Uganda lists Ethiopians as a huge tourist potential in addition to other lines of business sources that boost its venture in the economic sector.
Cognizant of this, the grate lake region country is now aggressively promoting its tourism potential and investment opportunities to different stakeholders in Ethiopia.
As Ugandan Embassy diplomats based in Addis Ababa express, the two countries have long withstanding relations in various fields which harbor an opportunity to maximize on further mutual benefiting investments.
During one of the series of promotional briefing sessions held at Sheraton Addis on Wednesday June 14, Anne Nabaasa, Second Secretary Desk Officer for Bilateral Cooperation at the Ugandan Embassy in Ethiopia, highlighted that Uganda and Ethiopia cooperate in investment, tourism, trade, culture and education, “We have also an arrangement between the capital, Kampala, capital city authority and Addis Ababa city authority. So there are very many areas of cooperation that have grown over the years. And of course, what brings us together. Of course, the relation stretches back to the formation of the African Union, to which we were part of the founding members.”
As Anne indicates, the two countries have different mechanisms under which they work in tandem; one being through the joint permanent commission.
“In the joint permanent commission, we work together in areas of; trade, investment, sports, education, health, and immigration. So it’s a framework that gives us, investment in all cooperation avenues and in all aspects of, social, political, and defense,” she elaborated.
As is well known, the two east African countries also have a joint ministerial commission, which brings together different ministers in different sectors between Ethiopia and Uganda to cooperate with each other, and put in place frameworks and Memoranda of Understanding agreements that can help to further those relations.
Regarding the tourism sector, the Ugandan Diplomat reminded that Uganda and Ethiopia already have an agreement on tourism promotion, “So what we are doing today is one of the ways of enforcing or implementing that agreement on tourism. We hope to work together to attract Ethiopians to go visit Uganda, as well as attract Ugandans to come and visit Ethiopia.”
“Now what is really helping us at the moment is that we have an airline that goes to Uganda three times every day. So it’s easy for those that are going to Uganda to go and those that are coming from Uganda to also come and there are different cultural aspects that we share,” she said, adding, “I was in Arba Minch and I was surprised that the local attire that they use for that region is the same as same as the Ugandan flag colors. We were pleasantly happy and the food they have is actually like the food we eat in Uganda. So there are similarities.”
“What we hope to do is promote the similarities where there are differences to harness those differences and promote them as attractions. For example, here you have lions, but it’s a different shade of surprise. I’ve never seen black lions, but I saw them at the Unity Park. In Uganda, we have tree climbing lions. We also have the normal lions. We also have leopards, which may not be here in Ethiopia. This is what we are hoping to do, that is, promote those differences,” Anne showcased how the two countries can complement each other.
There are many Ethiopians in Uganda that have opened up restaurants that serve the community both foreigners and local. She pointed out that such kinds of good opportunities need to be expanded to promote the tourism and economic sectors between the two countries.
“There is a potential in the tourism sector from Ethiopia to Uganda, I believe so,” she firmly stated that Uganda is a best destinations for Ethiopians who want to spent their vacations.
However the diplomat said that there is a complication to pay for visa for Ethiopians since the Uganda immigration process has become an online scheme.
Regarding the visa issue, the diplomat said that her government is working to elevate the matter, “The payment process is a bit complicated for Ethiopians, because several people do not have credit cards, or do not have the ability to make payment online. But we are working with immigration authorities to see how something can be made that is specific to Ethiopia to enable those that are interested to come to Uganda.”
Uganda is one of the top tourist destinations in the region with its natural and cultural welfares besides massive wildlife safari potentials with its 10 national parks. According to 2019 statistics tourism contributes 7.9 percent for the Ugandan GDP.
The Ugandan government is also facilitating different incentives to attract more investment for the country that has more than 48 million in population.
Ethiopia showcased to complement Uganda
A new dawn for data: Wingu launches a 50 million dollar center
Wingu Africa inaugurates a first of its kind data center in Ethiopia to provide a data infrastructure service that allows telecommunication and financial institutions to exchange information.
