With three games left to go in the 2018 Ethiopian Premier League season Woldya has already been relegated to the lower division. Speculation is that despite having the best stadium in the country Woldya’s existence might not be different than Dashen Birra which disbanded two years ago following its relegation to the Super League.
What is amazing about Woldya is not its fate to relegation but the amount of money that went into building the team. The head Coach Zemariam W/Giorgis who helped the side to promotion and the major player in the transfer market is blamed for triggering the current chaos by signing big name veteran players. Amongst them are Tesfaye Albachew, Menyaehel Teshome and Fitsum G/Mariam which each cost a half million birr per season but didn’t play to expectations.
Then when things started to look ugly, Zemariam ran away to safety in the name of a one year suspension accused of provoking the players into mistreating the referee. Some believe Zemariam did that to get away from the future blame like he did with Fasil by travelling to South Africa for medical treatment.
Nevertheless Woldya is currently 20th in the table with just twenty points from 27 matches and not only is relegated to the lower division but also boasts a shocking record. They have four wins, eight draws and 15 defeats and have given up 38 goals while scoring only 14.
According to Coach Zelalem Shiferaw also a run-away coach from Diredawa who smelled danger yet took over Woldya since the 23rd fixture there are at least five major problems that sent Woldya to relegation. Of the five problems mentioned by Zelalem, lack of quality squad members, most signees coming from relegated teams and failure to stand as a team are major ones that triggered Woldya’s down fall.
Prodigal Woldya relegated; its future bleak!
AbaJifar’s Afolabi controls top scorer slot
Nigerian giant striker Okikikola Afolabi appears to be enjoying the rainy season becoming a run-away leading top scorer in the Ethiopian Premier League. Last year’s top scorer and Dedebit’s marks man Getaneh Kebede along with Electric’s one man strike force Electric’s Al-Hasen Kalusha are second from afar.
In his very first season in the Ethiopian Premier League Afolabi is close to making history as the second foreign player next to Nigerian Samuel Sanumi to win the top scorers award. With three fixtures to go Afolabi has 17 goals under his belt which is more than half of the 31 goals the team managed to collect. The second highest scorer in the team is Temesgen G/Michael with five goals while the remaining nine goals are distributed among five players. Once Afolabi told reporters that he is working very hard to help his team win the dream title and collect both accolades Top scorer and Best Player of The Year awards.
Two players are rubbing shoulders from far: Ethiopia Premier League all time highest scorer with 25 goals Dedebit’s Getaneh Kebede and relegation threatened Ethio-Electric’s Al-Hasen Kalusha each with 11 goals. With Dedebit and Electric struggling to survive, it is the two strikers managed such accomplishments.
Fast forward Ethiopia Bunna’s striker Samuel Sanumi is third in the table with ten goals in to his name. One third of the total goal tally is in his name, in his sixth season and third team in Ethiopian Football, Sanumi’s current form is said to be the turning point for Ethiopia Bunna’s revival in the title contention. Amanuel G/Michael of Mekele, Dawa Hutesa of Adama and Addis Gedey of Sidama Bunna are joint thirds each with nine goals.
A TALE OF THREE SUMMITS
The world of international politicking or international relations, to be more polite, saw three Summits in less than a week. The first one took place from 8-9 June 2018, in La Malbaie, Quebec, Canada. The agenda of the G7 Summit was mostly about tariffs (US, Canada, Germany, Japan, France, UK and Italy). The second Summit took place from 9-10 June 2018 in Qingdao, China. It was the Summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). The last and probably the most awaited Summit was the one that took place in Singapore from June 12- 13, 2018. The two strong men of North Korea and the US conducted their first ever meeting. As North Korea is now nuclearly armed, the significance of this particular Summit cannot be overemphasized!
The Group of Seven or G7, was formally set up in 1975, by the seven industrially advanced countries of the world system. In 1997, Russia joined the group making it a G8. In 2014, Russia was kicked out of the group because it started to assert its interests in the Caspian Sea region. It was the west’s protractedly instigated coup d’état in Ukraine that finally broke the patience of the Russian bear! Currently, the G7 is contemplating of downgrading itself to a G6+1. The G6 representing ‘United Europe’ (along with Canada), while the +1 represents the current US’s administration meme of “America First’! The G7 doctrine has always been to leverage its immense collective power, economic or otherwise, to dominate the world system in all ways imaginable. As we advance in the 21st century, however, the influence of the G7 is waning. It is obvious that other ascending powers are also moving to the fore. As empires decline, the tendency is to bicker and engage in cantankerous dialogues with all and sundry. The G7 is no exception! The old strategy of tariffs, sanctions, regime change, even outright wars, are being used (still) to secure old turfs/interests, particularly against those deemed serious contenders. The BRICS that include China and Russia along with SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organization) are the new ascending entities that will most likely replace the current order, dominated by a sole hegemon! The fact is; no empire lasts forever and systems of collective existence are bound to change with time. It seems that is what awaits the good old G7!
