22 March 2014 Development News Briefs

The discovery is made in the Benishangul Gumuz Regional State, in south- west Ethiopia. Ascom has been prospecting for gold and base metals in the Benishangul region since 2010. Two weeks ago Ascom made a presentation to senior officials of the Ministry of Mines about the new discovery.

Tolossa Shagi Moti, Minister of Mines, told The Reporter that the ministry was happy with the discovery. “This is the largest gold discovery ever made in the country,” Tolossa said.

According to Tolossa, Ascom Mining will conduct a feasibility study and will start developing the mine. “We hope that the company will conduct the feasibility study and start production after one year,” the minister said. Tolossa said that the ministry will grant large-scale gold mining license to Ascom Mining after the company conducts the feasibility study.  The ministry declined to disclose the reserve of gold ore discovered.

“We have been talking about 30 or 40 tons of gold discoveries so far. What Ascom discovered is much more than that,” Tolossa said. Ascom is expected to announce the discovery in the coming few weeks.

Gold has become Ethiopia’s major foreign currency earner next to coffee. The country earns more than 600 million dollars from mineral exports and gold contributes 90 percent of the earning. To date, MIDROC Gold is the only company engaged in large-scale mining. MIDROC annually exports four tons of gold, mainly to Switzerland. MIDROC Gold has discovered a new gold reserve in the Sakaro locality.

Recently, the Ministry of Mines granted a large-scale gold mining license to Ezana Mining, a local mining company. National Mining Company, one of the subsidiary companies of MIDROC Ethiopia, has also discovered a large primary gold deposit in the Tigrai and Oromia regional states. A British mining company, Nyota Minerals, discovered a high-quality gold ore in Wellega Zone, Tulu Kapi locality.

Artisanal miners are also playing a major role in gold export. More than one million people are engaged in artisanal mining. Last year artisanal miners sold 8.3 tons of placer gold valued at 420 million dollars to the National Bank of Ethiopia.

MIDROC Gold is expected to start mining at the Sakaro gold mine next year. National Mining Company is conducting a feasibility study. The company will soon make an announcement about the result of its feasibility study.

Nyota Minerals is revising its feasibility study. The company made the gold discovery and the feasibility study before the price of gold plummet. The company is forced to revise its feasibility study due to the price decline. Geologists say Ethiopia has a large area covered by greenstone belt, gold bearing rocks. “More gold discoveries are made. Gold seems to be Ethiopia’s future,” they commented.

EITI is a prominent international natural resource transparency group based in Oslo, Norway. The board of EITI, which met on Tuesday in Oslo, approved Ethiopia’s application for candidacy with reservations. Ethiopia first applied for candidacy in 2010 but the board rejected the application on the ground that the government introduced a controversial civil society law dubbed Charities and Societies Proclamation.

EITI was launched by former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair in 2003. Ethiopia accepted the principles of EITI in 2008 and began implementing the initiative in the following year by establishing the Ethiopian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EEITI) chaired by the minister of mines.

Recently, Ethiopia re-applied for membership. After evaluating Ethiopia’s application the board of EITI approved the request with differences. The board of EITI said candidature is not recognition of a country’s levels of transparency or accountability. As a candidate, the country has three years to achieve compliance with the EITI Standard.

Chairman of the board of EITI Clare Short said: “I am pleased that the Board has decided to accept Ethiopia as an EITI Candidate country. Some opposed this decision, but it should be remembered that becoming a candidate does not mean that any country has met the EITI Standard. In the case of Ethiopia, the decision shows that the Board was convinced by the government’s commitment to the EITI’s principles. Membership of the EITI will mean that all stakeholders, including civil society, will have a better platform to hold the government and the companies to account and ensure the better management of the burgeoning sector.”

In its discussions, the EITI Board stressed the importance of ensuring civil society engagement in Ethiopia’s efforts to comply with the EITI Standard. Some members of the Board argued that Ethiopia’s candidature application should not be accepted, and requested that their reservations be noted.

Tolossa Shagi Moti, Ethiopian Minister of Mines, wrote to the Board to assure them that “the Ethiopian Government is highly committed to work with civil societies to ensure their engagement in the Ethiopian EITI”.

