The Higher Education Relevance and Quality Assurance Agency (HERQA) under the Ministry of Science and Higher Education is awaiting the government’s decision over fake educational documents in Gambela regional state. Officials and civil servants in that region have been caught holding fake documents. Apparently over a dozen schools have issued thousands of degrees without any accreditation from the Agency.
“They joined in an institution with no accreditation and sadly they got a degree and were later promoted and even hold government offices with the wrong degree,” Andualem Admassie, Director of HERQA told Capital in an exclusive interview.
Programs are accredited by the agency for three years and then they must renew after five years. The Agency looks at the program, location and teaching practice.
“I am afraid a lot of people who have graduated are not qualified to get that degree and close to 20 individuals came to the office on a daily basis to find solutions for their unaccepted degree,” he adds.
According to the Director, many degrees across the country do not meet standards and this has created a huge problem. “Some people have been willing victims because they know the school is unaccredited.”
In order to tackle the problem, the Higher Education Relevance and Quality Assurance Agency is currently working to introduce a modern database next month, to allow institutions verify authenticity of degrees, diplomas and certificates before recruiting employees.
A recent study made on civil servants in the Southern Region of Ethiopia exposed 3,200 employees recruited in government institutions using forged credentials.
The agency has also taken action against 15 private colleges and higher-learning institutions in Addis Ababa for failing to meet regulatory requirements, which it says undermines the quality of education being delivered to students.
HERQA is mandated in accreditation, reaccreditation, institutional and program level quality audit reports and the dissemination of good practice, is to help to enhance the provision of higher education in Ethiopia and the confidence of all stakeholders in the quality of that provision.
The issues of quality in education is in a critical stage where a huge gap is witnessed in both government and private higher institutions the Director says they are doing all they can to improve the situation.
Database to weed out fake degrees
Hijra Bank to open for business
Hijra Bank the other under formation interest free financial institution announced that it achieved the share sales at the deadline that ended on Monday November 11.
The bank has been effectively going through the formation processes for the past seven months. It has announced the one-billion-birr share sales with half of it or the 500 million birr to be paid.
According to the information Capital secured from one of the founders of Hijra around 75 percent of the share sales have been accomplished. The founder says the anticipate that by the Monday deadline all share sales will be accomplished.
On Sunday the under-formation bank organized a promotional discussion with potential share buyers came from different parts of the country. At the discussion some of the participants insisted the organizers push the deadline for share sales to include more potential buyers.
Meanwhile Capital was informed that the founding board has talked about the issue until, attempts to get further information and the latest development regarding the share sales from Mukemil Bedru, deputy chair of the board but it did not work out.
Recently, ZamZam, a pioneer to introduce the interest free banking in the country, has been announced that surpassed its original share sales target. At first they wanted to sell a billion birr worth of shares, while the actual achievement at the closing date on October 11 surpassed the National Bank of Ethiopia, supervisory body, minimum paid up capital of half a billion birr by one fifth and stands at over 600 million birr.
Within three months the ZamZam was able to sell over 1.2 billion birr in subscriptions and half of it has already been paid. For both the paid and subscribed capital of the bank is the history in the financial industry since there were no one able to collect such kind of sum as a start up in the industry.
On the other hand, the achievement of ZamZam and Hijra, who sells shares almost the same period but achieved their target within a short time, stated as an indicator how much huge finance was idol from the market due to potential buyers refused to run or part of conventional banking.
Some other interest free banks are also in the process of being formed. Recently, the government announced the right to run interest free banking, a practice primarily aligned with Islam. About a decade ago the government issued a directive allowing this but an additional directive mandated that interest free banking be run alongside conventional financial business. This helped ten banks to open a special window for interest free banking, but those who were looking to operate complete interest free banking like ZamZam stopped the process and refunded the collected sum to share buyers.
USAID partners with Ethiopia for better health
The United States, through the US Agency for International Development (USAID) in partnership with the Ministry of Health, launched a five year project to digitize the Health sector. The agency earmarked 63 million USD.
