The Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) has set the ball rolling this season with an early floatation of international tenders to procure fertilizer unlike previous regular timeframe trends as it gears to import its highest volume ever.
It’s a common occurrence to see the country issue tenders in the months of September and October for fertilizer procurement. However, unlike the past, MoA has now already issued a tender to procure different type of fertilizers for the upcoming agricultural season.
Mengistu Tesfa, Agricultural Input Supply Lead Executive at MoA, said that the volume this time around will vary since the government is working to import up to two million tons of different type of fertilizers.
“We are working to import high volumes of input since there are different agricultural development initiatives in the country,” he told Capital.
He added that particularly this year, the biding processes commenced early to manage the vast operation on time.
In the past, the procurement period of the country faced several challenges including sudden price hikes from the product in the global market.
Recently, Yinager Dessie, Governor of the National Bank of Ethiopia, told Capital that the country was forced to allocate huge sums of hard currency to import the input unlike the expectation.
“In the past, our expenditure was not more than USD 500 million for fertilizer import but that narrative has changed as we have now consumed USD 1.2 billion during the past budget year,” the Governor explained.
In the year, the government made available 1.5 million metric tons of different type of fertilizer for this agricultural season, while of that about 1.3 million metric tons was procured in the 2021/22 procurement season.
From the total available 1.5 million metric tons of fertilizer for the current season the distributed amount was 1.3 million and the remaining 0.2 million metric tons or two million quintal was a surplus that was transferred to the coming dry farming season and or for the major farming season that mostly commences in June.
As per the information that Capital obtained from relevant bodies like the logistics enterprise and the government, the past season’s import has shown reduction when compared with the preceding two years, meanwhile the cost was incomparably higher.
In the preceding two years, Ethiopia had procured 1.45 and 1.74 million metric tons of fertilizer for 2019/20 and 2020/21 agriculture seasons respectively.
Mengistu said that in this coming procurement operation the government has set a target to buy up to 2 million metric tons since the agricultural activity that are held on and off the farming season are growing and as a result it is expected to push the demand for fertilizer.
“This time around we have changed our course by taking the procurement process, that is, the tender floating period, earlier than expected,” he added.
Ethiopian Agricultural Business Corporation, a public enterprise that was recently included in the Ethiopian Investment Holding, is usually the responsible body for carrying out the procurement of the product.
For the last three years, the Ethiopian Shipping and Logistics Services Enterprise, the state owned logistics enterprise and vessels operator, has been hired by the government to handle the fertilizer import which is mainly transported from Morocco and ports of the Black Sea.

SOS Children Villages in Ethiopia launches a new project titled “Leave No Youth Behind: Young Care Leavers Claim Their Rights In Ethiopia.”
The project focuses on young care leavers and advocates for their rights and needs and is financed by the Danish International Development Agency.
The project will be implemented in all the 11 sub-cities of Addis Ababa to a total of 1,400 young care leavers and indirectly 2.8 million young people over the country will be addressed through the project initiative.
The project engages different stakeholders in its implementation including Addis Ababa women children and social affairs, Addis Ababa youth and sport bureau, Addis Ababa finance and economic bureau in addition to other CSOs.
In Ethiopia more than 70 percent of the population is made up of young people and like many countries the country is facing challenges in meeting the needs and rights of the booming young generation.To decrease these impacts the project aims to create an enabling environment for young care leavers and empowered young care leavers.

Meta jointly launches the Meta Boost in Ethiopia in collaboration with the Ministry of Labour and Skills and Summer Media in a ceremony held on Thursday September 22, 2022 at the Ethiopian Skylight hotel with the presence of government officials and representatives of Meta.
As indicated on the ceremony, Meta Boost is a suite of tools and training programs and events dedicated to helping small businesses grow by equipping more people with the digital skills they need to compete for jobs in the digital economy while also making meaningful connections with potential consumers.
Following its successful pilot in 2020, the program, which is being implemented by Summer Media, has so far trained over 7,000 Small and Medium Businesses (SMBS) in Ethiopia on how to use Meta’s apps (Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp) to boost their businesses online. The program is set to train an additional 5,000 SMBs this year with the training being held virtually across the country to ensure accessibility for all.

Speaking on the ceremony, State Minister of the Ministry of Labour and Skills, Nigussu Tilahun said, the Ministry of Labour is appreciative of this partnership with Meta and Summer Media. “We are cognizant of the role digital technologies play in promoting small and medium businesses in Ethiopia and believe businesses that have signed up for this program have benefitted tremendously.”
“Meta is committed to the economic recovery of Ethiopia by implementing the Meta Boost Program to support micro, small and medium-sized businesses. We are encouraged by the progress of the program since its inception to date and we believe it has benefited businesses that have signed up,” said Mercy Ndegwa, Meta’s Director of Public Policy in East and Horn of Africa.
Meta has been supporting SMBs across Sub-Saharan Africa through a number of Economic Impact programs, including Boost with Facebook, SheMeans Business, Digify Pro, and Aspiring Entrepreneurs Program. These have been critical in equipping thousands of SMBs to leverage digital tools to achieve their business goals. Since June 2020, Meta has been offering these programs virtually through instructor-led live webinar sessions featuring presentations, demos and virtual discussions.

OLA Energy Ethiopia in partnership with Chaka Buna PLC launched Chaka Buna Café and restaurant within the premises of Ras OLA Energy Service station.
The partnership is believed to reinforce OLA Energy Ethiopia’s efforts to offer a one stop shop service at its stations in addition to providing an opportunity to Chaka Buna to expand its Café and restaurant service.

The company which was known as oil Libya has legally changed its name to OLA Energy starting from February 7, 2022. OLA Energy is firmly rooted in Africa with a presence in 17 African countries of which OLA energy Ethiopia is a subsidiary of the OLA group- one of the key players engaged in supply distribution and marketing of fuel, lubricant and petroleum products in the market.