Salaam salaam from BA! This is the Rorshok Ethiopia Update from the 28th of August twenty twenty-five. A quick summary of what's going down in Ethiopia.

For this week’s first update, let’s follow up on news from our previous show about the government’s decision to increase wages for civil servants. Reports came out on Wednesday the 27th that the government will not borrow any money or revise its budget for the new fiscal year to fund the salary raise.

The Ministry of Finance said the government will pay for the increase completely from the already approved budget’s reserve fund. The Prime Minister’s Office, the Ministry of Finance and the Civil Service Commission also signed on for the pay raise. Police officers, army personnel, health care and education professionals, along with all other government workers will see the increase reflected in their paychecks starting next month. The raise is expected to cost the government a hundred and sixty billion birr, which is more than a billion US dollars.

In foreign relations news, on Monday the 25th,Francia Elena Marquez Mina, the Vice President of Colombia, arrived in Addis Ababa. On Tuesday the 26th, she met with Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.

The PM took to his social media handles to say that he had a productive meeting which, according to reports, focused on numerous issues ranging from economic cooperation to women’s land access and other south-south priorities.

During her stay in Addis, Colombia’s VP also sat down with Claver Gatete, the Executive Secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Africa.

On Wednesday the 27th, the VP and Gedion Timothewos, Minister of Foreign Affairs attended the inauguration of the Embassy of Colombia in Ethiopia.

More news on foreign relations as Ethiopia’s Air Force Commander Lieutenant General Yilma Merdassa headed to Pakistan’s capital Islamabad for a work trip earlier this week. He had a meeting with his Pakistani counterpart Air Chief Marshal Zaheer Ahmad Babar.

They discussed efforts to improve cooperation between the two countries’ air forces, with Air Chief Marshal Zaheer noting that the meeting indicates that the relations between the countries are growing stronger. He pledged to support Ethiopia’s air force.

In major developments in the country’s aviation sector, the Civil Aviation Authority announced plans to allow international flights to operate from regional airports. Regional airports earmarked for new international flights include those in the Amhara region’s Bahir Dar, in north-central Ethiopia; Tigray’s capital, Mekelle, in the north; and Dire-Dawa in the east.

The government supports the move, as it wants to further expand connectivity and take advantage of growing demands for domestic flights. Currently, flights from one region to another require passengers to board connecting flights via Addis Ababa.

In more updates on aviation, the Ministry of Transport and the Civil Aviation Authority sat down with representatives from private airline companies on Tuesday the 26th to discuss policy changes. The representatives told policymakers that they want the government to allow them to operate international flights.

They explained that domestic flights alone haven’t been profitable enough for them to expand their operations. They also said that receiving payment only in birr has made it difficult for them to purchase aircraft and spare parts in foreign currency.

Fortunately for private airlines, the government representatives told them that there were already plans to modify policies, which would meet the private airlines’ demand.

From the aviation to the telecom sector now, as Ethio Telecom, a state-owned enterprise, announced on Tuesday the 26th that it has completed preparations to enter the foreign market, a move that is part of the organization’s three-year strategic plan.

The company has discussed its plans to expand into several foreign countries. While names weren’t mentioned, there are reports that the company plans on entering the markets of two neighboring countries, Djibouti and South Sudan.

Ethio Telecom was in the news again earlier this week, as authorities have been reportedly considering pausing the sale of a thirty-five percent stake in the company to foreign investors. Media outlets have reported that the sale, part of the government’s plans to open the country to foreign investors, will not happen in the near future.

Government officials said that political instability and economic factors have forced them to reconsider their decision.

In other news, the Ethiopian government has been detaining journalists frequently over the years. Media outlets and civil society organizations believe the government is trying to restrict free speech and strike fear in journalists. However, if you ask the government, it would probably justify the detentions, saying it's enforcing the law.

The most recent detentions were of Yonas Amare of the newspaper Reporter on Wednesday the 13th and Abdul-Semed Mohammed, who hosts a show at a radio station in Addis Ababa on Monday the 11th..

Media outlets said the law enforcement personnel who detained Yonas were wearing masks and arrested him at his home on the outskirts of Addis Ababa. Earlier this week, the Reporter newspaper said both of them were released on Friday the 22nd.

In business news, reports have surfaced indicating that the state-owned Development Bank is set to implement a major change in its business model, shifting from retail loans to individuals and companies to wholesale loans to financial institutions. This decision is based on a study that the World Bank funded and Deloitte conducted.

It is expected to be implemented through a five-year plan, which insiders say they expect the government to approve in November this year. The first year, the bank will provide just fifteen percent in wholesale loans, but in five years, it will have completely transitioned to wholesale.

On Thursday the 28th, Ethiopian Investment Holdings signed an agreement with Dangote Group, owned by Aliko Dangote, Africa’s wealthiest man, to build a fertilizer production plant in Gode, in the Somali region, in south-eastern Ethiopia. The deal is worth two and a half billion US dollars and will see Dangote holding sixty percent, while the Ethiopian government will own forty percent.

PM Abiy Ahmed attended the signing ceremony and took to his social media afterwards to say that the project will create jobs and ensure a reliable fertilizer supply for the country’s farmers.

Still in business, media outlets reported that two local companies, IE Networks and Liyana Healthcare, have managed to complete the Capital Market Authority’s readiness assessment, meaning they are suited to make public offerings of their share and engage in the country’s capital market.

The authority’s advisor said the World Bank funded the assessment, which chose the two companies from a total of twenty-six that participated in the evaluation. .

On Tuesday the 26th, De Ruiter, a flower breeding organization based in the Netherlands, said that it is going to help flower farms in Bishoftu in the Oromia region in central Ethiopia get back on their feet. The company’s pledge to support comes after flower farms suffered significant damage early this month due to heavy rain, with greenhouses collapsing in the process.

De Ruiter said that what happened was a major loss to the growing flower industry in the region. The owners of the farms said at the time of the incident that they would find it difficult to recover if the government didn’t allow them to import duty-free to reconstruct greenhouses.

And finally, the regulation of education has gone through major changes in recent years since Berhanu Nega, chairman of an opposition party, became the Minister of Education. Recently, his office has been cracking down on private higher learning institutions. The ministry introduced several new requirements, and if the institutions don’t fulfill them, they will have their licences cancelled.

At a consultation held on Monday the 25th, they asked the ministry for an extension of the deadline for compliance, explaining that the changes take a lot of time and resources. An official said the government might consider an extension for exceptionally resource-intensive requirements.

Aaand that’s it for this week! Thank you for joining us!

The new Ramble on Georgian Slang is out now! Check out the hashtag #georgianslang. You can find the episode in the Rorshok Georgia Update on your favorite streaming platform or follow the link in the show notes!

Ciao!