The notorious detention and investigation center, known as Maekelawi is opened for visitors on Friday September 6, 2019 as a museum. For years, Maekelawi has been synonymous with abuse and repression.
The infamous prison where many politicians, journalists, protest organizers, alleged supporters of ethnic insurgencies, and others were taken to be interrogated by police investigators, who used coercive methods including torture and other forms of abuse to extract confessions, statements, and information from detainees.
The fate of those sent to Maekelawi – except for the more high-profile detainees – was largely unknown to the outside world. Opening up its gates in the New Year and offering the public a glimpse of its brutal reality may help some former detainees deal with the trauma they endured.
The decision for closure of the notorious prison was passed by former Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegne.
Redemption
Africa way behind in digital economy
Africa lags behind the share of the global digital economy as it concentrated in the hands of few individuals and dominated by US and China which account for 90 per cent of market capitalization of the value of the world’s 70 largest digital platforms.
According to the study revealed by UNCTAD, Kenya is among four African countries where digital entrepreneurship is concentrated.
Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa account for 60 per cent of Africa’s digital entrepreneurship.
Ghana, Morocco, Senegal, Tunisia, Uganda and Tanzania have been clustered in the second-tier accounting for 20 per cent of the continent’s digital entrepreneurship.
Significant digital entrepreneurship activity began earlier in Accra, Cape Town, Nairobi and Lagos, Kigali, however, more and more diverse enterprises exist in those first four cities than in second-tier cities, and the density of innovation hubs and other support initiatives is also higher there,” reads the report.
The report also warns least developing countries risk becoming mere providers of raw data, while having to pay for the digital intelligence generated using their data.
The report forecasts an increase in Global Internet Protocol (IP) traffic to 150,700 gigabytes per second by 2022 from 46,600 gigabytes per second in 2017.
“Global Internet Protocol (IP) traffic, a proxy for data flows, has grown dramatically in the past two decades. In 1992, global Internet networks carried approximately 100 gigabytes (GB) of traffic per day,” the report indicates
Fifty per cent of global spending on the Internet of Things (IoT) is also concentrated in the two leading global economies where 75 per cent of all patents related to block chain technologies and a similar percentage of the cloud computing market are concentrated.
Seven super platforms, such as Apple, Amazon, Google, Facebook, Ten cent and Alibaba account for two thirds of the total market value of the top 70 percent of the platform.
The combined value of the platform companies with a market capitalization of more than 100 million USD was estimated at more than 7 trillion USD in 2017, 67 percent higher than in 2015, according to the report.
It is recommended that Least Developing Countries attempt to support local technological entrepreneurs.
New business plans to increase purchasing power
A new initiative, New Life for Civil Servants (NLCS) planning to tackle artificial price hikes and inflation is in the process of coming to fruition after eight years of awareness creation in the society.
NLCS, which formed and was registered at Ministry of Trade and Industry immediately after the removal of the 2011 government price cap plans on including the majority of civil servants and other employees as owners in the market oriented business organ and to supply products at a reasonable profit margin to the general public.
Abel Hailemariam, leader of the initiative said that the lifting of the price caps that were only able to run for five months was the reason for the formation of initiative.
“When the government imposed a price cap for some major consumer products the general public was very happy so it was expected to be continued. However, it is was difficult for the government to do that in the current world order and market economy,” Abel said. He pointed out that the bad side of the price cap was the price hike in the market which occurred immediately after the government lifted the scheme.
“I believe that the government could not control the price or protect the rate; either the private sector or the general public must be involved in the price stabilization,” he explained.
“Due to that I decided to form the initiative that the society who depends on salaries is involved in,” he added.
For the last eight years the 11 founders, focused on awareness creation in different government and private offices.
According to the plan the initiative, which is a profitable business entity, will include all salary based groups of the society which is estimated to be over five million under the government and private structure.
NLCS has targeted 7,000 birr as a minimum share sell and 25,000 birr for the maximum.
“The civil servants or other workers at the private sector and public enterprises would not buy shares more than the stated amount,” Abel said.
He also stated that based on the current reality the minimum investment, which is seven thousand birr, would be hard for most Ethiopian workers to afford. “Based on our plan financial institutions will pay for the civil servants or other workers by collecting 100 birr from their salary, every month for six years,” he elaborated.
“Before we begin collecting the money we have spoken with several public institutions from the higher level to the kebele and explained the idea in Addis Ababa and it has been approved of by the public. For instance, labour unions at Ethiopian Airlines and Commercial Bank of Ethiopia have decided to invest on behalf of their members, while Africa Insurance has promised to buy the 25,000 birr share for each of its staff. At the same time local and foreign financial firms are expected to provide the finance for workers by their wage guarantee.”
