By Tesfaye Getnet, Capital Ethiopia
Govt rolls out 35 billion birr rural employment project A recent study conducted by the Ministry of Youth and Sports indicates that 480,000 university and Technical, Vocational Education and Training (TVET) graduates in Ethiopia are still looking for jobs. Social and natural science graduates make up 80,000 of those unemployed.

There are also 3.5 million unemployed people who do not hold college degrees. Recently the government approved a 10 billion birr revolving fund to create jobs for people who are unemployed throughout Ethiopia.

A new draft written by the Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources (MoANR) recommends a 35 billion birr budget annually for the next five years to alleviate rural unemployment.

The Rural Job Opportunity Creation Strategy draft which is being sent to the Council of Ministers for approval will utilize government assistance and development partners for this strategy.

The draft would require the establishment of a new government institution to handle job creation in both urban and rural areas. It also recommends alleviating duplication of efforts among the many government and non government organizations.

The major strategies in the draft include an employment fund market, and assisting entrepreneurs to create jobs and creating a conductive environment for people to supplement their income.

Melkau G/ Michael the strategic jobs advisor at MoANR told Capital that this plan will help graduates and others who are unemployed in rural areas to run their own businesses or obtain jobs in institutions. “The strategy targets reducing the unemployment rate in rural areas and helping people generate more income.

Due to mismanagement and previous policies and strategies many graduates and uneducated people are unemployed but there are many recourses for them to use to help them earn an income.” Melaku added that many farmers will also get additional income through this strategy. ‘’Farmers are busy when they planting and harvesting crops but during the offseason they don’t have jobs, we plan to help farmers earn extra money when they are not busy with their farmland,” he said.

According to draft strategy the 35 billion birr a year budget will be reduced after five years when private stakeholders will become more involved in the plan.

By Tesfaye Getnet, Capital Ethiopia

One of the oldest areas in the city, which is located in the heart of Piassa, Serategna Sefer, will be demolished at the end of this Ethiopian year for redevelopment works.

The demolition will encompass the entire area that is commonly known as Eri Bekentu. According to the information Capital obtained from Arada Sub City, about 1,600 houses in this area, which are under Keble 10 and 13 of Woreda 10 will be completely relocated to another area.

Currently over 1,000 Kebele and 260 private houses are in this location and around 10,000 people live there. Businesses that sell gold and silver jewelry, groceries, buildings and houses which are owned by the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahdo Church in this area will also make way for the development of the area. However, 14 houses that are classified as heritages including the house that host the Greek Orthodox Church and old houses that are occupied by Armenians will remain intact.

After the demolition is completed the land will be leased to developers who will construct modern apartments, commercial centers, hotels and restaurants. Yohannes Admasu, Head of Woreda 10 of Arada Sub-City, told Capital that the necessary preparation has been completed to relocate residents. “We are offering two options for the people who live in the kebele houses, they can either obtain a condo house or if they cannot afford that, we will give them another kebele house in a different part of the city. Gulelle Sub-city is working with us to provide us kebele houses and land for the relocation.’’ “For the private houses we will give them land and compensation and the for the business shops we will facilitate ways they can continue to do business in other areas.’’

According to the head of the Woreda the places which are near the river will be renovated to accommodate green areas. “Piassa is the center of the city and it should look good, as we complete the demolition we will turn the riversides into green parks, and all the construction in that area will be based on the new master plan of the city,” he said.

The new and 10th master plan focuses on vertical expansion rather than horizontal expansion and includes redevelopment, compact settlements and developing integrated plans in terms of transport, housing, and the social and economic sphere.

In this respect, six sectors have been selected – transport, housing, environmental protection, industry, development and recreational centers – as focal points. Rivers, river basins and areas vulnerable to drainage issues will be covered with plants and transformed into parks.

To accomplish this, 170 spots have been identified at the city, district and woreda levels to serve as parks. Rivers, such as Kebena, BantYeketu and Kechene, which stretch 33km, will be developed.

The City plans to build one million houses in the next 10 years. Serategna Sefer is one of the oldest places in Addis Ababa and is believed have been established after the construction of Arat Kilo Palace by Emperor Hailselassie. During that time day laborers, carpenters, and plumbers lived there and people seeking their business came there.

The seven storey building can host over 254 vehicles

Elilly Hotel has opened a seven-storey smart parking building, which has already begun partial service.

The parking facility together with its basement has a parking capacity of around 254 vehicles at a time.

The parking structure is part of the large-scale expansion of the Hotel, which will cost over an estimated 800 million Br when it is complete, according to Gemshu Beyene, the owner of the five-star hotel.