The SCO is a relatively new comer to the world system. It officially came into existence only in 2002, long after the collapse of the USSR. The initial objective was to secure peace between the five neighboring countries of Russia, China, Kirgizstan, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan (1996). Soon the organization accepted Uzbekistan as the sixth member. The two countries of India and Pakistan who have had ‘observer status’ in the SCO (for quite a while) finally became full members last year (June 9, 2917). Currently these are the eight full members of SCO. As it stands, there are four countries with ‘observer status’ awaiting admission to the organization. These are Afghanistan, Belarus, Mongolia and Iran. In addition, there are also another six countries with ‘dialogue partner’ status, including Turkey. Understandably, the USA was not allowed to join the SCO, under any status. Unlike the G7, SCO is a sought after organization. One of the conditions required to join the SCO is a country should not belong to a military alliance. In this regard, one should note that G7 minus Japan, (only because of geographical reason, otherwise Japan is effectively part and parcel of the North Atlantic military alliance) are all members of NATO! Nonetheless, the future seems to belong to the likes of SCO. The BRI (Belt and Road Initiative) of China, with an objective of interconnecting the whole of the Eurasian continent, economically, etc.; the labyrinth pipelines of Russia crisscrossing Europe and Asia are some of the new features of the emerging multi-polar world! The current full members of the SCO account for about half of the world’s population, a quarter of the world’s GDP, (in nominal terms, but much higher in real PPP terms) and about 80% of Eurasia’s landmass! The main attractiveness of the SCO’s is; the ideology of mutual benefit, equitable partnership, transparency and most importantly, peace! In the statement of the SCO: “…..against the backdrop of a contradictory process of globalization, multilateral cooperation, which is based on the principles of equal right and mutual respect, non-intervention in internal affairs of sovereign states, non-confrontational way of thinking and consecutive movement towards democratization of international relations, contributes to overall peace and security, and call upon the international community, irrespective of its differences in ideology and social structure, to form a new concept of security based on mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality and interaction.” See the articles next column, on page 49,52 & 54.
The Korean Summit that took place in Singapore from June 12-13, 2018, had the most pressing agenda for the world at large, at least compared to the other Summits of the week. The US presence in South Korea and its frequent military exercises have been troublesome, to say the least. These activities of the US, along with other allies in the region, had forced the North Koreans to develop their own weapons of mass destruction for self-protection, mostly nuclear weaponry. The US contingency of over 30,000 military personnel in South Korea still remains a serious threat to regional peace. Moreover, the US has now installed anti-missile system in South Korea, which are clearly intended to undermine the military postures of China and Russia in that part of Eurasia. Given the fact that this is a strategic peninsula where Japan, China and Russia find themselves in very close proximity, all efforts to de-escalate tension between the countries is to be welcomed. In this regard, what transpired in Singapore last week is encouraging!
Here is what the Russian president once said about the current weaknesses of the global system, particularly pertaining to its crucial and dangerous financial architecture. “We now clearly see the defectiveness of the monopoly in world finance and the policy of economic selfishness. To solve the current problem Russia will take part in changing the global financial structure so that it will be able to guarantee stability and prosperity in the world and to ensure progress. The world is seeing the emergence of a qualitatively different geo-political situation, with the emergence of new centers of economic growth and political influence. We will witness and take part in the transformation of the global and regional security and development architectures adapted to new realities of the 21st century, when stability and prosperity are becoming inseparable notions”. Vladimir Putin. Good Day!
FOREX drought strangles local suppliers
Companies ask government for amnesty to fulfill contracts
Local companies are struggling to supply materials needed for government mega projects within the required time period.
Companies Capital spoke with say lack of hard currency has prevented them from supplying construction materials for the projects. People working in the industry say this is another example of the hard currency crunch choking Ethiopia’s economy. Many manufacturers say they almost did not produce the entire year.
“Now buyers are going to confiscate or annul the performance and bid bonds because companies failed to deliver on time,” a manager for a construction equipment company who asked to be anonymous told Capital.
The project managers, particularly bureaus at the Addis Ababa City Administration, are now notifying the companies that they will annul the agreements and confiscate the performance bonds, which usually amount to ten percent of contract’s total value.
The construction equipment manager pointed out that legally, lack of foreign currency is not a legitimate excuse for failing to deliver a product like a natural catastrophe or war is. In Ethiopia’s commercial code a hard currency shortage is not considered a ‘Force Majeure’ or ‘Act of God’.
“It was not an issue during the period when the code was ratified but now it is the country’s major economic challenge. The government should incorporate the issue into the law or facilitate hard currency,” an expert said.
“We have insisted that public institutions help us obtain hard currency to produce the materials and extend the deadline, but they have not supported us; the agreement has not taken this into consideration,” a company owner claimed.
This issue was one of the major topics of discussion at the Metal Industry Development Institute’s (MIDI) latest meeting, as the steel sector is a major victim of the FOREX shortage.
Sources at the Association of Basic Metals and Engineering Industries told Capital that they have asked for help from the relevant government bodies and requested that public institutions consider the hard currency shortage to be a ‘force majeure’. “We have also recommended that they allow the contract to be fulfilled on an installment basis and allow factories to supply the product based on the amount of hard currency they have secured,” one of the industry actors said.
Sources said that the MIDI wrote a letter to the city administration asking them to consider the foreign currency shortage and not penalize local manufacturers since they are important to Ethiopia’s economy.
Manufacturing industry representatives reportedly believe that the only source of hard currency for the sector, which is mainly engaged in import substitution, is accessed from state banks, particularly from the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia. Private banks; they argue, provide hard currency to those they have a ‘special relationship’ with. They claim that even though the National Bank of Ethiopia has a directive forcing banks to prioritize manufacturing when approving hard currency the central bank has not been properly controlling the Letter of Credit approvals from private banks.
The hard currency shortage has affected the nation’s entire economic activity since the imbalance in earnings between hard currency and imports occurred. Many manufacturers have shut down or scaled back operations.
