Sheger Bakery announced that it will start supplying bread as of today Sunday July 5, with a price of 1.10 birr per bread to the public.
Abinet Gebremeskel, CEO of the project management office and general manager of MIDROC Construction Ethiopia, Jemal Ahmed MIDROC Investment Group CEO, and Head of Addis Ababa Trade and Industry Bureau announced the scheme in a press conference held at the Sheraton Addis on Saturday, July 3.
They stated that the bakery will provide bread to all the ten sub-cities and to cities surrounding Addis Ababa.
The Sheger bakery is built by MIDROC Ethiopia, which is owned by the Ethio Saudi billionaire Sheikh Mohammed Hussien Al Amoudi. Built with almost one billion birr, the state-of-the-art bakery has a capacity to make 1.6 million loaves of bread a day and 80,000 an hour.
The bakery, which uses automated machinery, will source flour from a plant that was built next to the bakery. Resting on 4.1 hectares, the bakery, and the flour processing plant is located in Akaki Quality Sub City. MIDROC imported the machinery for the bread and flour from Italy, while the transformers were shipped in from China.
The bakery has four silos each with a storage capacity of 30,000 quintals of wheat, 12 ovens, 13 mixers, and two cooling towers capable of cooling 140,000 loaves of bread a minute. It has 357 permanent employees and 23 food vans each capable of carrying 24,000 loaves of bread at once.
1:10 birr per piece
THINKING THE FUTURE
This column has always tried to be forthright and deliberate in all its commentaries about the major failings of the existing world order. Our considered opinion in regards to the system’s underlying principles and its day-to-day operations has always been based on verifiable experiential facts, without much bias from ideological convictions! Reiterating our core narrative, we enumerate the main culprits of the global system. The system’s extreme obsession with accumulation (at any cost) is one significant failure. The system’s effective utilization of socially constructed evils, along with the common identity politics, i.e., racism, ethnic-ism, sexism, etc., (to further the accumulation process) is another of its failing, specifically targeted towards the human animal. The above facilitated the extreme polarization between countries and amongst citizens. The exploitative and domineering attitude towards the natural world is another of the shortsightedness of the existing order!
These objective conditions, which are the root causes of many other problems, have not led to the emergence of a leadership that is willing to initiate a more pro-life and equitable trajectory at the global level. This is not very surprising, given the Deep State’s (DS) entrenchment in almost all aspects of collective life across the board. These old guards operating the global Matrix/beast, overtly and covertly, have managed to frustrate the emergence of an overall liberating ideology in many parts of the world! The global system’s planned trajectory, as laid by the selfish global ruling elites/DS, is becoming increasingly tenuous. For instance and quite obviously, the current global situation is in a state of serious flux demanding a speedy emergence of quality leadership to tackle the impending catastrophe. We believe all significant players of the system must be willing to come together, with a view to forge a more sustainable and harmonious world order. How can we foster a global leadership that is trustworthy, capable, forward looking and appreciative of the past, both its weakness and strength? The collective West doesn’t seem to have a leadership that is capable of seeing beyond the next election, to the detriment of its own sheeple’s (human mass). Being slavishly subservient to the unelected DS and its agenda will not solve the protracted problems of our times. When it comes to leadership, it seems it is the East and others that are in a better position!
Vladimir Putin has called upon the leaders of the significant countries of the world system to address the critical and pressing issues of our current world.
The Russian president has proposed a Summit of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council to rethink the existing lopsided global order. He has publicly stated that the Russian Federation has deliberated on the major global issues and has plenty of proposals to present to the gathering! In all likelihood, Mr. Xi of China will second the proposals that are going to be presented by Putin. In fact, many of the third world countries that were always given the short end of the stick, so to speak, will most likely endorse Putin’s proposal. This is not to say that we are privy to the proposals. On the contrary, it is our deduction derived from assumptions based on the ascending ideology of multi-polarism! The unipolar order has had its days and it is time to move over. See the full text of Putin’s speech next column.
A new world order that takes into account the needs of the majority of the global population is what is demanded. The old tactic of polarizing the world to facilitate capital’s insatiable accumulation might not be palatable this time around. Plenty of desirable organic human values that have been neglected or even callously dismissed on the account of capital’s logic must be resuscitated and brought to life, once again. All the phony adjectives that are being employed by the status quo to conceal the continuation of the existing extractive, unsustainable and out rightly destructive projects of the system, like the ‘New Green Development’ should be exposed for what they really are; traps to serfdom! Here is the old objectivist in her incisive observation. We think Ayn Rand has worthy messages to both the right as well as the left.
“When you have made evil the means of survival, do not expect men to remain good. Do not expect them to stay moral and lose their lives for the purpose of becoming the fodder of the immoral. Do not expect them to produce, when production is punished and looting rewarded. Do not ask, “Who is destroying the world?” You are.” Ayn Rand, ‘Atlas Shrugged’. Good Day!
Sub-Saharan Africa’s economy to contract by 3.2%
The COVID-19 pandemic continues to represent an unprecedented health and economic crisis, with costs that will be felt most keenly by the poorest segments of the world’s population, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said in its latest Regional Economic Outlook for Sub-Saharan Africa.
“This is a fast-moving crisis” said Abebe Aemro Selassie, Director of the IMF’s African Department. “And recent developments suggest that the downturn will be significantly larger than we had anticipated only 10 weeks ago. The risks we highlighted in April all continue to be a concern, but the deterioration of the global outlook has been particularly striking. In line with this new outlook, and consistent with local high-frequency indicators, output in Sub-Saharan Africa is now projected to shrink by 3.2 percent this year, more than double the contraction we had outlined in April. Again, this is set to be the worst outcome on record.”