The structure will help address the issues of street parking in Addis, which is becoming a problem for residents. Smart parking systems are automated to help drivers reserve and pay for parking.

The parking service at Elilly will be available for three types of users, for whom the parking structure will issue different cards. “A monthly parking card is issued for permanent clients,” said Bizuwerk Mulugeta, information technology manager at Elilly . “Customers can extend the duration as they wish and there is no fixed price.”

Walk-in guests will be issued with a temporary card and will be charged 10 Br an hour for parking for each vehicle, according to Bizuwerk.

Users who are guests at the Hotel, or users of its other services, outside of parking, are usually given a free card. “People who come for meetings and other events will be able to use the parking as part of their event package,” said Bizuwork.

A scanning machine which will be installed in the structure as a security measure is being imported and is currently at the Port of Djibouti.

The service is currently operating with a cashier and other related staff, such as information technology technicians, system administrators, and security guards. “So far, the challenge we have had is a shortage of foreign currency,” stated Gemshu.

Constructing the parking structure has taken two years, while the rest of the expansion project, which began almost three years ago has reached 80pc completion.

Haile Bayisa, a user of the parking service for his car, thinks the service is essential to making Addis Abeba more convenient city transportation-wise. “I do not think the fee is very burdensome for users, and it will be lucrative for the hotel,” he said. “It could also attract people to use the Hotel’s other facilities.”

Elilly is constructing two more hotels in Burayu and Bishoftu, Oromia Regional State, two popular tourist and recreational centres in the country.

The construction is undertaken by Gebe Construction, a sister company of Elilly.

Similar public parking structures are being built in Addis Abeba and other cities. The parking facility was undertaken by the Addis Ababa City Government Transport Program Management Office around Megenagna, next to Zefmesh Grand Mall, with a project cost of 40 million Br, it has reached 95pc completion. Last Saturday, the parking facility started providing a pilot service to users.

BY BINYAM HAILEMESKEL FORTUNE STAFF WRITER

The United States issued a warning Thursday to its citizens about travelling to a popular tourist region in Ethiopia after a string of grenade attacks targeting hotels and homes.
The US embassy in Addis Ababa said there had been four grenade blasts this month in Gondar, a city in the north known for its ancient castles.
A popular stop on Ethiopia’s tourist circuit, Gondar was also the scene of anti-government protests last year that led to the declaration of a nationwide state of emergency.
“The embassy recommends US citizens carefully consider whether travel to Gondar is necessary at this time,” the embassy said in a statement. A spokesman for Ethiopia’s government had no immediate comment.

Security Message for U.S. Citizens: Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), Explosions in Gondar
The U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa informs U.S. citizens of reports of a series of grenade explosions in the city of Gondar in recent weeks: On April 1, a grenade exploded at the Florida International Hotel.
On April 18, a grenade exploded in the Kebele 18 neighborhood.
On April 20, a grenade was thrown into a private residential compound.
On April 24, a grenade exploded at the Lodge du Chateau.
Injuries have been reported in some of these cases.
The Embassy is closely monitoring travel for U.S. Chief of Mission employees to Gondar and is approving official travel on a case by case basis.
The Embassy recommends U.S. citizens carefully consider whether travel to Gondar is necessary at this time.
All U.S. citizens residing in or traveling to Gondar should be aware of their surroundings at all times and re-assess their personal safety plans in light of these events.
U.S. citizens traveling to or in Ethiopia should review their personal security plans; remain aware of their surroundings, including local events; and monitor local news stations for updates. Maintain a high level of vigilance and take appropriate steps to enhance your personal security and follow instructions from local authorities.

The move comes seven years after the regional land management bureau stopped giving lease free land Oromia Regional State has begun offering 264ha of lease free land to people living in urban parts of the region. The land will be used for residential purposes only.
The scheme has been implemented in 20 zones and 18 cities of Oromia Regional State, which has a population of 35.4 million. The aim of the lease free land program is to reduce housing problems in urban areas and the neighbouring cities and regions.
The move comes seven years after the Regional State’s Land Development & Management Agency stopped giving lease-free land to residents, following a surge in illegal housing in different areas of the region. Before the current program, the regional government awarded land through auctions. Lease free land was only available for investors.
Based on the latest Federal Urban Land Development & Management Policy, the land will be leased free of charge to residents of the region. “Even though the policy was released four years ago, the implementation took longer for us as it was hard to set apart unutilised land in the cities,” said Merid Gudeta, deputy manager of Oromia Land Development and Management Agency.
Other regions, such as Amhara Regional State, applied the same scheme a few years ago.
As part of the application for the land, people are required to live in the city where they submit their request for the property. They are also required to form cooperatives of no less than 12 people, to secure licenses from the region’s housing bureau and the land from the towns’ administrations.
The regional government has so far provided land to civil servants and teachers living in Galen, Burayu, Dukem, Agaro and Sebeta.
“The program will reduce housing problems in the major cities like Addis Abeba,” said Merid.
“It is rewarding for people who live in Addis and spend much of their money on rent when they can get lease free land.” Thousands of people come from nearby cities to get jobs in Addis and spend large amounts of money on their living expenses.
“The scheme will stabilise the market in central parts of the country such as Addis and nearby cities,” said Merid.
Currently, there are close to a million people registered for housing in Addis alone. At its current speed, the city government will be able to fulfill that demand in roughly 68 years. Housing affordability is also a big challenge for residents who live in Addis, as it rises by an average of 10pc every year.