Tolossa told The Reporter that he is very happy with the board’s decision. “It is a big victory. Some members of the board have a misperception about the civil society law. We have clarified the proclamation and assured them that we will be closely working with the civil society,” Tolossa said.

According to him, the decision motivates EEITI to work hard to meet the requirements of EITI for full membership. He hopes to secure technical and financial assistance from EITI.

The World Bank applauded Ethiopia’s move. “The World Bank applauds the step Ethiopia has taken to engage on transparency issues,” said Paulo de Sa, Manager of the Gas, Oil, Mining Unit of the Sustainable Energy Department of the World Bank.

Over the past three years, the World Bank has worked closely with the Ethiopian government through an EITI Multi-Donor Trust Fund project that facilitated preparation for EITI candidacy. The focus of preparation was not only on the basics of revenue transparency, but also on capacity building and learning from experiences of other EITI implementing countries like Liberia and Tanzania.

The international human rights activist group, Human Rights Watch, which was calling upon the EITI board to reject Ethiopia’s application for membership denounced the board’s decision.

A statement issued by Human Rights read: “A prominent international natural resource transparency group has damaged its credibility by approving membership for Ethiopia. On March 19, 2014, the governing board of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), which promotes openness over oil, gas, and mining revenues, admitted Ethiopia as a candidate country despite harsh government repression that has crushed Ethiopia’s once vibrant independent organizations and its independent media.”

“The EITI’s decision to admit Ethiopia without insisting on reforms is an affront to the local activists who’ve been jailed or exiled for calling for a more transparent, accountable government,” Lisa Misol, senior business and human rights researcher at Human Rights Watch, said. “With this decision, EITI has thrown its principles to the wind and damaged its reputation as a leading good governance group.”

The decision divided members of the EITI board, which includes representatives of governments, companies, and civil society organizations. Human Rights Watch said the decision reversed a 2010 decision by the board to defer membership until a draconian 2009 law, still in effect, that sharply limits the activities of independent groups, “is no longer in place.”

Tolossa undermines the group’s campaign against Ethiopia. “Now we are used to Human Rights Watch’s destructive propaganda. They have their own hidden agenda on Ethiopia. We were very patient with their negative campaign,” the minister said. The minister is optimistic about EEITI’s future activities. “We will be transparent to the public. We will publish every information about the ongoing mining activity in this country.”

In a related development, EEITI on Monday released the first country report. The report depicts the minerals and petroleum exploration activities being undertaken by companies in Ethiopia. The report comprises the payments made by mining companies to the government.

Twenty-one mining companies operating in the country are included in the report. At the launch of the report held at Desalegn Hotel, Tolossa said the EEITI was working on awareness creation, adding that more companies will join the initiative. The government collected more than 549 million birr in the 2009-2010 fiscal year. The companies claimed that they paid more than 584 million birr to the government in the reported period. “There could be some discrepancies in the reported payments by the government and the companies. It is not surprising. It may be ways of reporting. But we will check the reports,” Tolosaa told a press conference.

The report covering the 2009-2010 fiscal year is prepared by a UK based independent audit firm, Hart Group. At the end of the report the auditor said that gathering information was a challenging task. The auditor said the country’s tax law lacks clarity. The report does not include the money flow coming from the oil and gas sector. The auditor recommended that the oil and gas sector should be included in the next country report.

Tolosa was asked why the oil and gas sector was not included in the report. He was also asked why the report lags four years behind. “We did not include the oil and gas sector because we have not yet started production. There are six companies engaged in oil and gas exploration. We are only getting land lease payments and signature bonus payments and we are ready to disclose these information any time to any concerned body. We pay the auditor based on the issues covered in the report and we did not have enough funding to include the oil and gas sector,” he noted.

Tolosa said that it took them prolonged time to prepare the report because of lack of experience and dearth of financial resource. He assured the journalists that EETI will produce more up to date report in the time to come.  “It is not only about being a member of EITI but our government has made it clear that transparency is an important tool in fighting corruption and poverty,” Tolossa concluded.

Ethiopia is making significant progress in the mining sector. Minerals exports are now the second biggest foreign currency earner next to coffee. The Ministry of Mines managed to bring in major international mining and oil companies including Vale and Tullow Oil among others.

