social welfare and public health.
ENACT made a number of policy recommendations. It said effective responses must reduce production and trafficking of drugs, coupled with demand reduction and expanded healthcare for treatment of drug users. Data collection and monitoring of drug use should be expanded and coordinated, and the stigma removed from drug use and the need for treatment.
All regions of the continent should bolster their intelligence-led cross-border law enforcement to curb supply and production of illicit drugs, targeting traffickers rather than users.
INTERPOL has been supporting the establishment of analytical units in a number of African countries and developing capacity to address the drugs issue. This approach has already proven to be effective as these units have started to produce their own analytical products. Pilot countries have also expressed their will to disseminate the culture and method of criminal intelligence analysis, using their analysts to provide training within police schools.
Bowmans enters Ethiopian market
Aman Assefa & Associates Law Office, a pioneering corporate legal service office based in Addis Ababa, announced this week that it has entered into an alliance agreement with Bowmans, an Africa-based multinational law firm, which was voted African Law Firm of the Year in 2018.
Aman Assefa & Associates Law Office, founded by Aman Assefa in 2003, has been steadily growing as a commercial legal practice throughout the years serving a number of clients ranging from start-ups to prominent multi-nationals. It has become a preferred place of work for some of the best and brightest legal minds in the country. Major expansion has been happening since 2016, when the law firm brought on board highly-skilled Ethiopian lawyers who studied in the UK, Switzerland, Germany, Netherlands, USA, South Africa and Hungary.
The office’s focus in corporate and commercial legal practice has served many of its clients, consisting of both foreign and local investors, and thereby, has contributed in its own way to bridge the knowledge/information gap and creating lasting impact for investments and communities.
Bowmans is a highly-regarded leading African law firm with over a century of experience of providing services in the fields of corporate law, banking and finance law and dispute resolution. Bowmans has offices in Mauritius, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, South Africa and Tanzania.
Asked about the alliance with Bowmans, Aman Assefa has said: “The agreement with Bowmans is in line with our strategy to continue to invest behind our passionate people, purposeful leadership, and to cope with the international trend in increased knowledge management for organizational efficiency”. Aman further added that the relationship with Bowmans would allow both firms to create the synergy required to tap into new business opportunities while at the same time allowing Aman Assefa & Associates “the opportunity to benefit from international-standard legal service delivery models”.
Commenting on the relationship Robert Legh, Chairman and senior partner of Bowmans said, “Ethiopia is a vibrant and burgeoning market – it is now one of the fastest growing economies in the world – offering significant opportunities to our client base. The great advantage of this alliance from our perspective is that we will have a close tie-up and formal alliance with one of the few high-quality corporate legal practices available in Ethiopia”.
