The Addis Ababa Trade Bureau reports that some bakeries are selling bread at a lower weight than the regulations allow. After a recent two month inspection of bakeries, some shops have been selling bread which is supposed to be 100 grams at as little as 60 grams to increase their profit. 100 grams of bread is supposed to be sold for 1 birr and 30 cents. Bread that was supposed to weight 200 or 300 grams has had its weight reduced by 80 grams during the baking process. So far seven bakeries have been closed for lowering the weight and the Bureau says more may be shut as they are warning all trade regulation bureaus in every sub city.
A scarcity of wheat is being blamed for the recent behavior of bakery owners. Bread prices doubled from one to two birr at bakeries which were not receiving subsidized flour from the government. A quintal of wheat is being sold to bakers for 2,000 birr, twice its recent 1,000 birr a quintal price. At some places bread prices have gone higher than two birr.
Kasehun Abera, Trade Inspection Head at the Bureau told Capital that the government has a zero tolerance policy toward lowering the weight of bread.
“The wheat flour the bakeries get is subsidized by the government. The main reason we do this is to help our people. We have observed that some bakeries are using the wheat shortage as a pretext for lowering bread weight. But they can’t add price or lower weight without the government’s permission. These bad activities hurt consumers and give the city a bad image.”
He added the wheat scarcity is currently being solved and government is distributing wheat to flour companies who give it to bakeries.
Currently 400,000 quintals of wheat are under the procurement process and 700,000 quintals of wheat went to flour companies and bakeries in the last two months.
A source in the trade bureau said that the government should get out of the wheat supply market to stabilize the bread market in the city.
“Bread weight in the city is not uniform because some bakeries get a subsidy and some do not but if the supply of wheat fully falls to the private sector competition will be created among suppliers to provide the best product at a good price which ultimately will benefit consumers and bakeries to obtain better prices and services.’’
Currently 1,650 bakeries get flour subsidies in Addis Ababa through 44 wheat flour companies who are working on the outskirts of Addis Ababa. Under normal circumstances Addis Ababa gets 168,000 quintals of wheat from the Ethiopian Grain Trade Enterprise.
Bakeries caught cheating customers Some lower bread weight by 40%
Investing in the future
For many years nannies have been hired by Ethiopian families without having the proper training to care for babies. Many daycare centers also use untrained adolescent girls who mostly come from rural areas. Many studies show children who get proper care in their childhood become successful later in life. After observing untrained nannies in the country and being unsatisfied with the quality of care when he was raising his first son, Solomon Mulugeta, established Eshururu Training Center which provides three months of training for women on how to care babies until they can manage themselves, in feeding, dressing, and protecting their health. He has trained more than 9,000 nannies who go on to work in daycare and homes. Currently he is working to train an additional 6,000 nannies to provide more opportunities for women and families. Capital’s Tesfaye Getnet talked with Solmon Mulugeta, founder and managing director of Eshururu Training Center to learn why this is such a vital service.
Capital: What makes a trained nanny necessary especially when so many hire people without training?
Solomon Mulugeta: Let me begin with a story. A couple of years ago, a man called me after listening to one of my interviews. He told me his child had fallen down but the nanny he hired didn’t tell him what had happened. A few years later the child began experiencing severe spinal pain. They had to travel to Europe for treatment and they ended up spending over 60,000 Euro. The man told me that if had hired a trained nanny his child might not have fallen. Untrained nannies can lead to health and other problems. If you look at some studies, many mothers become less efficient in the work place after they have a child, the main reason is that they do not give their full attention to their work because their baby takes up a lot of their attention. However, if you provide them with trained nannies for their children you can reduce their worry and stress which helps them work more efficiently.
Capital: Are children in Ethiopia getting care by trained nannies?
Solomon: There is slight progress but not that much. The only nanny training center that works in Ethiopia is ours. However, millions of babies are born every year in Ethiopia so there is a huge need and we need more schools to open. Many families don’t see the need for a trained nannies and just hire adolescent girls from the countryside to take care of their children. This is not the best idea because caring for a child is not a simple job like lifting a stone from the ground. It is a job which requires proper trainings. They have make sure they get proper sleep, change their diaper and understand their psychology.
Capital: What challenges did you face when you started the nanny training center?
Solomon: When we started the trainings there was a vision and a potential but we expected big challenges. We knew it would be hard to convince people since new ideas are not easy to penetrate in the society. We wasted a lot of time convincing potential students that this would help them get a better salary. the other challenges to convince find families who need trained nannies. But the nannies we brought from our center passionately love children. When the public saw the difference in how their children were treated the public saw the benefits of training. With the support of the International Migration Organization in Debre Birhan we trained more than 400 women who returned from the Middle East, which shows that this can work outside Addis as well. Our current challenge is having a limited amount of space to train nannies. More training centers should open we alone can not fulfil this demand.
