Djibouti, which wants to expand its tourism economy, has slashed visa fee for visitors.
The decree of the Ministry of Budget of Djibouti indicated that the revised visa fee was classified into three categories, from about USD 11 to 168 depending on the duration.
The country has stated that it wants to expand its economic sector into different aspects from the current dominant logistics service sector. The tourism sector is stated as one of the pillars in this regard.
Osman Abdi Mohamed, CEO of the National Tourism Office of Djibouti, recently told Ethiopian media visiting Djibouti that the tourism sector contributes three percent to the GDP, which is expected to reach 5 percent in the coming five years. According to the CEO there are now 140 thousand visitors every year and that number is expected to increase to half a million in five years.
He said that his office has highly targeted to expand the number of Ethiopian tourists visiting different seaside towns in other African nations and the Middle East like Dubai.
Currently Ethiopia and Djibouti are re-linked with a modern electric railway that replaces the century old line.
Recently the two countries have reconnected with electric railway besides the road and flight. Experts in the country stated that the railway makes the two nations more connected since it is cheap and fast than air and road transport respectively. 
The Ethiopian side is also massively working on the road development including express road on the corridor to Djibouti. Recently Djibouti has also launched the development of express roads that connect Ethiopia.
“Tourists not only others visiting Ethiopian and continue their visit to Djibouti but Ethiopians shall visit Djibouti and enjoy their weekend at sea sides by coming the modern and fast railway system,” the CEO said.
The two countries have agreed to cooperate more to integrate tourism. “Our office in collaboration with its counterpart in Ethiopia organized the first meeting between Djibouti and Ethiopian private operators here and the second meeting will be held in Addis Ababa in February,” he added.
Osman Abdi said that in the last two years the numbers of tourists coming after visiting Ethiopia is growing. The CEO said that his office branch will open in Addis Ababa this month.
The current visa fee reduction is stated to be a good option for Ethiopian tourists. The decree stated that the short stay from 15 to 90 days has been reduced to USD 22 that was close to USD 90 in the past, while the long stay up to 12 months would be USD 168 and the transit is USD 11.
The country is currently eager to attract tourists from new potentials besides the traditional travelers like from France. The sector has registered a 40 percent increase last year.
The government of Djibouti has decided to put money into tourism so last March the government organized a national forum on tourism which attracted many stakeholders. The forum came up with a strategic national master plan which will be finished by the end of this month.
He said that Ethiopia has several tourist destinations and some even registered by UNESCO. “It is a good opportunity for us also since tourists that visit Ethiopia might come to our beaches or seaside areas,” he added.
“We have beautiful touristic sites for visitors including beautiful beach, whale shark and other sea side and inland destinations,” Osman Abdi said.
Most of the visitors to Djibouti are from France but the country is working to change that. “Now we are also working to attract tourists from China, Ethiopia, and the Gulf States,” the CEO added. He indicated that Ethiopian tourists would enjoy the beach and sea foods that they don’t have in their country. “Ethiopians shall spend their weekend in Djibouti just coming by airplane or cheap transport of train and road,” he added.
Djibouti reduces visa fees
Chamber calls for businesses to work for peace
The Addis Ababa Chamber of Commerce and Sectoral Association (AACCSA) has called on the business community to help strengthen peaceful coexistence and support reform.
At a press conference the city chamber leaders said that unemployment, income and lack of development are sources of instability but that they can be solved by a major private sector intervention.
“Businesses can create jobs, expand revenue and incomes and contribute to national development,” the chamber president Mesenbet Shenkute said.
“Job creation and a stable economy are some of the pillars for peaceful coexistence,” the chamber leader added.
The leaders vowed to continue working on development and called on business owners to work towards peace.
They announced plans to work cooperatively for peace and prosperity.
“The chamber called on the business community to work on reform taking place in Ethiopia,” the chamber leader said.
Recently, instability was observed in west Wellega, Afar region, Dire Dawa and Somali region.
The chamber said that business is one of the major victims when instability occurs and that this hinders them from creating jobs.
Changing educational narratives
Lebawi International Academy announced last week that it has decided to run a commercial school while maintaining many scholarships. After five successful years of full scholarships, Lebawi will admit competent students for the coming academic year. The school was established in 2013 with a goal of developing an Ethio-centric curriculum.
“It all began with a dialogue with my friend Haddis Tadesse, 15 years ago,” said Panos Hatziandreas, head of the school, and Country Representative. “He and I talked in Seattle while I was a university professor and we talked about how we had achieved what we had there just because we had the chance. He and I wanted to create that opportunity for smart Ethiopians.”
The school began with five teachers and 25 students. The school has graduated two batches and 50 percent of the students have been admitted in continents all over the world and in universities like Stanford and Yale. The other 50 percent are also doing well.
The school has researched and is incorporating indigenous knowledge and traditional learning instead of teaching only history and culture. Students must get the chance to learn Ge’ez and every student has to be able to translate a Ge’ez book to graduate from senior high school.
Teachers are said to be gathered from all over the world and have met high standards.
Lebawi allows students to mobilize resources from individual networks, the founders and board members.
“Haddis, who is the representative of the Gates Foundation in Africa, has mobilized various individuals and both of us have convinced them that there are very brilliant minds in Ethiopia so we want to help that be fully expressed,” said Panos.”It is easy if you ask donors to tell them that there are various children in Ethiopia which can’t access education, we don’t want that to be the scenario.”
We want to tell the truth that we have brilliant minds which can transform the world not only their country.
The scholarship is said to be continuing with the paying students on board since the coming year.
Most of the competent schools in Ethiopia are owned and run by foreign missions, like France, Britain or India, according to Panos. “We need to change the narrative that we are able to have an education system that can contribute to the rest of the world.”
The word Lebawi is derived from a Ge’ez word “Lebewe” which represents the act of strong desire truth and wisdom, from the bottom of the heart.
“We believe that wisdom is delivered from the heart, not a mind,” he said. “So, the Lebawi is represented by the Ethiopian narration of the source of wisdom to be one with the espousal.”
The opening of the school for the general public to get access is expected to raise the number of scholarship students and to cover the expenses of the school independently.
During the launching of the new format of the school students performed a play focusing on the popular argument in Ethiopia of the introduction of modern education.
The play depicted the popular argument around 1917 between those who want modern education and Ethiopian civilization to be based on the indigenous knowledge and those who argue in the contrary.
“We hope to see this school among the best schools on the continent and we are asking for everyone’s effort to bring up that change together.”
Nutrition-sensitive agricultural service becomes accessible
The Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Agency (ATA) and Save the Children in Ethiopia signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to use the 8028 Farmers’ Hotline in order to deliver nutrition-sensitive agricultural messages.
The duo has agreed to utilize the Interactive Voice Response/Short Message Service (IVR/SMS) to farmers for advice on nutrition-sensitive agriculture.
“Even if nutrition is a clear human health issue it also has a direct relationship with the farmers and the agriculture directly,” said Kalidbomba. “The success of the hotline in this short period of time is derived by the high demand of the farmers to access helpful information.”
“It is a smart and timely information dissemination tool which is enabled by this partnership with ATA,” said Ekin Ogutogullari, Country Director of Save the Children in Ethiopia. “It helps us avoid duplication of efforts and wisely use available resources and it will contribute to the dietary consumption behavior improvement of farmers.”
The USAID funded Growth through Nutrition (GTN) program is implemented by Save the Children in Ethiopia and works to strengthen Ethiopia’s institutions, systems, and human capacity to improve nutrition and significantly reduce stunting.
