Hawassa Industry Park has transferred employees of US-based, PVH Corp following the firm’s decision to close its manufacturing facility in Ethiopia as of November 25, 2021 to other companies operating in the Industry Park.
Fitsum Kebede, CEO of Hawassa Industry Park told Capital, PVH had over 1300 registered employees who following their termination were transferred to other companies based in the park during the past couple of weeks.
“Since most of the workers are experienced it is easy for them to get new jobs with companies in need of experienced employees,” said Fitsum, adding that the park has a duty to save the lives of the employees to which no one was left unemployed as result of the PVH termination.
PVH, the American giant apparel company, with over eight billion dollars in revenue is named as the anchor of the park. The more than century-old company has 30,000 associates operating in 40 countries.
PVH is one of the world’s largest and most admired fashion global iconic brands that include Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger, connecting with consumers in over 40 countries and had also been a marquee occupant of Ethiopia’s model industrial park in the city of Hawassa. The firm built its factory in Ethiopia’s Hawassa Industrial Park in 2016.
As sources from the Industrial Park Development Corporation inform Capital, the company has set COVID-19 and the international market as its main reason for its closure. The company notified the Corporation about its departure a few months ago after the sale of its facilities to another company.
The company had announced its closure without giving any clue to its employees as workers of PVH formed a labor union to ask about their future.
Beside the employees, the company is also in negotiation to transfer the sheds and all of its workers to other companies. However, the name of the company taking over the space has not been disclosed.
PVH like most of its peers called Hawassa Industrial Park which is located south of Addis Ababa, home. The hub which was designed by the government to attract garment and textile manufacturers has defined Ethiopia as a textile and garment manufacturing hub.
Hawassa Industrial Park is one of the national flagship project and the biggest industrial park in the country having 52 factory sheds of 21 international companies which create job opportunities for more than 80,000 workers of which more than 80 percent are women.
PVH employees transfer as firm leaves industrial park
ECA release country reports on electricity market regulatory reviews
The Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the RES4Africa Foundation have jointly released a series of country regulatory reviews on electricity markets in Ethiopia, Rwanda, Zambia, South Africa and Ghana.
The reports, which aim to support the crowding-in of scaled private sector investment in generation, networks and off-grid markets, were released on 8 December 20201 during an Expert Group Meeting on the theme “Enhancing Electricity Market Regulation in Africa to Accelerate Participation of the Private Sector in Infrastructure Investment,”
The publications are a result of a productive partnership between ECA, through its SDG7 Finance initiative pillar area on energy sector governance, and the RES4Africa Foundation – through its Missing Links initiative.
In 2020 alone, the global energy market saw about $1.9 trillion in investments, of which emerging and developing countries attracted 1/5th. Africa captured only a fraction, signaling the crucial importance of addressing private sector investment participation challenges in the electricity market. Towards this end, addressing regulatory and policy challenges in the sector is essential.
The High-Level Dialogue on Energy (HLDE), which took place in September 2021 considered key recommendations particularly under the thematic area of Finance and Investment to meet SDG7 goals. The HLDE called for a robust private sector participation in energy infrastructure investment across the value chain by addressing uncertainties in policy and regulatory environments. In this regard, the HLDE recommended member States to address the de-risking of projects and fixing regulatory barriers to ensure market openness, attractiveness, and readiness for private-sector finance.
William Lugemwa, Director of ECA’s Private Sector Development and Finance Division, stated that “the work we do on national regulatory reviews, capacity support on regulatory system development using our upcoming software (ROAR), and our work with AUC on a continental framework on regulation and private sector participation are essential in working with member States towards regulatory improvements to meet SDG7 goals.”
Roberto Vigotti, Secretary General at RES4Africa Foundation, acknowledged that “the cooperation between RES4Africa and ECA represents a successful best-practice of public-private dialogue. Today, we are engaged in continuing fostering this partnership and moving forward in supporting interested African countries to foster the openness, attractiveness and readiness of electricity markets”.
In this Decade of Action, member States must accelerate action to meet SDG7 goals, and enable Africa’s just energy transition towards a sustainable energy future for all. In this effort, the private sector should play a robust role in bridging infrastructure finance gaps, particularly in a constrained COVID-19 public finance environment. As member States pursue greater openness, attractiveness and readiness of their electricity markets for greater investment, the released country regulatory assessment reports could offer useful insights and targeted recommendations.
The Expert Group Meeting was organised on the sidelines of the ECA Committee Meeting on Private Sector Development, Regional Integration, Trade, Infrastructure, Industry and Technology on the theme: “Africa’s Economic Development in the Post-COVID-19 Era.”