A big UAE business delegation led by the Economy Minister, Sultan bin Saeed Al Mansoori (Eng.) visited Ethiopia this week. Ethiopian government officials at the Sheraton Addis welcomed the delegation comprising 50 companies on Tuesday.

Ahmed Abtiew, Minister of Industry, who made a keynote address at the ceremony, disclosed that there was an going negotiation between Ethiopia and the UAE to sign a bilateral investment and promotion treaty, which is expected to be finalized soon.

Ahmed said protection of private properties is guaranteed by the country’s constitution and investment law. Ethiopia is a member of the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA,) and has signed bilateral investment promotion and protection treaties with various Asian countries such as China, Japan, and South Korea and EU member countries such as Italy, Germany, Sweden and Switzerland.

According to Ahmed, the economic and political relationship between the two countries has been strengthening in the past decade. Investors from the UAE are engaged in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, education, real estate, machinery rental and construction. Currently, 28 companies with a total capital of 800 million dollars are operational. Furthermore, 24 companies with a registered capital of 4.6 billion birr are under construction.

The bilateral trade volume between the two countries reached 934 million dollars, showing a 50 percent increase since 2005. The trade volume is in favor of the U.A.E.  Ethiopia exports products worth only 75 million dollars to the U.A.E while it imports goods worth 858 million dollars from the same country. Ethiopia exports goat meat, cereals, fruits, coffee beans, and cut flowers to the U.A.E and imports industrial goods.

Al Mansoori said that Ethiopia had a comparative geographical location. “We import 85 percent of our food consumption. I myself travel to Australia and Cambodia in search of food supply sources. But Australia is too far. Ethiopia is very near to the UAE. It can export more agricultural products to the UAE,” Mansoori said.

He also noted that the number of UAE companies that have shown a keen interest to invest in Ethiopia and work in partnership with Ethiopian companies has been increasing steadily. More than 50 UAE companies held a one-on-one discussion with their Ethiopian counterparts at the Sheraton Addis on Tuesday. Foreign Minister Tedros Adhanom (Ph.D.) met with the delegation that same day.

According to the institute, this year’s export performance surged by USD 9.9 million (15.1 percent) from the same reported period of the previous year. The Director of Corporate Communication Directorate of the Institute, Banteyihun Gessesse, told The Reporter that this year’s achievement for the growth in export performance is mainly attributed to the volume and quality of the products of the textile-manufacturing sector.

According to Banteyihun, most of the products that were sent to the international market have been particularly destined to Europe, US, Asia and Africa.

Among several local and foreign-owned companies engaged in the production of textile, the Turkish textile giant, Ayka Addis, was mentioned for taking the lion’s share of the already earned 75.28 million dollars of exported products.

The export components of these textile products that were sent to the international markets consist of untailored garments, spine and woven, tailored garments and woven products.

In a similar development, another Turkish giant textile manufacturer, Akber, is undertaking preparation activities to establish the biggest textile plant with a total initial capital amounting to USD 175 million in the Ejere town of the North Shoa Zone, Oromia Regional State.

According to the institute, the company has already secured a 13.5 hectare plot of land where the factory will be built.

The new factory is also expected to create from 9,000 to 10,000 jobs, which is larger than any operating textile factory in the nation. So far the highest has been Ayka Addis that has been offering around 7,000 jobs.

It was also said that Akbar would take two to three years to complete the building of the plant.

Upon completing the construction of the plant and becoming operational, the company expects to make its annual production capacity worth USD 90 million.

It was further learnt that the company is currently undertaking a project study and designing that will enable it to secure loans from the Development Bank of Ethiopia (DBE).

“The coming of such big companies to Ethiopia signals a glimmer of hope in the country’s textile sector,” Banteyihun told The Reporter.

He added that this success of attracting foreign companies would bring more bright futures for the textile sector in particular, and for the manufacturing sector at large.

According to Innocent Okpanum (Ph.D.), managing director and owner of the company, the bid requires contenders to handle both contract and construction management activities. Bidders will render a more demanding consultancy. The group company also runs for designing the master plan the airport envisages to have.