“On the pandemic, the growth rate of new cases has slowed slightly since April, and a number of countries have cautiously eased some of their containment measures. But region-wide, the pandemic is still in its exponential phase-Sub-Saharan Africa has recently exceeded more than a quarter of a million confirmed cases, and new cases are still doubling every 2-3 weeks. Given the region’s already-stretched healthcare capacity, the immediate priority is still to protect lives and to do whatever it takes to strengthen local health systems and contain the outbreak,” Abebe said.
He further added that on economic policies, sub-Saharan African countries have acted swiftly and aggressively to support the economy. “Monetary and prudential policies have been eased, with countries adopting a mix of reduced policy rates, added injections of liquidity, greater exchange-rate flexibility, and a temporary relaxation of regulatory and prudential norms, depending on country circumstances.”
On the fiscal side, however, country responses have often been more constrained he said. “Even before the crisis, debt levels were elevated for many countries in the region. In this context, and in light of collapsing tax revenues, the ability of governments to increase spending has been limited. To date, countries in the region have announced COVID-related fiscal packages averaging 3 percent of GDP. This effort has been indispensable. But it has often come at the expense of other priorities, such as public investment, and is markedly less than the response seen in other emerging markets or advanced economies.”
Also, authorities in sub-Saharan Africa face a distinct challenge in getting support to those who need it most. Around ninety percent of non-agricultural employment is in the informal sector, where participants are usually not covered by the social safety net. Moreover, a large proportion of this activity centers on the provision of services, which have been particularly hard hit by the crisis. Further, informal workers typically have few savings and limited access to finance. So staying at home is often not an option; complicating the authorities’ efforts to maintain an effective lockdown. In response, many authorities have done what they can to temporarily expand their safety nets; using home-grown, often innovative approaches to ensure that transfers reach as much of their population as possible. But again, resources are limited, and these efforts cannot hope to offset the full impact of this crisis.
“In sum, many authorities in Sub-Saharan Africa face a particularly stark set of near-term policy choices; concerning not only the scale of support they can afford, but also the pace at which they can reopen their economies,” he added.
Against this backdrop, Abebe pointed to a number of policy priorities going forward.
“First and foremost, the immediate priority remains the preservation of health and lives. But as the region starts to recover, authorities should gradually shift from broad fiscal support to more affordable, targeted policies; concentrating in particular on the poorest households and those sectors hit hardest by the crisis.”
“Looking even further forward, and once the crisis has waned, countries should refocus their attention on transforming their economies, creating jobs, and boosting living standards-clawing back some of the ground lost during the current crisis. As before the crisis, part of this effort will require putting fiscal positions back on a path consistent with debt sustainability; which will in turn require a renewed determination to implement revenue-mobilization, debt-management, and public financial management reforms. In addition, sustainable, job-rich, and inclusive growth will require private-sector investment, along with a business environment in which new ideas and projects can flourish, and where new opportunities (such as from the digital revolution) can be developed fully,” Abebe added.
“None of this will be easy, particularly in light of the scale of the crisis and its longer-term consequences,” he further noted. The region cannot tackle these challenges alone, and a coordinated effort by all development partners will be key. The IMF has modified the Catastrophe Containment and Relief Trust (CCRT) to provide immediate debt service relief for its poorest and most vulnerable members, and has also doubled its emergency lending facilities. So far, 29 countries in the region have received around $10 billion in funding through these facilities, or through expanded access under existing programs. In April, the G20 also announced the Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI), which allows the world’s poorest countries-most of them in Africa-to suspend up to US$14 billion of debt service payments due between May and December this year.
“Nonetheless, more international support is needed urgently. This year alone, countries in the region will face additional financing needs of over $110 billion, and despite the efforts outlined above, $44 billion of this has yet to be financed.”
Founder Institute Addis Ababa accelerator moves online, opens applications for entrepreneurs across all of EMEA
Founder Institute Addis Ababa, the local chapter of the world’s largest pre-seed accelerator, announced that its 2020 program will take place 100% online, allowing anyone across EMEA to participate in the program from the comfort of home. Any aspiring entrepreneur or team interested in building a company with some of Addis Ababa’s top startup mentors is invited to apply or attend a free online startup event.
“If COVID-19 has taught us anything, it is that traveling somewhere to meet in person is not as important as we thought,” says Adeo Ressi, CEO of the Founder Institute. “Making our 2020 programs online not only makes the program safer, it also allows us to help entrepreneurs in new regions where we’ve never had a physical presence. No matter where you are located in EMEA, you can now work with our amazing team and mentors in Addis Ababa to build a future-proof business.”
In the Founder Institute Addis Ababa, entrepreneurs can follow a structured and focused process to get to traction and funding, with constant input and feedback from seasoned entrepreneurs and investors every step of the way. To help as many entrepreneurs as possible in EMEA, the Founder Institute Addis
Ababa has also reduced the Course Fee to the program, released internal technology for founders to book Virtual Office Hours with mentors in the FI Network, and created weekly AMAs (“Ask Me Anything”) events for enrolled founders with the Silicon Valley Founder Institute Headquarters Team.
“This is the best time in history to build a digital business,” says Jonathan Greechan, Co-Founder of the Founder Institute. “When customer needs change quickly, as they are now, entrepreneurs are uniquely equipped to move fast and build new solutions while the big companies reorganize and narrow their
focus. This is why many of the companies that defined the last decade in startups, such as Airbnb, Uber, Cloudflare, Udemy, Square, and Venmo, were formed during the last economic downturn. The companies being formed and getting their initial traction now will be the ones that define the 2020s in tech.”
The Founder Institute is the world’s largest pre-seed startup accelerator. In the program, early-stage entrepreneurs and teams build their business alongside a critical support network of startup experts that share equity in their success, and through a structured and challenging business-building process that has helped alumni raise funding.