BY SAMSON BERHANE FORTUNE STAFF WRITER

Gize Mizan full movie on Sodere app

Around 100 local contractors, ranging from grade 4 to 10, who obtained their license with fake documents, will find out their fate tomorrow Monday April 3.
Many of these contractors worked at medium sized construction sites.
One option would be for the contractors to undergo training on ethics.
Then if they are able to get the proper documentation, they could obtain a license.
Some of the false documents included conformity assessments, construction machine ownership certificates, and educational credentials.
The Federal Ethics and Anti corruption Commission and Federal Police Commission investigated these cases. A communication officer in the Ministry who requested anonymity told Capital, “Some people do not have enough awareness about how to ethically work in the construction sector and the main idea of the training is to get them on the right track.’’
The officer added that although his office would encourage local contractors to bid for public jobs, the ministry will not do business with any fraudulent companies.
He disclosed that the federal government has established a database so his office can easily appraise submissions and fight against corruption in the contract process and that there is no going back in the procurement reforms of the present administration. “We started the registration of all contractors, consultants and service providers in the country to reform the public procurement system for better monitoring and oversight of the public procurement processes in the country”.

By Tesfaye Getnet – Capital Ethiopia

A local firm, CNET Software Technologies PLC who spent 13 years developing and selling software, plans to build an IT database center which will feature cloud computing. The 8,000sqm center which is located at Ethio ICT village in Jemmo will feature software development and call research centers and an auditorium .

Dr. Debretsion Gebremichael, Minister of Communication and Information Technology laid the cornerstone of the center which is expected to create jobs for over 1,000 citizens.

A local contactor named JY will construct the first phase of the center in 18 months.

The center is expected to consume 87 million birr. The second phase is waiting for a loan from DBE and Commercial Bank of Ethiopia. “It is good to see a local firm investing in IT despite the big challenges.

As a government we are going to do our communication and information work with modern IT software and systems and this type of investment is one of the areas that we need a ton of support in because it advances us one step ahead in addition to creating jobs for our young graduates .’’

According to Bemnet Demisse Managing Director of CNET, Cloud computing enables companies to use a computer resource, such as a virtual machine, storage or an application, as a utility – just like electricity – rather than having to build and maintain computing infrastructures in house.

He further indicated that more than 50 percent of the evolution in IT over the next five years will be around cloud computing.

Research is progressing by the minute in varied related fields including virtualization, networking, storage, security, management of cloud services, efficient cloud architectures, massive multi-tenancy, hybrid environments, and design of cloud applications and services.

“When we complete our center, companies don’t need to construct a data base center, they simply come to us to store, communicate with customers or with branches by using our central database center.’’

The Managing Director says finance and getting qualified IT professionals is still a challenge . “Banks give priority for hotels or manufacturing companies but without IT we cannot catch the global world and IT should also get loans to promote investment.’’

“We also have many graduates in IT but they are not graduating with the needed advanced skills.” Tecno Mobile is working to produce hardware in Ethio ICT village which lies on 200 hectares and many sheds in the village are waiting on potential investors.

The government in #Ethiopia paid lobbyist 1.8m$ taxpayers money, only on international press and public relation to impress donors. By Atnaf Brhane‏ @AtnafB (Twitter)

ADDIS ABABA – The number of people in need of food aid in Ethiopia’s drought-hit regions has surged to 7.7 million, some 2 million more than estimated earlier this year, state media reported on Friday.

The National Disaster Risk Management Commission said in January that failed rains would put 5.6 million people in need of emergency food this year in three of the country’s nine regions: Oromia, Amhara and the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples’ Region.

Public relations director Ababe Zewdie told the state-run Ethiopian News Agency that cold snaps and localised flooding in some areas had further decimated what crops had managed to grow, causing the commission to revise its estimates upwards.