USAID Mission Director Sean Jones and Minister of Health Dr. Amir Aman inaugurated the new activity on November 14, 2019 at Hilton Hotel, which builds on U.S.-Ethiopian efforts to create a modernized health information system that ensures the entire sector has the data, analytics, and skills necessary to improve the health and well-being of all Ethiopians.
The support will back the continued efforts of investments in digital information solutions to further strengthen the country’s health system and improve the quality of services.
The five-year project of Digital Health Activity will train end-users including doctors, nurses, health extension workers, and policy-makers at all levels of the health system to utilize technology more effectively and enable them to better serve patients and families across the country.
“Digitizing the system alone doesn’t mean getting solutions end to end rather it is working on the mind set of all stakeholders,” Amir stressed.
According to the Ministry of Health, currently 88 percent of health centers are digitized and the rest 22 percent will incorporated in this fiscal year, adding that the support from USAID is pertinent to the move.
For five years, USAID will also partner with local universities to introduce courses that develop competencies in health innovations and electronic solutions, and establish career paths that empower young Ethiopians to drive digital solutions across the sector.
The Digital Health Activity will also create opportunities for entrepreneurs and youth-led tech organizations to utilize their expertise in providing support to health centers.
“In addition to simply expanding digital health systems and strengthening the skills of today’s medical professionals, we are also increasing our focus on developing the leaders of tomorrow to drive health innovations far into the future,” said USAID Mission Director Sean Jones.
USAID’s Digital Health Activity is implemented by JSI and a consortium of partners.
The United States is the largest bilateral provider of support to Ethiopia’s health sector, with approximately 150 million USD per year in funding for tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS; malaria; maternal, neonatal and child health; nutrition; and water, sanitation and hygiene. Overall, the United States has provided approximately 4 billion USD in development and humanitarian assistance to Ethiopia over the past five years.
The digital health activity helps to integrate and scale up priority health information system at all levels.
“Digitalizing health systems mean a lot for the Ministry as it corrects the data and improves information about the health of our population,” the Minister added.
ECA to regulate new telecom fees
The Ethiopian Communication Authority (ECA) will be responsible for regulating tariffs when the two new telecom companies receive licenses next March, said Balcha Reba, Director General of the Authority.
The Ministry of Finance held talks about the telecom’s draft regulation document on Tuesday, November 12, 2019 at Sheraton Addis Hotel.
After the government’s bold decision to liberalize telecom last year the Ethiopian Communication Authority was established to regulate the telecom sector.
Some of their responsibilities will be to license and supervise telecom service providers, regulate tariffs and specify technical standards.
“The government announced liberalizing the sector, indeed with the objectives of creating a more competitive environment, promoting customers’ choice, attracting investment and accessibility, lower prices and a higher quality of service,” said Ahmed Shade Minister of Finance.
This was the first opportunity for stakeholders to meet in person although there is a platform for commenting on the Internet.
“Tariff regulation is one of the economic regulatory frameworks, the Authority is dealing with in order to protect the customer, create a fair play ground and consider the expense of the operators when setting the tariff,” Balch added.
More competition means lower prices and better service, according to Balch.
The Director General pointed to security concerns as one reason for keeping telecom in State hands, however now with cyber security technology they are more confident that this can be managed well.
The authority has the right to access data after a court decision and they can fit a router interception at the tower of any operator if they feel security concerns warrant this action. INSA is also working with the Authority to address cyber security issues.
The regulatory framework is supposed to be aligned with an international modality and stakeholders are expected to give feedback in order to create well developed documents.
Other issues addressed at the meeting included the selection process, what mechanisms they would use, the timeline for regulations to be put in place, and standards for competition with Ethio-telecom. 
“I don’t see any problem for a certain company to compete for both [partial privatization and operation] as long as they are capable,” said Tim Kelly from the World Bank group.
“In terms of the timeline, March 2020, is unchanged for both partial privatization and operator licensing the ministry is doing both side by side and the selection process, mechanisms will be decided after the consultation is made with international bench marks,” said Biruk Taye Senior Adviser of the Ministry of Finance.