Located at the ICT Park, the data center is indicated to be both a carrier and cloud-neutral in design to ensure that customers are always enjoying uninterrupted services, with independent back-up systems for power, cooling, and network connectivity.
“With the introduction of our carrier- neutral data center, Wingu is proud to offer a technological ecosystem that will drive innovation, foster collaboration, and enable growth and opportunity,” said Anthony Voscarides, CEO of Wingu.africa, while speaking at the inauguration event held on Tuesday, June 13, 2023, adding, “Wingu.africa Data Center will provide affordable and secure data services to any public or private institution.”
As indicated by the group, the construction of the data center cost 50 million dollars. The center which is built on a 161,500 sq ft (15,000 sq m) plot of land, will offer a capacity of 10MW across 800 racks when fully operational. The main facility that is said to have taken 24 months to construct not only meets Tier III standards but also will see Ethiopia hosting its first internet exchange.
“The core objectives of hosting this Internet exchange in the Wingu data center are to deliver cost-effective, faster, and more reliable internet services, further accelerating Ethiopia’s digital growth,” indicated the Group.
“The Group is exploring further expansion plans in different parts of the country for more investment to meet the needs of the growing Ethiopian economy,” said Nicholas Lodge, Chief Strategy Officer of the Group.
The Wingu group operates in Ethiopia, Djibouti, Somaliland, and Tanzania providing the highest standards of security, technology, and regulatory-compliant data center services.
By offering access to multiple networks and cloud infrastructure, Wingu empowers businesses through choice and ultimately the benefit of improved service levels and competitive pricing. Wingu’s data center will also support initiatives to bring additional data capacity to Ethiopia through connectivity to global fiber optic cable systems, while also enticing major content providers such as Meta, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Alibaba, Microsoft, and Google.
The company is also said to be planning a new data center and cable landing station that will be Tier III certified and host 11 cables. It is also looking to expand its existing data centers and has signed deals with “several strategic customers”.
Finance Ministry locks in a lean budget with self reliance at heart
The Ministry of Finance (MoF), which earlier this year signaled the ruthless focus of a budget that takes into account internal resources, has proposed a budget fairly close to last year, which has now been approved by the Council of Ministers (CoM), awaiting ratification from parliament.
As per the announcement of CoM, the 2023/24 budget will be 801.6 billion birr, which is about 1.9 percent higher in contrast to the approved budget for the 2022/23 budget year.
Unlike previous years, which spotted double digit increment, the new proposal is a bit leaner.
In consideration of foreign currency conversion, the latest budget proposal in comparison to the presiding one is lesser than the amount approved for the budget year that will end on July 7, 2023.
In different occasions, officials from MoF had been stating that the coming year’s budget allocation will mainly concentrate on local resources unlike the usual flow from international support and loans.
Prior to the budget proposal hearing, in a meeting with budgetary offices that was held on March 15, Finance Minister, Ahmed Shide, told participants that in the coming budget year, the government will focus on debt payment. He added that in the 2023/24 budget year, new capital projects will not be launched and strong controlling mechanism will be emplaced on the recurrent budget.
“In their budget preparation, the budgetary offices will consider the resource on hand rather than imagining foreign grants and loans,” he underlined.
From the proposed 801.6 billion birr, 369.6 billion birr will be recurrent budget that has slight increment compared with 347.1 billion birr that was allocated for the 2022/23 budget year.
However, the capital budget allocation has unusually reduced against the preceding year’s amount.
The capital budget expenditure proposal for the coming budget year is almost 204 billion birr that is about 14.2 billion birr lower than the amount ratified for the current budget year.
The subsidy appropriation to regions and support for achievement of Sustainable Development Goals is set to be 214 billion birr and 14 billion birr respectively.
In this ending 2022/23 budget year, the government approved 786.6 billion birr, while on his nine months report, Ahmed Shide, told parliament that some of the expected resources included on the budget document were not congruent as the resources that were expected from partners did not flow.
Thus, the government has been forced to reschedule some of the projects for coming years.
For this coming year, MoF informed budgetary offices to be vigilant on their budget request.
It is well known that following the deterioration of budgetary support from external partners in the last couple of years, the central government had resorted to alternative policies like using domestic sources to bridge its budget gap.
