Ethiopia’s revenue from exports continued to decrease as the country failed to hit its target for the just completed fiscal year. The country earned only 2.67 billion USD.
Though the government planned to earn 4.32 billion USD from exports, it achieved only 61 percent of its target.
Ministry of Trade and Industry’s communication director Wendimu Flate said that the underperformance in meat, dairy products, spices, leather and leather products, cattle, inputs of some chemicals, construction and mining especially gold exports achieved below 50 percent of their target.
Agriculture contributed 74 percent of the exported share which is 2.1 billion USD while manufacturing and mining contributed 453.60 and 46.18 million USD in revenue respectively.
“The manufacturing and mining sector’s underperformance really hurt us,” Wendimu said.
In terms of export destination by country the USA takes the lead followed by Somalia and the Netherlands out of the 146 trade partners.
The failure of increasing productivity and reliance of raw agricultural commodities in addition to the contraband border trade across the country and lack of meaningful diversification of export items has been often mentioned as a reason for the poor performance of Ethiopia’s export sector.
Lack of input for the manufacturing companies, which often couldn’t get hard currency on time and power shortages are reasons for manufacturing’s struggle.
The countries export performance has begun to decrease starting from 2016, where goods with a value of around 3.16 billion USD were exported from Ethiopia followed by export performance that registered 2.83 billion USD in 2017.
The Ministry plans to earn 4.69 billion USD for this fiscal year. Agriculture will still be relied on the most at 3.2 billion USD, which is 70 percent of the total exports.
Export decline continues
Loans for Ethiopian pilots becomes reality
The 700 member Ethiopian Airline Pilots Association told Capital that it secured a loan agreement with an unnamed private bank to provide financing at a 9.75 interest rate over a 25 year period to purchase homes or condos.
They can also purchase cars at the same rate with a 15 percent down payment or 40 percent for used cars over 10 years. According to the deal, the pilots must have a 5 percent deposit before getting home loans.
To buy the house the pilots must have their salary deposited in a private bank. Currently the airline uses the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia for deposits of over 80 million birr every month for its 1,200 pilots.
Yeshwas Fantahun (Captain), from the Ethiopian Airline Pilots Association said this is good news for the pilots.
“We pilots are proud of the work we do and want to work hard transporting people to their destinations safely but the reality is most of us are in rental houses which continue to go up in price.”
“As an association we are working to benefit pilots so finally we have find the right partner to offer competitive rates to our members.”
The association, which gave 3.8 million birr to the families of eight cabin crew members of the recent Boeing plane crash, is currently on the verge of starting a school feeding program at Bole Bulbula School for 80 children.
Apart from the pilots, currently six private banks and Commercial Bank of Ethiopia have offered documents allowing them to provide loans for permanent Ethiopian Airline staff so they can buy homes and cars.
The new loan system which is expected to be implemented in the next Ethiopian year will incorporate over 12,000 permanent airline staff. Previously Ethiopian Airlines constructed houses and gave them to its staff, through its own loan system.
Gadaa Bank raises over 250 million birr
Gadaa Bank Sc. which is under formation, raised over 250 million birr since it began selling shares to the public. The bank was incepted in 2018 to meet the needs of displaced farmers. This way farmers could be empowered to use their resources to acquire capital for more business.
Consultants from the financial sector, university lecturers, Abba Gadaas and farmers initiated the bank’s establishment.
“Displaced farmers have not been able to use their compensation properly that is why Gadaa is on board to assist them to incorporate and make them aware of how to use their money wisely,” said Wasihun Amenu Board chairman and the mastermind of Gadaa Bank Sc.
Gadaa began selling the shares for the public four months back and sold 250 million Birr worth of shares until end of July.
The bank has already agreed with all private commercial banks including the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia to sell the shares and set 20,000 birr as a minimum amount of shares and 100,000 Birr as the maximum subscription value.
Anyone interested in becoming a founding member should pay 25 percent of the total purchased share and a five percent payment that will be earmarked for operational costs.
According to Wasihun, Gadaa aims to raise a capital of two billion birr.
”The opening up of the banking sector for Diaspora and the newly ratified proclamation on land compensation will be a plus for us to sell more shares”, he adds.
The Bank will be expected to create over 2,000 job opportunities when it begins opening the proposed 30 branches for the first phase of its operation.
“The coming up of new banks to the banking industry will not be seen as a threat for there is a huge gap in terms of quality, accessibility in the Ethiopian Banking sector,” the project manager adds.
According to 2018 data from the World Bank, a single branch will serve close to 20,000 people which is far in terms of accessibility, adding that 50 percent of the banks are accumulated in the capital that shows the potential and the gap in the sector.
“The banking sector in Ethiopia is a highly profitable area with a good return on investment and our feasibility study shows that there is a huge gap in quality and accessibility,” Wasihun adds.
Medical waste disposal sites ready for action
Medical waste disposal centers have passed through their testing stages and will soon begin operating. Global Fund is behind the turnkey project which will be managed by the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS).
Incinco Ltd, a British company specializing in waste furnaces supplied and installed the machines.
Adhina Beri, who directs communication for the Pharmaceutical fund and supply agency said they are only waiting on two projects to finish and will soon be ready to start.
The centers were selected on the basis of accessibility and geographic locations. They include Adama, Nekemte, Hawassa, Dessie, Bahir Dar, Mekele Jimma, and Dire Dawa.
There are eight centers six are ready and the ones in Jimma and Dire Dawa were delayed.
“The local community in Dire Dawa was unhappy with the center being constructed there so we had to shift to Jigjiga,” Adhina said.
Ethiopian Medicine Supply Agency, which coordinates the projects is drafting directives on medical item disposal. This will affect public and private health institutions.
The draft directives will be tabled for discussion with stakeholders soon before they are sent to the Council of Ministers.
According to the Addis Ababa Health Employers Association, medical institutions pay close to 150 birr per kilogram to dispose of their medical waste so the service will save them money.
“Disposing medical items should be taken as one the duties of the municipalities as is done in some neighboring countries,” said Zelalem Fissha, President of the Addis Ababa Health Employers Association.
The agency has recruited professionals for every site in addition to warehouses.
Engineers are well trained and have taken on site job training and incarceration centers have been tested.
Those disposing of medical waste needs to be sorted out in advance because not all can be burned, according to Adhina.
The country inaugurated the first incinerator in Adama, some months back for pharmaceutical and medical waste management. Adama pharmaceutical warehouse is fully equipped with an intrusion control system, CCTV camera, and fire alarm.
According to the agency, the centers will incinerate the pharmaceutical waste, and drugs, and then move on to clinical waste.
Stakeholders strongly advised that the waste generated at healthcare facilities needs an adequate and appropriate management mechanism before disposal, including all activities involved in waste generation, segregation, transportation, storage, treatment and final disposal.
Nationally, 32.6 percent of the health facilities store medical waste in a covered container and about 27 percent of health facilities save it in another protected environment. The remaining 40 percent of health facilities store their medical waste in unprotected areas, the study explains.
The study also found out that 94 percent of the health facilities burn medical waste as a significant treatment method, among which only about 42 percent used a standard incinerator. The remaining facilities practice open-air incineration.