“Over $742-million (R9.6-billion) is needed to support the people affected by drought and more than 432,000 tons of additional food up until early July,” the news agency reported. Ethiopia is prone to droughts, and the lack of rains in the country’s highlands forced 10.2 million people to seek food assistance last year.

The United Nations has warned that this year’s drought in East Africa could lead to 17 million people going hungry across the region.

AFP

By Muluken Yewondwossen
After a decade of exploration and building a gold processing plant in northern Ethiopia, Ezana Mining has become Ethiopia’s second large scale gold mining company.

Named after the popular Ethiopian king from ancient times, the company plans to start trial operation this month at its Terakimti facility, in northern Tigray region, near Shire Endaselassie Town, 1067km from Addis Ababa.

A top official at the company told Capital that they will begin full scale production during the third week of April after the trial is evaluated.

They expect to produce 4.5 kilograms of gold per day, which is considered to be a good start for Ezana, according to experts.

The company has already finished a gold processing plant near the outskirts of Shire. “Most of the equipment is imported from South Africa and Austria, and it will be installed by Mesfin Industrial Engineering,” a source at the company said.

Both of them are under the Endowment Fund for Rehabilitation of Tigray (EFFORT).

The plant installation process cost 700 million birr and the installation work took 18 months.

Ezana’s official said they feel successful because of what they have accomplished.

They added that the work has been done with local workers except for some mining support from foreign supervisors. “Compared other mining companies ten years is a very short period to explore and start mining,” the official at the company explained.

Tigray has attracted investors because it has precious metals.

Ezana is the first company to discover gold in the northern region and signed a mining agreement in 2012 with the Ministry of Mines, Petroleum and Natural Gas. “We have given trainings for local experts to get involved in the production process, while in the initial production process some crucial positions will be handled by foreign experts until local experts are able to take over the operation,” an employee at the company explained.

“We will have additional projects after we explore more,” a company official said. So far MIDROC Gold Mine, who bought the state owned Lega Dembi Gold Mine in 1997 at the cost of USD 172 million, is the only company engaged in large-scale gold mining in the country.

MIDROC, a company of Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Ali Al Amoudi, has undertaken several new exploration and production endeavors 350km south of Addis Ababa.

In 2012 National Mining Corporation (NMiC) the other mining company of Ali Al Amoudi disclosed that it discovered a huge gold resource in Tigray.

A year ago it was reported that an American Mining giant named Newmont Mining Corporation, which is regarded as one of the world’s largest producers of gold is to engage in gold exploration and extraction projects in Tigray.

Gold is one of the major hard currency sources for the country. There is an expectation that up to four new sites will be included in large scale gold production besides Lega Dambi and Terakimti.

Artisan mining in different locations has contributed the most to the country’s gold production. The mining and quarrying sector is highly underdeveloped and its contribution to the GDP was limited to 5.6 percent in 2014/15. Hopes are that mineral extraction will become 10 percent of the GDP within 10 years.

Bolé Road Textiles weaves modern ideas with traditional craftsmanship, to vibrant effect By Stephen Koepp After more than a decade at a major architectural firm, designer Hana Getachew knew that she wanted to break out on her own.

The turning point came in planning her wedding in 2014. “I wanted to have an element of Ethiopian design for my table linens” to reflect the vibrant patterns and colors of her native land.

Her family had left Ethiopia when she was a child, but she still felt intensely connected to the culture. Her journey back home to source her table linens became the spark for a new business.

In Addis Ababa Hana went looking for weavers. “I went to one location where one of my family friends sent me. I showed them my designs.

It was kind of hilarious because I didn’t know about weaving, and they said it couldn’t be done. It took me a while to understand,” she said, that their traditional looms had their limitations.

But the weavers offered their own version of her design that was even more pleasing, in such colors as pink, red, and fuchsia.

The linens were a success. “The napkins were beige, with fuchsia and red diamond-shape patterning all around.” What started with wedding planning is now Hana’s own housewares firm, Bolé Road Textiles, based in Brooklyn and named after a bustling thoroughfare near her childhood home in Addis Ababa.

Hana designs the patterns in her home studio, then turns them into textiles for pillows, rugs, curtains, towels, and other products in a running conversation with master artisans in Addis Ababa.

She sells about half her merchandise through e-commerce on her website and the rest through retailers, including Home of the Brave in Greenpoint and Collyer’s Mansion in Brooklyn Heights.

Two families of design Most of Hana’s collections are inspired by nature, including landscapes and flora. Two were based on traditional textiles: the Konso Collection, drawing on styles from the south of Ethiopia, and the Heritage Collection, inspired by the customs of the Ethiopian Highlands. “Traditional Ethiopian dresses in most of the country are all-white cotton with colorful patterns on the hem, cuff, and sometimes neckline.