“We expect the government to back the scheme by facilitating suitable policy conditions, like providing a guarantee to access finance from abroad; and facilities like stores or shops in different areas; otherwise we do not need any support from the government,” one of the founders said.
He said that they have already talked to financers from abroad to who are interested to provide finance with almost zero interest but it needs government approval.
According to the plan the initiative would begin operating in Addis Ababa, which is the major hub for civil servants and other workers, while the share will be sold in every corner of the country under their structure.
NLCS will also supply products from local and international sources and distribute the product to retail shops that will be formed for this purpose in every kebele.
“Based on our plan up to five retail shops that sell our products will be formed by youth, and women and at the same time it will create jobs,” Abel explained.
According to Abel, currently there are consumers associations at the kebele level but they will not meet the expected target because the supply does not meet the demand or products are supplied based on government subsidy but illegally smuggled to traders. “Unlike the association we will supply ample products that shall stabilize the market and tackle corruption,” Abel said.
“NLCS will collect a large amount of capital that will meet the demand,” he added.
He said that they have evaluated the failure of Alle, the wholesaler public enterprise that had the goal of stabilizing the market. “The major challenge for Alle was lack of finance, a long decision making process and working in the wholesale business as opposed to its plan to retail commodities,” he said. “Due to the stated reasons the enterprises could not win its target but in our case we will have huge capital and directly distribute to retail shops that are registered under the scheme,” he explained.
Currently employees would not push their employers to get more income but they can win the traders, because of that they should organize and form their strong market institution that would also help the traders to sell products at a reasonable price, according to experts. Due to that such kind of market would ease the life of the general public.
According to the assessment about 1.5 million residents in Addis Ababa registered for the payroll, while Ethiopia has about 3.1 million civil servants and there are hundreds of thousands of security and public enterprise workers.
Investors ask to shed light on solar project
Investors are complaining about the bidding process of the first public private partnership (PPP), independent power purchase (IPP) for two solar power projects.
On Friday, September 6, when bidding opened, only one company produced a financial proposal for the two solar power projects.
Sources told Capital that during the financial opening held, a proposal from Acwa Power, a Saudi firm, was the only contender. Details were not accessible since the company and the committee only attended the event.
In the PPP auction process the Public-Private Partnerships Directorate-General (PPP-DG) for the Ministry of Finance (MoF) invited the private sector to participate in the Scaling Solar project of Dicheto and Gaad.
PPP-DG has identified 12 bidders, to compete for developing 250 MW of new solar capacity under the first round of the Scaling Solar program, by requesting a pre-qualification. From the 12 companies five were shortlisted and invited in the bid process that was opened on August 15 for a technical and commercial evaluation.
The five companies that passed the financial stage were EDF/Masdar Consortium, Enel Green Power, Al-Nowais/ Aldwych/ Alten Consortium, Acwa Power and FRV/ Globeleq/Belayab Consortium. However, only one company, Acwa Power, made it to the final result.
Sources stated that initially the project was backed by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the World Bank private sector wing, which attracted several prominent firms.
“Initially Scaling Solar is the IFC scheme implemented in other African countries. Based on the agreement with MoF, the Ethiopian scaling program was also developed via the concept, procedure and support of IFC,” the source said.
IFC also agreed to provide the finance at an attractive interest rate to realize the project which made bidders more confident.
They also provided the models of the power purchase agreement, implementation agreement and other instruments for execution of the project. Under the model the Ethiopian government also agreed to provide a convertibility guarantee, which is a guarantee that the government gives for the settlement of the loan.
As per the agreement on the modeling the bid has been floated, but in the middle, the Ethiopian government via National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) announced that it would not give the convertibility guarantee.
Following the decision of NBE, IFC has pulled out from the project.
“On the other hand, IFC pulled out from the project before two weeks of the bid opening which narrowed the time for companies to find alternative financers,” the source said.
Even though four of the five companies mentioned IFC’s financial terms, Acwa Power has come up with its own equity financing. Based on their financial terms MoF disqualified the others from the financial proposal part of the bid, according to sources.
Bidders that Capital talked to said that universally such kind of financers provide the credit based on their own condition. “Even after the loan was approved and the agreement is signed, it will be available in different conditions, process and based on the progress of the project. This means the finance will be released in a manner even after the agreement is sealed,” the bidders argued.
“On the other hand, the bidders did not get ample time to assess optional financers in connection with the pulling out of IFC from the scheme because it happened two weeks before the bid submission timeframe,” a bidder complained.
The Friday financial opening is the feed in tariff that the developers offer the selling rate of the power for the government.
Teshome Tafesse, State Minister of Finance, told Capital that the bid process will be disclosed after the evaluation. “It could be difficult to give any information in this stage, we will elaborate the issue by next week,” he said.
The projects sites located at Afar and Somali regions are expected to generate 125MW each and estimated to cost USD 150 million each.
