Ethiopian farming co-ops begin record food delivery to UN for 

 

national relief efforts

Two Somali boys in the Kobe refugee camp in Dolo Ado, Ethiopia, with a bag of food distributed to their family by the WFP. Photo: WFP/Judith Schuler

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26 February 2013 – Local farmers’ cooperatives in Ethiopia are beginning to deliver what is expected to be the largest amount of maize they ever sold to the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), as part of a pilot project to promote small farmers’ access to local markets.
“Our goal here is to support Ethiopia feeding itself,” WFP Country Director Abdou Dieng said in a press release issued today.
The 28,000 metric tons of maize is enough to feed 1.8 million people for a month through relief distributions in the country.
“Buying food for our Ethiopia operation right here in Ethiopia makes sense in cost-effectiveness, and in providing a boost for the local economy by helping small farmers to get closer to markets.”
WFP signed contracts with 16 cooperative unions last year, before the planting season began. The first deliveries on those contracts began arriving at WFP warehouses last week.
To support the cooperatives in fulfilling their contracts, WFP provides technical assistance in storage and post-harvest handling and logistical support.
Through agreements with local banks, several agricultural cooperatives were able to use their WFP contracts as collateral for loans to buy new equipment and aggregate more maize from their members.
The project is part of WFP’s Purchase for Progress initiative (P4P), financed by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and implemented in collaboration with the Government of Ethiopia through the Agricultural Transformation Agency (ATA).
The Ethiopian Government was praised last year for its innovative and effective efforts to build resilience and food self-sufficiency amid increasingly challenging climatic conditions.
The Horn of Africa experienced a food crisis last year that left an estimated 13 million people dependent on humanitarian assistance.
Halving the proportion of hungry people in the world by 2015 was among the objectives within the eight globally agreed anti-poverty targets known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Derba MIDROC Cement PLC is executing a number of cement production projects in different parts of the country

Derba MIDROC Cement PLC is executing a number of cement production projects in different parts of the country. The 5000 tpd clinkerization (7000 tpd cement) production plant to be put up at Derba 70 km from Addis Ababa will be the largest and state-of-the-art cement production plant in the country.

The plant produces Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) and Portland Pozzolana Cement (PPC) that will meet the requirements of Ethiopian National Standard EN 1177-1: 2005 or European Standard EN-197. The OPC will be produced as per CEM-I-42.5 grade and will contain 95% clinker and 5% gypsum. The PPC will be produced as per CEMII-32.5 grade and will contain 67% clinker, 28% pumice and 5% gypsum. The design and manufacturing of all production machineries of the plant are based on the latest state-of-the-art cement technology. The fuel used is Coal and HFO alternatively.

Among the major raw materials required for cement production, limestone, clay, basalt,
sandstone, and gypsum are abundantly available in the Derba-Muger Valley. As it was observed from the preliminary geological survey of the raw materials study, that the deposit of the above materials is much more than enough for the whole plant life for the 5,000tpd clinker production capacity. Since, pumice, the raw material, required for production of PPC cement, is not available in Derba-Muger valley, this material has to be transported by trucks from Nazareth or Zeway area.

The Power requirement of the plant is estimated to 46MVA. Power to the plant will be conveyed through a 132kv transmission line up to a substation at the boundary of the plant, then stepped down and distributed to the different user departments. Another 5 MW will be required for residential area and related facilities. The total water requirement for the plant and domestic uses has been estimated as 3,000m3/day, which is planned to be availed by drilling a number of water wells to tap the ground water reserves.

Derba & Dejen Mini Cement Plant Projects
The main objectives of these two mini cement plant projects, considering the short completion time of the project compared to the bigger plants, are to support the local cement supply market by having a better cement plant distribution across the country, and to support the supply of cement required for the construction of Derba MIDROC Main Cement Plant Project.

The mini plants are of SABOO (India) VSK plants with a production capacity of 300tpd
each. Each plant has a vertical shaft kiln and employs semi-dry process. The fuel used is
pet-coke with 8300 kcal/kg.

The Derba Mini Cement Plant is found near the main plant and Dejen Mini Cement plant is found 230km from Addis Ababa to the northwest direction near Dejen town in the Amhara Regional State.

Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu, a Forbes 'World's 100 Most Powerful' Woman

Recently named in Forbes' World's 100 Most Powerful Women list as a 'Woman to Watch', and the Winner of the 2012 Schwab Foundation Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award, Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu is the Founder & CEO of soleRebels footwear.
From the humblest of beginnings, Bethlehem has built soleRebels into the planet's fastest growing African footwear brand and the  very first global footwear brand to ever emerge from a developing nation.
She has created world class jobs, and empowered her community and country, whilst presenting a galvanized, dynamic face of African creativity to the global market.
Bethlehem was born and raised in the Zenabwork/Total area of Addis Ababa, one of the most impoverished and marginalized communities of Ethiopia. Growing up Bethlehem saw that Ethiopia had plenty of charity “brands” but not a single global brand of its own, so she set out to change all that. In early 2005, fresh out of college in Addis Ababa, Bethlehem founded the trailblazing footwear company soleRebels to provide solid community-based jobs. Tapping into her community’s and the nation's rich artisan wealth and heritages, Bethlehem started re-imagining what footwear could be.
Seven years, many shoes and hundreds of creative, dignified and well paying jobs later, soleRebels is the planet's fastest growing African footwear brand and the world’s first and only World Fair Trade Federation [WFTO] Fair Trade certified footwear company. Constantly elevating the idea of what her brand can achieve, Bethlehem has led soleRebels to become the first ever brand from a developing nation to open branded, stand-alone retail stores around the globe including in Asia and the EU. soleRebels is on track to be the first global branded retail chain from a developing nation to open 100 stores and achieve over $100 million USD in revenues by 2017.
Bethlehem's awards include: 

• ARISE MAGAZINE DYNAMIC 100 WOMEN List of remarkable women shaping modern Africa alongside Oprah Winfrey, Dambisa Moyo , Angelina Jolie 
• FORBES Magazine World's 100 Most Powerful Women 2012 Woman to Watch 
• Winner 2012 Schwab Foundation Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award
• FORBES Magazine 20 Youngest Power Women In Africa List
• FORBES Magazine - Africa's Most Successful Women: Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu
• New York City Venture Fellow (Mayor Michael Bloomberg)
• 2011 World Economic Forum Young Global Leader [YGL]
• Winner 2011 Legatum Africa Awards for Entrepreneurship 
• Winner 2011 Most Valuable Entrepreneur Award Global Entrepreneurship Week 
• Winner 2011 Outstanding African Business Woman, African Business Awards

We spoke to Bethlehem about the early days of her business; the challenges of building a global brand; and her commitment to providing life-changing opportunities for her workers.

TNW: How did you come up with the idea for soleRebels and then arrive at the decision to quit your job as an accountant and turn your idea into a reality?

BTA: I began soleRebels for two essential reasons:

1.We had LOTS OF creatively talented people in my community, especially artisan talents, yet there were LITTLE TO NO job opportunities for these people. Added to that talent was  an abundance of natural resources here in Ethiopia from which to craft awesome footwear -  everything from free range leathers to organic  cotton, JUTE and Abyssinian hemp  -  a perfect platform just waiting for something big to happen.  So this all struck me as BOTH an immense tragedy AND also an immense opportunity. I knew if we could leverage these talents and resources in the correct format , the response from the market would be incredible.
2. Layered on top of this was that I kept hearing over and over the phrase “poverty alleviation” in the wider context of Ethiopia and specifically with regards to the community where I grew up. As I entered college and started working to support myself and my brothers, it had become clear to me that poverty alleviation is a myth.

It also became clear to me that prosperity creation is the sole route to the elimination of poverty. And to create prosperity you have to create something world class.

So that’s what started to really crystallize my thinking.
My premise from the beginning was that soleRebels would be an innovative company committed to creating world class footwear and apparel products, great community based jobs that create sustained prosperity by utilizing the immense, diverse, and sustainable materials and artisan arts of Ethiopia. There wasn’t a light bulb moment in the classic sense. It was more like an evolution. The seleate/barabasso, which is the traditional recycled tire sole shoe here in Ethiopia, was all around us and so too were the myriad of artisan crafts and natural inputs that I described previously. When the final push came to found the compan,y I knew at that point that footwear was the platform as it would allow us a broad palette on which to express our creativity and also employ a wide range of incredible artisan-crafted and artisan-engineered materials.
Not only have we re-imagined the selate/barabasso but soleRebels has re-imagined what artisan footwear and artisan craft can be. We never did, nor do we now, just simply employ artisans; we have refined and redefined their craft to help them and us reach entirely new levels of craftsmanship, so that the input or product they create for our shoes is something totally new. This ethos is innovation in action and has given us innovations like totally new thread types that our hand spinners have imagined; a new weave technique that gave birth to a new more breathable and absorbent fabric for lining our shoes and sandal straps with.

When people think of innovation they think of a new technology or some such thing but innovation is in fact substantively improving the state of what was before.