As the Finance Minister explained on his nine month report about a couple of weeks ago, despite relations with foreign partners now bouncing back owing to the peace agreement signed in Pretoria, South Africa between the government and TPLF, the external financial support is yet to improve.
Ahmed further cited that the financial support and credit from the World Bank is taking the biggest portion, while there are several agreements and commitments with partners to provide financial access.
In his address, the Minister applauded the support of the World Bank and highlighted that due to dry flow from external finance, the government had reluctantly resorted to using local sources like direct advance (DA) and Treasury bill (T-bill).
Cognizant of this, the Minister underscored that this year’s budget gave a priority for completion of projects, debt servicing, reconstruction of war damaged infrastructures and service facilities including aid, and fertilizer subsidy.
The budget allocation for defense has reduced by almost 40.5 percent or 34 billion birr compared with the 2022/23 budget allocation, perhaps in consideration of the peace agreement in connection with the northern conflict.
Debt servicing budget allocation on the other hand expanded by 26.3 percent or 33.2 billion birr compared with this year budget. The top budget allocation for central government goes to debt settlement with 159.2 billion birr or 27.8 percent of the total central government budget, road 68.4 billion birr with almost 12 percent share and education at 56 billion birr with 9.7 percent total share.
On the budget year, grants and soft loans from partners have been included with a small portion on the budget preparation.
Ahmed said that the budget deficit is largely filled by treasury bills and Treasury bond that is introduced in the mid of this budget year.
On his speech the Ministers said that in the coming year direct advance will have heavy reduction.
In the budget year, a total of 520.6 billion birr revenue that includes foreign grants is expected to be generated that would have about 28 percent increment with a tax share of 440.8 billion and a non-tax revenue of 38.7 billion birr. Both these figures are noted to have over 92 percent of the total revenue. For the year, 6.3 billion birr in direct budget support and 34.8 billion birr in project grants are expected to flow.
The gross budget deficit for the year will be 2.48 percent of the GDP coming in at 281 billion birr. The budget deficit has shown reduction in terms of the share of GDP when compared to the 2022/23 budget year of 3.4 percent, while the recommended share remains less than three percent.
For the budget deficit, 242 billion birr will be covered from domestic source while the remaining 39 billion birr is expected to be covered by foreign loans.
According to Ahmed, 53.7 billion birr of the gross budget deficit will be allocated for local and foreign debt settlement.
Regarding tax policy, reforms will be applied on VAT, excise tax proclamation, and introduction of excise tax stamp and social welfare development duty, which will be introduced on all import items.
According to his speech as of the end of the 2021/22 budget year the per capita income has reached USD 1,218 while efforts are still needed to expand the economic growth as per the ten year development plan. He added that different shocks that occurred in the past years have been the reason for to run beyond the development plan.
In the current 2022/23 budget year, the economy is expected to attain 7.5 percent growth while for the coming year 7.9 percent is projected.
Waves are being made to inculcate media in transitional justice
The inclusion of media on the transitional justice initiative has been stated as crucial.
In a recent panel discussion organized by the Editors Guild of Ethiopia (EGE) in collaboration with Ethiopian Broadcasting Cooperation with the aid of the International Media Support Ethiopia, it was stressed upon that media must be part and parcel of the transitional justice initiative.
In the interactive discussion that gathered pertinent stakeholders from different institutions including media, Abdissa Zeray, a Professor at Addis Ababa University, underscored that an initiative is under works for the come up of transitional justice media institutions as an entity, like any other arm, to address critical issues in this space.
According to Prof. Abdissa, the media sector in general needs a structural change from the current position and it is a necessity for it to be infused with the transitional justice process.
During the panel discussion which keenly observed the post 2018 media reform and its challenges, the recent conflict in the northern parts of Ethiopia and other issues including less effort by government were cited as challenges that required much needed attention. A reform was also deemed mandatory.
Although reform by its very nature is a process, with results expected in the future, it was opined that some expected laws have been delayed, which need to be amended with haste.
The EGE is a professional association for editors in Ethiopia working at print, broadcast and online media companies.