Ethiopia ranks 15th in AfDB’s Electricity Regulatory Index
Ethiopia ranks 15th overall in the Electricity Regulatory Index which measures the level of development of African electricity sector regulatory frameworks against international standards and best practices.
The Electricity Regulatory Index (ERI) for Africa is a product of the Power, Energy, Climate Change and Green Growth Complex of the African Development Bank (AfDB). The 2021 Electricity Regulatory Index, an annual report, covered 43 countries, up from 36 in the previous edition, and assessed their impact on the performance of their electricity sectors. The index covered 3 countries in the North Africa region; 14 in West Africa; 6 in Central Africa; 7 in East Africa; and 13 in the Southern Africa region. The report measured the level of development of electricity sector regulatory frameworks in African countries and the capacity of regulatory authorities to effectively carry out their relevant functions and duties.
Uganda is the top performing country in this year’s ERI. Along with Uganda (0.823), Kenya (0.688), Tanzania (0.669) Namibia (0.663), and Egypt (0.609) are the top five performers of the ERI 2021. “These countries have well-developed electricity regulatory frameworks, and their regulators have the capacity and do exercise the necessary regulatory oversight and authority on the regulated entities and on the sector and are, therefore, able to achieve measurable outcomes,” the index report stated.
As the report stated, access to electricity remains low in Africa. About 600 million people live without access to electricity supply. Although more than 75% of countries have mechanisms in place to increase access to electricity, most rural electrification funds are provided by governments and NGOs. This underscores a lack of attraction for local and foreign investors in this segment. The low level of development of mini grids and off-grid services hinders the needed rapid increase in access to electricity.
“Where governments are unable to provide all the funds for rural electrification, the tariffs must make room for the recovery of funds made on rural electrification. This ensures the full recovery of such investment to encourage private sector participation in the sector. The development of mini grids, off-grid and stand-alone systems can accelerate access to electricity in rural areas. Incentives and facilities must be granted to utilities and other promoters,” cited the report.
Among the 2021 key report’s highlights are that regulatory independence is one sub-indicator where African countries have room to improve in and in 93% of sampled countries, governments, and stakeholders exercise influence over regulatory authorities. In terms of regulatory substance, participating countries scored lowest on adequacy of their tariff setting and frameworks, as well as licensing frameworks when compared with best practice. According to the report, the average performance on economic regulation has continued to decline since 2018.
A third of countries surveyed indicated they lack methodologies to determine tariffs; another 40% rely on tariff methodologies that do not include key attributes such as automatic tariff adjustment and tariff indexation mechanisms and schedule for major tariff reviews.
Ranking 15, Ethiopia has recorded a regulatory government index 0.738, Regulatory substance index 0.780, electric regulatory index for government and substance 0.759, regulatory outcome index 0.426, and electric regulatory index 0.569.
The report recommended Medium-Term Interventions (3-5 years) for Ethiopia by prohibition of the regulator CEO from holding other offices in the government and prohibition of the appointment of commissioners who are previously staff of a regulated company. Moreover, it advised for parliament to approve the level of the annual regulatory fees and levies charged by the regulator, and for the average level of salaries of regulator staff to be at least equal to those of utilities.
New App to help improve adolescent, youth health
A mobile application, Yenetab that helps contribute to adolescent and youth health and life skill literacy was launched. The mobile application was developed by The Consortium of Reproductive Health Associations (CORHA) together with United Nation Population Fund (UNFPA) and the Ministry of Health (MoH).
Director, Maternal, Child Health and Nutrition Directorate at Minister of Health Dr. Meseret Zelalem during her statement reiterated how the mobile app will help youth to access credible information on their health, sexual and reproductive concerns as well as life skills information during this time of COVID-19.
‘‘The development of the new app is particularly timely now when young people are not able to freely visit youth-friendly centers as they normally would due to restrictions arising from the coronavirus pandemic’’ Dr. Meseret noted.
“The app is intended for those who wants to improve their knowledge on youth health, sexual and reproductive health issues as well as life skills, though it is specially tailored for young people. It is a multi-functional application that offers youth important information about their health engagingly’’ she added.
Yenetab mobile application is composed of different navigation tabs that include different segments discussing puberty, relationships, sexual and reproductive health, substance use, and skills. There are also tabs where users can contact the call center to ask questions which are then responded to by an expert. The different tabs were recommended by information and technology experts who the mobile application developers worked with together with a consultant during its development.
Combining accessible five local (Amharic, Afar, Tigrigna, Afan Oromo and Somali) and English with a youth-friendly gem is indispensable in an environment where young people are looking for real information about their health. Yenetab mobile application can have the potential to help adolescents and youth learn new things. The mobile application is an educational platform that allows youth to consult from the comfort of their home and benefit from the advice of the app, right where they are.