It is recalled that the budget and finance affairs standing committee of the House of Peoples’ Representatives will further review the draft bill, which governs the expansion project. At the moment it has secured some USD 225 million loan from the Chinese EX-IM bank. In 2012 Ethiopian Airlines managed to serve 6.34 million passengers and some 163.4 thousand tons of cargo and the parliament sees that it has become a challenge for the airport to handle anything beyond the current capacity.

During his recent visit to the capital, Innocent told The Reporter that he has planned to engage himself in Ethiopia in projects that will positively affect the society. One of the things he will do is join hands with public agencies responsible with handling the day-to-day clean ups and municipality activities. According to Innocent, making Addis “immaculate” is the immediate and short-term plan to work on.  For the medium term, innocent envisaged that he would manage to indulge into the design and planning business. To him, Addis is not merely the political seat of Ethiopia; rather it serves as the home and the head for African nations. “The leader should tell us where to go and should stand as a model for the rest to follow,” Innocent argues in a logical sense that Ethiopia is not there as a leader for the task.

Having frequent visits to the capital, Innocent has been vocal in downplaying some of the construction going through. For the architect, the newly built roads are “brutally cannibalizing” the social and economic values of the society. Innocent claims constructions in the capital are mainly fixated on easing up traffic.   Systematically avoiding pedestrian walks is easily noticed as fatal errors of design and planning. He cites the road from Bole to Mesqel Square and the bridge over the railway crossing the square as the most brutal thing to do. According to Innocent, Mesqel Square is a representative symbol of the nation. The presidential stand is at the pick of the square and it no longer it serves the same purpose.

A few weeks ago, The Reporter was able to contact Innocent about his medium term plans and learned that he is dealing with the officials to have some 300 hectares of land to construct an innovative and technology city within the city. If successful, the proposed plan may consume some USD 2.7 billion; equivalent to the cost of the new similar project that Innocent has the go ahead on from the Nigerian government.

In the long run, Innocent plans to have a closer touch with stakeholders of the nation’s architects and others so that a quarterly forum will be organized to debate about the planning and design aspects of architecture. He also plans to promote young affiliates of the profession to have firsthand exposure and internship grants for which he promises to cover all expenses. Currently, some final year students of Addis Ababa University (AAU) have had the chance to go to South Africa and explore practical experiences.

According to Assefa Gebremichael, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Taycon Real Estate and representative of Transnet, after four months of talks, Transnet is progressing to ink a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Ethiopian government officials in two weeks’ time.

Assefa said that although the process is at a formative stage, Transnet will seek to work with both the Ethiopian Railways Corporation (ERC) and the Metal and Engineering Corporation (MeTEC) At least for the moment, that is what is included in the package plan for Transnet, Assefa said.

The South African giant is known to have a long-lasting operational stand across Africa. Transnet will bring in alliance or co-production schemes in rolling stock with MeTEC and other operational services with ERC. And for such propositions, Transnet’s high-level officials were in the capital for deals. A couple of weeks ago they met with Brigadier General Kinfe Dagnew, Director General of MeTEC and Engineer Getachew Betru (Ph.D.), CEO of ERC.

Transnet is looking at both the city’s light railway and the nationwide railway systems to embark on. Assefa told The Reporter that the South African giant is close to inking the deals to become physically present in the capital after several weeks of paper work. The MoU will envisage Transnet’s interest. Transnet from the southern tip of Africa together with Ethiopia from the east tip are believed to have a new regional powerhouse in the continent.

The tripartite merge is also in line with the New Economic Partnership Development (NEPAD) that has been focusing on continental interconnection and integration.

Assefa has been involved in bringing in some US companies who are willing to have public private partnership modalities in Ethiopia. He is behind those companies that are zealously waiting for the approval of the government to settle in the ongoing light railway routes of the capital. The Ethiopian Railways Corporation (ERC) recently announced that it had proposed to develop rail stations for commercial and residential purposes. The new plan is called Terminal Oriented Development (TOD) where some US companies are willing to develop the entire 41 stations along the light railway routes.