And so innovation can and must be applied to areas like artisan crafting. In fact it’s this approach that will keep them vital and relevant. This is one of the reasons soleRebels has found success - we have embraced the idea that tradition and innovation go hand in hand, so that yesterday's hand loomer of fabrics is tomorrow’s textile innovator; yesterdays cobbler is tomorrow’s added value shoe artisan,  pioneering style and comfort through the use of the  improved artisan inputs. So when we look at artisan crafting through this prism we can see a whole new future of possibilities. . .   that’s the ethos we employ and that’s one of the assets that  makes what soleRebels does totally unique, vibrant, dynamic and exciting; and its one of the key reasons people the world over love our products and our brand. It’s a totally new presentation of artisan craft, relevant and dynamic, one that simultaneously reaches back into the past and into the present and the future.
As for the name soleRebels, that was a piece of beautiful, magical serendipitous poetry that sprang from the whole idea of giving deeply talented yet thoroughly marginalized folks who once had no hope, the chance to become self sufficient, independent and prosperous  by crafting innovative footwear  from recycled tires, inner tubes, organic cottons and other great natural materials!

We were rebelling against the status quo in so many ways and doing it through footwear so we said: “we are sole Rebels!”  

It was a magical bonus to our whole idea but one that we still believe in passionately to this day.
TNW:  Tell us a little about the early days of your business. How did you raise the capital? Who were your first customers?  As you launched your business, did you ever imagine that soleRebels might become a global brand?

BTA: From a physical standpoint it was pretty basic.  We self financed, with only workers plus myself working inside a workshop situated on my grandmother’s plot of land inside our village of Zenabwork. But from an idea and vision stand point it was immense – we aimed right from day one to create, grow and control a world class footwear brand right from our community that would create ever more jobs and growing prosperity for the workers, by leveraging the artisan skills of the community and the natural resources of the nation. That created an intoxicating sense of motivation and ambition that 8 years later is stronger than ever inside the company, even as we have grown to hundreds of workers….

We had great success right out of the gate. The product was super fresh and the brand had a distinct point of view and so were able to score distribution with some iconic retailers like Amazon, Urban Outfitters and Whole Foods, and I am proud to say that we built this company from the ground up ourselves. Finance, product, everything!

In the process we never missed a payroll, and we’ve always been profitable. We’ve never surrendered a single bit of control, and own 100% of the company.

We compete globally by making footwear that people love, and delivering that footwear in an incrediblecustomer focused manner. We spend every day trying to win the loyalty of the people who buy and love soleRebels.  We win that loyalty by creating awesome footwear, a compelling brand, and an off the planet customer service experience. That’s our waking [and often sleeping] goal. It’s what pre-occupies me and drives  my team. Because if we do that then we will continue to grow this brand to ever higher heights.
TNW: What were the biggest challenges you faced as you scaled your business to 100 employees, with distribution to more than 30 countries worldwide? How did you overcome these challenges?

My challenges right now are:

1.  Ensuring that everyone at soleRebels is always focused on keeping our brand exciting, fresh and dynamic. That means  continually giving our customers the most awesome and amazing footwear; footwear that makes them say “WOW” when they put them on their feet and which makes other people ask them “where did you get those shoes?”  

2.  Maintaining the highest levels of customer service. I’m not interested in selling a customer a single pair of shoes  - I want our customers to be so blown away by our shoes and the exceptional level of service we give that they become soleRebels customers for life. soleRebels is an experience and part of that experience is the way we treat customers – which is the same way we want to be treated when we are customers of a company - like a valued friend! A key part of the equation is our happy soles guarantee which is the very best guarantee in the footwear business. That  is an awesome promise to customers that requires 24/7 dedication to realize, so ensuring that the entire company stays laser focused on customer happiness is critical.

3.   soleRebels is a global brand that is committed to serving our consumers and our workers equally well. I want to ensure that our workforce of super talented craftspeople come to work each and every day excited to work at soleRebels not simply because we pay high wages and have a great relaxed work environment, but because they get to maximize their potential and be a part of building an exciting global brand. This requires a constant dedication to worker happiness, which is always top of my list.

I am always challenging myself ‘how do I continue to make soleRebels not simply the best footwear brand but the best company to work at, a place of transformative opportunity for our staff ?’.

soleRebels is a place that takes a guy who came in as a shoe stitcher, sees his creativity and turns him into a shoe designer who makes a monthly salary higher than a doctor and owns 2 condominiums; a place that takes a young woman who never finished high school, and gives her the opportunity to become a section leader who makes more than a bank manger, while also giving her the flexible work schedule to complete her high school studies.

