Varnero Vs Midroc

We now know that even the most venerable Varnero can't resist the siren song that goes, "Take me, I'm yours."

It certainly makes many Ethiopians jittery to watch companies like Varnero hand the reins over to Midroc. We say this, because the motives and determinants for the leaked acquisition story that Midroc plans to acquire Varnero is rather fuzzy. We certainly do not see any benefit in terms of operational synergies that can generate economies of scale or scope, or benefit in terms of financial synergies. There is definitely not any diversification motive, or expansion or ‘market dominance’. Indeed, the deal is not made out of necessity because construction business is stagnating, or to take advantage of the country’s tax regime.

From Capital’s perspective the only motive is egotistical. The Sheikh wants to buy Varnero, a company with fine reputation, for his own personal interest and ego. For those soccer fans, one can compare the acquisition of Varnero by Midroc to Billionaire Roman Abramovich's acquisition of Chelsea. Except that Abramovich did not have a team of his own before Chelsea and is now putting all his coins to make his new club the number one in Britain and Europe, as promised to his fans.

The Sheikh’s plan for Varnero? No comment. 

Stop the road carnage

 Figures show the over-all bill for high-speed road accidents average about 400 million ET Birr in Ethiopia. Just spend some time along the Addis-Nazareth highway and you will know what we are talking about. That road is basically a nightmare for those cautious drivers.

A good number of motorists on Ethioipia’s highways don’t seem to care that basic rules for overtaking, adherence to traffic signals, speed limits, exist. They put their own lives, their friends and family, and other road users at risk by breaking laws designed to cut death and injury on the roads. Yet traffic woes can easily melt away for good if better sense and stricter controls prevail among the traffic police.

The Federal Government should introduce harsher laws and penalties to bring the notorious traffic on Federal Highways onto the right track. Common and shared approaches must be nurtured, if we are to make our roads safer. To begin with it should be a national requirement to have a minimum of eighth grade certificate to sit for a driver’s license. It should make it harder for those driving under the influence of drugs, such as ‘chat’, to operate their vehicle on Federal Highways – if caught they should be fined dearly; if caught a second time their license should be yanked for two or three years etc. If this doesn’t tame them, take them off the road for good.

Every year we continue to witness increasing number of fatalities on roads. We cannot afford to be complacent when the country looses some of its best mind because of reckless driving of some motorists who should not have been allowed behind a wheel in the first place.

We fully endorse priority action concerning the creation of a culture of road safety. For this, education is the key to the success of a common campaign to, say, half road traffic fatalities by 2010. This should be the government's objective, to introduce basic safety awareness into school syllabi as early as primary school level.