Siemens and the Ethiopian Investment Commission (EIC) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to support the government’s objective of becoming a low middle-income country by 2025.
Abebe Abebayehu, who leads EIC, and Sabine Dall’Omo signed the Memorandum of Understanding.
They plan to work together by sharing technology and knowledge primarily in distributing power.
Ethiopia generates a significant amount of clean energy but because of distribution problems utilization remains low.
“The company is building a power transfer line to Kenya from here and we agree to work on transferring knowledge to Ethiopian youth,” said Abebe Abebayehu. “The agreement also covers health equipment manufacturing which helps support the government’s objective of becoming a low middle-income country by 2025.”
In Ethiopia there are high power generation initiatives but the main problem remains with the distribution. The affordable power supply from the government doesn’t support the economy much as distribution is poor. The company will also supply medical equipment.
In another deal, the Siemens AG President and CEO Joe Kaeser granted establishment of a SIMATIC S7 Tech Center here in Ethiopia. The agreement will enable the Training and Skills Center to train entrepreneurs in industrial automations, so people can create their own automated industries, said Getahun Mekuria, Minister of Innovation and Technology.
Ethiopia’s Growth and Transformation Plan serves as a catalyst towards realizing its national vision of accelerated and sustained economic growth in order to eradicate poverty and increase prosperity. “Siemens can make a significant contribution to Ethiopia’s development. We will apply our vast experience and proven technologies as well as training and education capabilities to help shape the future of Ethiopia and its people. One of the starting projects affirming our strong commitment in the region is the East Africa Interconnector,” said Joe Kaeser.
Siemens is currently helping to increase the reliability of energy supply through an interconnector being built between Kenya and Ethiopia. The roughly 1,000 kilometres-long transmission line will transmit environmentally friendly hydroelectricity from Ethiopia to Kenya. The project currently supports 200 direct jobs in Ethiopia alone and is one of the largest infrastructure projects in Africa.
European industrial giant Siemens to join Ethiopia
Ethiopia sees largest decline in sub-Saharan fertility rates
A new study indicates that Ethiopia is experiencing the largest decline in fertility rates in sub-saharan Africa since the early 2000s.
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), in collaboration with the German and Austrian Embassies in Ethiopia, organized a dissemination session to go over the study entitled: “From Land of Famine to Land of Hope; Will Ethiopia Become a Model for an African Upswing?”
The longitudinal study showed that Ethiopian women are now giving birth to an average of 4.6 children per woman as opposed to 6.8 previously. It was conducted by the Berlin Institute for Population and Development with financial support from the Austrian Development Cooperation
Despite the decrease in the birth rate, the population still appears to be increasing at an alarming pace. The population continues at 2.6 percent annually. Life expectancy has risen to between 15 and 16 years since the 1990s. It is now 62 for men and 66 for women.
Addis Ababa has a unique a city-country divide with a 1.8 percent fertility rate difference. The capital residents have adopted more modern thinking around family planning, according to the report. The decline in fertility rates has not been evenly spread throughout the country.
The assessment reviewed Ethiopia’s performance with respect to health and suggests only one element of the MDGs has not been achieved yet. There has been remarkable progress in the health sector, participants said, as maternal mortality has been reduced and infectious diseases like HIV/AIDS and malaria, have been fought hard. The panel says the government must work hard to create jobs.
The panel recommended that the successful heath extension program to improve the care of children and decrease maternal death be extended to other health related problems. Job opportunities should be explored in uncultivated lands and the government must focus on creating jobs in agriculture, textiles and manufacturing. In terms of education the issue of quality should be solved and the government should invest in good teaching, infrastructure and preschool. Technology should emphasized in order to incubate young entrepreneurs.
The partnership is formed by UNFPA and the two embassies to foster knowledge sharing and strengthening evidence-based information for advocacy and policy dialogue about population and development issues. This comes at a time when the 25th anniversary of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD at 25) is being celebrated in 2019.
After the authors, the Berlin Institute for Population and Development, presented the results, a presentation was made on the “Current Population Dynamics of Ethiopia” by the Institute of Population Studies of Addis Ababa University. They said population control should not be politicized. The panelists argued that birth control should be promoted.
Auditor General, deputy limited to two terms
An amendment bill to the Auditor General Establishment Proclamation, passed by the House last week, means that the auditor general and deputy will not be able to serve more than two six-year terms. An explanation provided to the parliament last week was that this supports international principles and will bring fresh power to the office.
The amendment also means the two top leaders will obtain benefits after service, in addition to specifying on the job benefits and salary. The explanation also stated that the Auditor General has the responsibility to audit the annual budget, subsidies given to regions and loans provided from the federal government too. The note elaborated that unknowingly the power to audit government subsidies and loans to the regional governments was taken away previously but it is being restored now.
The establishment proclamation stated the the auditor general has the power to audit public enterprises in addition to government institutions, but it didn’t give the necessary framework on how that should be done. The office of the auditor general proposed the establishment of one independent institution to look into these enterprises.
Private sector asks Gov’t for reliable ICT infrastructure
Although, Ethiopia has spent over three billion USD for telecom infrastructure by rolling out over 17 thousand fiber optic cables across the country, the business community is asking for more. They say more reliable ICT infrastructure is needed to grow the business environment.
“Most government portals such as wereda net have failed to provide services which means increased costs and wasted time for the business community,” Messay Hailmariam, CEO of Ronbit Consultancy said in a study he presented.
Of 33 federal institutions only six currently provide online service, according to the Minister of Innovation and Technology.
The limited capacity of ICT infrastructure and the failure to develop government portals are another problem.
“The Ministry of Innovation and Technology is working to improve the limited capacity of wereda.net by increasing the speed and bandwidth to modernize the country’s information technology system,” Getahun Mekuria Minister of Innovation and Technology said.
“The costly Internet will not make the Ethiopian business community competitive with international firms,” Messay adds.
“Developing a strategy for fostering mobile money services, can be a key enabler for improving access to finance that contributes for the growth of business in the country as business without ICT development is unthinkable,” Messay says.
According to a study the slow Implementation of National ICT strategies and programs, limited capacity and underutilized infrastructure such as fiber optics, data centers and lack of an on-line payment platform through which companies can buy/sell challenges the growth of business in Ethiopia.
It recommended that the government intervene to accelerate the rollout of high-speed broadband infrastructure and attract foreign firms and support business innovation and productivity across the economy in addition to pushing forward plans of partially privatizing the state-owned monopoly operator, ethio-telecom in hopes of bringing opportunity to enhance the benefits of advancement in communication infrastructures.
