The Ethiopian Roads Authority awarded three road projects to one local and two Chinese contactors to construct 99 km of asphalt concrete highways in Sodo, Woreta, and Dire Dawa at a cost of over 1.8 billion birr.
The agreements were signed by Araya Girmay, Director General of ERA and representatives of the three firms last Wednesday.
The first project was awarded to Chinese Rail Way Sevens Group to construct a 74.5 km road from Sodo to Denke. The 1.05 billion birr road should be finished in four years. It will be 19 meters wide and have six bridges. The construction cost of the road will be covered by African Development Bank and the Ethiopian government. A tender will soon be posted to find a consultant.
The road will pass through the villages of Sodo, Sawella, Gerrera, Yebish, Gasuba, Denke, Yeselam Ber and the Zones of Gamo Gofa.
The Woreta to Meklle project will be 5.3 km long and 30 meters wide. It was awarded to two indigenous contractors, Zeleul Yohannes and Bakora Trading. The 504.8 million birr project will take two years to complete. It is fully funded by the Ethiopian government. The consultancy work will be conducted by local firm, Pure Consulting Engineers Plc.
China Civil Engineering Construction won the other road contract at a price of 499 million birr to construct a 7.5 km road in nine months. The road goes from Melka Jebdu to Dire Dawa Industry park. It is 50 meters wide and has five bridges, a two meter wide bike lane and a 1.5 meter wide green area. The government is fully funding the project and is still looking for a consultant.
“Everybody understands how important roads are for transportation, investment, trade and connecting people, so we hope the roads will add value to our country by giving access to schools, businesses, hospitals and other vital services to people,” he said.
During the current fiscal year the Ethiopian Roads Authority awarded 12 projects to contractors.

The Addis Ababa City Administration Trade Bureau (AATB) announced that only 122,752 businesses have renewed their licenses out of the existing 262,688. There is only one week left until the renewal period ends. Starting from July 9 the bureau asked business owners to bring clearances from the Revenue and Customs Bureau by January 8 or face penalties.
Addis Ketama, which has the largest number of business, has only renewed 13,178 licenses from a possible 35,000, Bole renewed 15,858 from 42,000. In the other ten sub cities, Yeka, Lideta, and Arada 53 percent of the 60,000 business were renewed.
Recently the government increased the presumptive tax, estimating the tax based on the number of products and transactions in a day, for the first time in six years. By 2020 presumptive taxes are expected to reach 17 percent of GDP. However, tax collection has remained stagnant. To achieve this goal the government is conducting a study to expand the tax base and collect more taxes.
However business people have been repeatedly complaining to the government that the increase in taxes has not taken into account their actual transactions. AATB and customs officials maintain that business people still need to renew their licenses regardless of issues they have with the presumptive tax.
Berahanu Tegengne, Trade Licensing Director at Addis Ababa Trade Bureau told media on December 22, that the Bureau is working on a license renewal proclamation and that each business must renew their licenses even if they have complaints with the Revenue and Customs Authority.
He added that last year 13,692 licenses were given out which is 1,000 less compared to the previous year. However, during the same period 27,116 businesses entered into the market.
High rent prices, poor business planning, less support for entrepreneurs, and lack of a tax holiday are some of the reasons businesses have struggled in Ethiopia which is ranked 161st out of 190 countries on ease of doing business.
The Addis Ababa Trade Bureau (AATB), recently assigned Mesfin Assefa (former mayor of Legatfo) as director.

Sales have gone up for local phone assembler TECNO thanks to the phone registration system that Ethio Telecom has recently put into effect. The company said they had experienced losses when similar phones from other companies entered the Ethiopian market without following the necessary procedures but now this is no longer the case.
“The tele system has been incredibly encouraging and helpful. When our phones are assembled, we follow the correct procedures and pay the necessary tax to the government. In the past we were really affected by phones entering the country illegally. Through contraband it was easy to find similar phones to the ones we assemble here in the market. We have now seen a significant change with our sales after the phone registration system was put in effect recently,” said Liya Gebreyohannes a communications director at TECNO.
TECNO says they are currently focused on assembly, but their long-term plans include manufacturing some parts of the phones locally. Currently, TECNO is number one when it comes to market share and sells its phones that have been assembled in Ethiopia to the rest of Africa and some Asian markets.
“The company has its only assembly factory in Africa, in Ethiopia and it supplies many markets on the continent and some in Asia. Looking at their 2017 performance the company has sold phones worth 50 million USD. It has over 2,000 employees in its factory as well as other facilities and departments,” said Liya.
According to her, every year, the company sets a target the number of phones to be sold in Ethiopia. This December their goal is 43,000.
“The demand for the phones has been really good, one reason for this is the one warranty service we provide as well as other after sales services. One of the most important things in the local market is durability and the long-lasting battery,” Liya stated.