Huawei announce that it has joined the African Union in the Second Ordinary Session of the African Union (AU) Specialized Technical Committee (STC) on Communication and ICT (CCICT-2) that kicked-off on Monday, November 20th at the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The second ordinary session of the CCICT2 that wrapped up its activities on November 24th has the main objective is to review implementation of projects, adopt strategies and action plans for the implementation of projects and programs at the continental and regional levels for the communication and ICT sectors. The partnership with AU is one of Huawei’s efforts to drive digital transformation in Africa.
The AU vision is to establish a body that could accelerate the process of integration in Africa, support the empowerment of African states in the global economy and address the multifaceted social, economic and political problems facing the continent.
Ms. Leslie Richer, Director of Information and Communication delivered the AU Commission’s statement, in which she congratulated the AU member states on their endeavors to develop the communication and ICT sectors of Africa. “Our strategic framework Agenda 2063 recognizes that for Africa to achieve its full potential, the investment in any sector, including communication and ICT, must be inclusive, ensuring access by all members of society to technology and the knowledge economy,” noted Ms. Richer.
The second ordinary session of the STC on CCICT elected Ethiopia as the chair of the bureau. At a dinner organized by Huawei at the African union headquarter, newly elected chairman of the bureau state minister of information and technology GetachewNegash expressed his gratitude for Ethiopia’s selection as the chair and stressed that endeavors in the ICT sector should not be left only for governments, commending Huawei’s efforts in the sector. “Huawei has contributed a lot in ICT sector solutions regionally. I expect more, I appreciate their efforts in this regard” said Getachew.

ARTS Media Production Share Company announced the hiring of Ermias Eshetu, former VP of Zemen Bank and CEO of Ethiopia Commodity Exchange, as the new CEO of ARTS.
Ermias, received his Masters degree in International Business from Manchester School of Management, and continued to work at several multinational Fortune 500 companies developing and implementing successful business strategies. Having founded many businesses of his own, Ermias is no stranger to startups. He brings his global experience, proven leadership, and local perspective which we believe are necessary for the successful launch of this revolutionary media company.
Ermias joins an impressive cast at ARTS, whose shareholders include a variety of successful individuals, ranging from Olympic gold-medalists to experienced authorities in media, education, finance, law, medicine as well as many other professional backgrounds. They share one vision: to provide a modern, high quality and engaging content to its audiences across Africa particularly focusing on business, policy and culture.
ARTS Media Share Company is an Ethiopian-based media start-up, intent on providing African entertainment, news, and high-quality content near and far from the perspective of Africans. ARTS shall attempt to especially capture the increasingly young population of Africa, and of African descent, by providing high quality content and a platform for active engagement in the ongoing transformation of the continent. ARTS hopes to start full operation in the first quarter of 2018, with content already scheduled to be rolled out in Washington DC, Chicago, San Francisco, and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

The Ethiopian Investment Commission (EIC) signed a final investment agreement on 24 November 2017 with Boortmalt, a leading global malting company that aims to build an environmentally sustainable multi-million dollar malting plant in DebreBerhan Industrial Park (DBIP). EIC signed the agreement on behalf of the Industrial Parks Development Corporation (IPDC) for the construction of a 15 hectare plant that will be the first anchor investment in the DBIP.
Signed at the EIC office by FitsumArega, Commissioner of EIC, and YvanSchaepman, CEO of Boortmalt, the agreement is a result of a collaboration between the EIC, Agricultural Transformation Agency (ATA), and Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources (MoANR). The ATA and EIC have previously developed several business cases on agro-processing opportunities, such as this greenfield investment in barley malting. Boortmalt is expected to source malt barley through contract farming agreements with 40,000 – 60,000 smallholder farmers throughout Ethiopia.
“This signing marks an important milestone for all parties, and particularly the ATA as our first conversion of a major international investment. Such ventures contribute to the commercialization of smallholder farmers, which is instrumental to Ethiopia’s aim of eradicating poverty and achieving middle income status by 2025,” stated MirafeGebriel Marcos, Senior Director of Agri-business & Markets at the ATA, “Boortmalt’s malting plant will be a major market for smallholder farmers who stand to supply over 96,000 metric tons of raw malting barley annually”.
Currently, the national malt barley demand far exceeds supply, with Assela and Gondar Malt Factories being the primary suppliers of malt. With the advent of numerous breweries in recent years, Ethiopia has been forced to fulfil nearly 70% of breweries’ needs with imported malt. Moreover to boosting malt supply, Boortmalt’s presence in Ethiopia will play a role in import substitution, enable the country to save hard currency, and limit local beer producers’ dependency on imports.

The U.S. embassies in Addis Ababa and Abuja, Nigeria in partnership with Ethiopian and Nigerian independent media houses have launched a joint ‎initiative dubbed “Uniting African Journalists” (UAJ).
The new initiative aspires to support connections between Ethiopian and Nigerian media houses with the hope that this can lead toward new opportunities, increased professional capacity, and stronger support and collaboration among African journalists.
Five broadcast and print media houses from Ethiopia and six media outlets from Nigeria have joined the initiative. In the first phase, representatives of Ethiopian media outlets spent a week in Abuja at the end of November to explore possibilities with their Nigerian counterparts. This week, Nigerian media representatives arrived in Addis Ababa to continue to conversation with Ethiopian media.
Partner media houses from Nigeria includes Channels Television, Premium Times newspaper, Daily Trust newspaper, Nigerian Television Authority, Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (Radio Nigeria), and Cool/Wazobia/Nigeria Info.
Uniting African Journalists initiative is part of the U.S government’s commitment to supporting ‎ professional independent media and encouraging free press and freedom of expression.