The US companies and some other South African contenders had presented their attentiveness on November 27 of last year. Since then nothing has publicly come out from the government’s side towards TOD. According to ERC, the Ethiopian government no longer will finance the USD 450 million loans embarked on the Light Railway Transit (LRT) project stretching some 34 km in the capital. It can be recalled that the Chinese Ex-Im bank has financed the project and the other Chinese firm – China Railways Engineering Corporation – was handed the construction of LRT. According to the recent updates of ERC, LRT is way over 50 percent complete.

In addition to the LRT, ERC manages the practicalities of nationwide railway lines, which in addition to the Chinese, Russian, Brazilian and US companies are coming here to take part. If realized, Transnet will be the first African firm to engage in Ethiopia’s railway project.

Transnet SOC Ltd is a large South African rail, port and pipeline company headquartered in the Carlton Center in Johannesburg. It was formed as a limited company on 1 April 1990. A majority of the company’s stock is owned by the Department of Public Enterprises, or DPE, of the South African government. The company was formed by restructuring the operations of South African Railways and Harbors and other existing operations and products into business units.

ETHIOPIA: CNR Dalian is supplying three diesel locomotives for use by contractor China Civil Engineering Construction Corp during the construction of the standard gauge route which is to replace the out-of-use metre gauge line from Djibouti to Addis Abeba.

The 2 940 kW locomotives have 16V240ZJD engines and a maximum speed of 100 km/h. They are designed to operate in temperatures of 50°C and altitudes of 2 000 m, and have two level of air filtration to handle the dusty environment.

When ambient temperatures exceed 40°C the onboard computer can automatically adjust the output power of the main generator to optimise performance. The air-conditioned cab has a double roof for temperature insulation.

http://www.railwaygazette.com/news/news/africa/single-view/view/cnr-dalian-locomotives-exported-to-ethiopia.html

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Born in a rural village and defying strong cultural norms, she managed to have an international career and return to Africa where she shared her much needed knowledge.

The main food source for much of the world’s livestock, forage grasses are vitally important to meeting the increasing demand for meat and milk. Dr. Segenet Kelemu has been recognized for her research on how microbes living in symbiosis with these grasses influence their health, their capacity to adapt to environmental stress and their ability to resist disease. By enabling small-scale farmers in tropical and

sub-tropical regions to choose the most productive, most pathogen-resistant forage grasses, her work has both helped them improve their lives and increase supplies of much needed animal proteins. In particular, Dr. Segenet’s research on Brachiaria grasses has shown that their capacity to thrive in diverse

environments is related to an endophyte fungus which lives within these plants, protects them and exists in symbiosis with them. Her work has led to solutions for disruptions in food supplies caused by pathogenic organisms and extreme climatic conditions and may help to determine which microbes allow crops to survive environmental alterations.

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From village to global village

Dr. Segenet grew up in a remote village in Ethiopia. Although she bore the unequal burden carried by rural

African women, she had an uncommon determination to overcome any obstacle to achievement and to help her continent’s farmers. Defying strong cultural norms, she became the first woman from her region to attend what was then Ethiopia’s only university.

“Don’t let anyone tell you that you cannot do it. Science is not reserved for the privileged few or the super smart or the especially crazy!” she says.

She excelled in her chosen field, plant sciences, and after obtaining her PhD in the United States, she went to Cornell University as a post-doctoral fellow. In 1992 she joined the International Center for Tropical Agriculture in Cali, Colombia as Senior Scientist and was eventually appointed Leader of Crop and Agroecosystem Management of the Center.

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Leading science in Africa

Dr. Segenet returned to Africa in 2007 to help establish the Biosciences eastern and central Africa (BecA) Hub laboratories, hosted and managed by the International Livestock Research Institute in Kenya, and is currently Director General of the International Center for Insect Physiology and Ecology.

“Africa is in desperate need of world-class institutions and I returned with joy when the opportunity arose to help create one.”

She came back to her home continent with far more than expertise. She returned with a passion that she is transmitting to a new generation of scientists working for a better Africa: “Set your goals and pursue them relentlessly. Don’t let anyone tell you that you cannot do it. Science is not reserved for the privileged few or the super smart or the especially crazy! If I can do it, so can you!”

Ed.’s Note: The story first appeared on http://www.discov-her.com.