Capital: Do the nannies who come for training want to improve their skills or are they trying to get a better salary?
Solomon: Before we go in to formal training we ask them why they chose the nanny profession. After that we give them awareness about why taking care of a child requires a great deal of attention. Then the courses focus on how to work, how to take care of the baby’s health, psychology, playing ,washing, feeding and sleeping via the scientific method. The coursework consists of 30 percent theory and 70 percent practical work carried out in daycare centers.
Capital: Why don’t you train men?
Solomon: It is a long tradition that women have a better capacity to care for a child but we give training for men in laundry and housekeeping.
Capital: Since many nannies come from rural areas and speak other languages do you plan to offer training only in Amharic?
Solomon: We are currently developing an Oromiffia instruction book and will teach in Ormoiffa so we can serve more students.
Capital: There are many daycare centers opening in Addis Ababa do they have trained nannies?
Solomon: Less than three percent of daycare centers in Addis are working with trained nannies and the rest are not. If you check many of daycare centers in Addis, you find nannies who know nothing about taking care of children. Some of them shout at the child when they need the child to sleep. There is no classified room for the different aged children they play and sleep together, so we have to ask ourselves what the city health and education bureau are doing to supervise the daycare centers when they are working with untrained nannies?
Capital: Trained nannies ask for higher salaries around 2,500 birr is this affordable to the average family?
Solomon: To your surprise some trained nannies form our center get up to 4,500 birr per month but the question we have to ask ourselves how much do we want to invest in our children? We have trained over 9,000 nannies no parents have complained about their pay. How much they make is really between the parents and the nanny we don’t get involved but bear in mind that paying more salary and investing in training means investing in the child.
Capital: What is the 50×116 project?
Solomon: We plan to train 50 women in all 116 werdas of Addis Ababa in total we will train 5,800 poor women. Our motivation for this project is to provide job opportunities for women and to serve more families with trained nannies. In total the project requires 40 million birr. Some NGO’s want to work with us. We will announce this to the public when we are ready to launch.
Capital: What can the government do to help nannies gain more skills?
Solomon: The government has opened day care centers which is a good first step but to improve the private sector should be enabled to open more nanny training centers and a curriculum should be developed.
Ambassel comes up with new “Kirar“ songs
The 40 year old music production company, Ambassel, launched a new traditional collection last Monday which Yetenayet Girma, Tamene Mekonen and Abebaw Asrat participated on the album.
The artistes played nine songs where each played three. The CD which was releases to the New Year holyday was recorded by Mulugeta Afeworq and mixed by Fekadu Wari.
The recoding company is known for its traditional and modern music recording and its film productions.
The unique string instrument Kirar has five strings that make a beautiful sound. The instrument which is used in Ethiopia and Eretria is also used for spiritual songs in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.
New festival to promote charity and culture for kids
A unique festival to promote the charity and culture promotion for the teenagers and children was opened today at the Lideta Mercato Shopping center. Organized by Shakcrux Trade & Event Management PLC, the event will stay until September 10, 2018.
The event will enable the children to donate their toys, clothes, and accessories to the needy. Also, public figures which are known for their charitable character will be invited to share their experiences with the audience.
The financial institutions will teach the children the saving culture, companies which sell products for the children will sell their products and cultural games which are now being at the risk of extinction in the urban community will be promoted.
The festival is expected to be visited by 20,000 children and youth and about 63 companies are participating.
“The private community should invest in children which are the next consumer generation. The role to shape and teach good citizens seems left to the government and the Non-Governmental Organisations and we need to break that culture” said Aklile Belete Manager of Shakcrux.
“We invested about 700,000 birr to make this festival happen and most private companies didn’t want to sponsor such events,” he said.
Aklile argues that there are too many interesting indigenous games which help the youth to be mentally and physically strong but the elders didn’t promote it. He believes the blame on the current generation to neglect its culture is the fault of the previous generation who categories its culture as a backwardness.
“The youth and children are more connected to the technology and are not sociable which is a risk as a social,” he said. “Our cultural games and such connection festivals will solve the problem” Aklile concludes.
Shakcrux is a trade and events management company which is mainly engaged in promoting new products in Ethiopia, organizing trade fares locally and overseas. The eight years old company is reputable for the
There will not be an entrance payment for the attendance of the event but there are going to be payments for specific games, but fair, according to Aklile. Flintstone shops and other companies sponsored part of the festival.
The festival which is the very first of its kind will be held on annual bases.