These patterns, called tibeb, can be extremely decadent and saturated with color,” Hana says. By contrast, the clothing of other regions is often bold throughout. “Southern Ethiopia is comprised of over 80 ethnic groups, so it’s difficult to generalize. But in the areas known for weaving in the south, the entire garb will typically be full of pattern and color.”

When Hana was three years old, her family moved from Addis Abbaba to Montreal, where they lived for a few years before moving to New York. Hana graduated from Cornell University with a degree in interior design and went on to become an associate principal at Studios Architecture in Manhattan, where she designed the offices of major corporations.

Along the way, however, she made a return trip to Ethiopia 18 years after she had left, and never forgot the “overwhelming beauty and power of my first homecoming.”

How she got started Leaving her job at a big firm was a “scary thing,” since she loved the work, but she went with her instinct. “I spent several months designing and producing two textile collections, which included a trip to Ethiopia to finalize the pieces in conversations with weavers, who are organized into collectives. “Anytime I approach them with a design, they’ll come back with something that’s even better.

I couldn’t believe the variety of designs, altering my design a little.” While Hana always planned to sell her products via e-commerce, she decided to debut her brand with an event: Bklyn Designs in 2015, where her distinctive aesthetic got noticed. Since her first trip to meet the artisans of Addis Ababa, Hana has learned quite a bit about weaving. “While western looms typically have four or more harnesses and treadles, allowing weavers to easily lift up various combinations of yarns on the warp to create intricate patterns, Ethiopian looms only have two harnesses.

This means that in order to create a pattern the yarns need to be lifted manually with a stick in a technique that’s similar to what we call ‘double weave’ in the west,” she explains on her website. “And because of the differences in their looms, Ethiopian weavers often have to do much more manual work than weavers in the west. Bolé Road’s process can be even more challenging as we often introduce new and intricate designs that are outside our artisans’ traditional repertoires.” Bolé Road produces small batches in each of its runs, so any particular design comes in a limited quantity.

The material used most often to make the textiles is hand-processed Ethiopian cotton yarn, known for its thick and soft texture. Hana says that all of her products are “ethically sourced” and she donates a portion of her profits to the imagine1day Girl Fund, a group dedicated to the education of girls in rural Ethiopia.

“These girls are my sisters, my cousins, my friends, and only a few twists of fate separates my life from theirs.” Hana plans to expand her textile line, including fabric by the yard.

She’ll be displaying Bolé Roads new products at this year’s Bklyn Designs, May 5 to 7 at the Brooklyn Expo Center in Greenpoint.

By the way, the wedding that launched a business also led to a growing family. Hana and her husband, a screenwriter, now have a nine-month-old daughter.

After the baby was born, Hana launched Bolé Road Baby, with pillows, hooded towels, and a swaddle. Ed.’s Note: Steve Koepp is the editor of The Bridge. Previously, he was editorial director of Time Inc. Books, executive editor of Fortune and deputy managing editor of Time. The article first appeared on thebridgebk.com.

Sandwich of the Year Kitfo Sandwich Lalibela, Los Angeles Dining, if you’re open to it, is always filled with strange echoes and correspondences. It took me several bites of the kitfo sandwich at Lalibela, the great new Ethiopian restaurant in Los Angeles, to figure out why it seemed so familiar and compelling. The answer was many years, miles, and cultures away: When I first moved to New Orleans, the chef Frank Brigtsen owned a restaurant in the nearby town of Harahan called Charlie’s Seafood. It was a decades-old boil- and fry-house that Brigtsen took over in 2009.
Among its specialties was something called the Dirty Boy: a French pistolette, slathered in butter and the “dirty” part of dirty rice: ground beef, liver and Creole spices. (Charlie’s sold t-shirts with a slogan coined by my friend Ashley Graham: “Even Good Girls Like Dirty Boys”.)
Brigtsen lost the lease on Charlie’s in 2013, somebody else took over, and the Dirty Boy lamentably disappeared. But now, sitting on the stretch of Fairfax known as Little Ethiopia, I had found its African cousin.
Lalibela was opened by Tenagne Belachew, who worked her way up through the kitchens of several other restaurants on the strip; it is likely that while there you’ll be served by one of her six daughters or lone son.
Kitfo is Ethiopia’s beef tartare, though the meat is ever-so-lightly cooked. (You can order it more well done at Lalibela, but I think that’s a bad idea.)
The sandwich comes on French bread, simply dressed with musky spice and drawn butter.
It elicits both warm contentment and active bloodlust. And, for me, sweet nostalgia.