4.    Ensuring that our global network of soleRebels branded retail outlets – we have franchised and company-owned soleRebels stores opening in Austria, Switzerland, Taiwan and the US in the coming months - are ready to deliver the soleRebels experience to every person who comes in. I want everyone who walks into one of our stores to have their breath taken away.

5.   To keep up with surging global demand for soleRebels!

TNW: For many people, when they think of Ethiopia, they think of famine. What image would you like people to have of your country?

BTA: When you say that “For many people, when they think of Ethiopia, they think of famine”, I think the more interesting question to be asked is WHY that is ? 

Why do they have “these ideas” about Ethiopia or Africa?  Why has there been an insistence on presenting a singular and debased image of us for the most part?

You also need to ask who has been at the forefront on engineering those images of us?  I can tell you point blank it hasn’t been Ethiopians at the forefront of creating the images and narrative about Ethiopia. Instead it’s been people and entities with a vested interest in positioning Ethiopia as “needing help” and specifically needing the “help” they happen to be offering.  It’s been people and entities who have taken advantage of the natural goodwill of the people here to craft their own message to serve their purposes vis a vis Ethiopia, purposes that most often have zero to do with the wellbeing of the people here.

This same pattern of misdirection exists widely across the continent but has been particularly pernicious here in Ethiopia. While there are some organizations attempting to accomplish real and tangible things here and across the continent  that positively impact lives,  there are far more who are effectively scamming and  stealing  under the guise of doing “good things in Africa”.  I think it must be a huge turn off when people discover that a company or cause that they supported has literally been selling them a lie … no more is this true than in the case of “Africa”. There are companies who have made trillions off creating HUGE illusions about what they are doing in Africa!

A person or entity or nation who doesn’t control their name or image has nothing, so letting others market their version of “Africa” was always a tragic error on so many levels .

If you do not create your own narrative, others will create it for you. And in the case of Africa at large they have and it’s been a dreadful narrative as we all know…. full of cheap hucksters, all filled with ‘their’ new project which is going to save us, eternal in their assumption that WE have always been and will always be incapable of doing for and providing for ourselves… lies and half truths all aimed at keeping us poor and the $ flowing their  way.

So changing Africa’s image is simple:  Africans MUST dominate the space that tells + sells Africa. Period.  We must tell our own stories, market our own innovations, companies, cultures and products. To do that we need to STOP the relentless and ridiculous noise described above, made by people who have little if any connection with Africa, or who certainly do NOT have the interests of Africa at heart.

Thankfully if we look at Africa’s creative entrepreneurs – especially those working in industries like ours that are reliant on brand and brand image - they  have already seized the initiative and are taking full ownership of all our resources –- physical, mental, spiritual, cultural and creative – and are moving forward with huge ambitions.

As our entrepreneurs forge new markets, create global companies, award-winning brands, jobs, growth and unmatched prosperity, they are redrawing this picture of “needy Africans”.

And the most exciting element is that these entrepreneurs are also exposing the true brand of Africa, a brand that bubbles with creativity and industriousness. A brand that is buoyed by reservoirs of talented and cultured peoples, and one that is enriched by Africa’s soil and her untapped treasures

soleRebels has been leading this effort,  presenting a much needed counter to the shibboleth that Africa and Africans don’t know how to create their way to prosperity. soleRebels is living proof that in fact we do know. But it needs to happen on a much larger scale and that’s one of the reasons why I am taking the soleRebels brand global through our rollout of branded soleRebels retail stores. It will be near impossible for someone to create a negative portrait of Ethiopia, when there are awesome soleRebels stores on highstreets and malls in every major city around the world. That’s the power of having a truly global brand; in addition to delivering great products and services to people which enable you to be global, people in turn understand that the brand is an extension of the place of origin. That origin place then becomes imbued with the success of the brand. So this is a very powerful image changer.

As African entrepreneurs move forward in further shaping this transformation, we are letting it be known that the days when others project Africa’s image and damage our brand for their gain are finally over. We are determined to protect that image –- perhaps Africa’s most critical resource – as zealously and as righteously as the global brand giants who sell their brands across the continent. No less would be expected from Africa’s emerging brand stewards. Africans have endured and triumphed over tragedy and privation, to the extent that we are now poised to make this The African Century, an immense opportunity for all. This is our story, our transformation, created by the sweat of our brows, moulded by our unvanquished spirits and told by us in our own beautiful tones.

I believe that one of the KEYS for Ethiopia to properly create prosperity [and for Africa as a whole] we must be at the forefront of, and in full control of  the commercialization of our culture realizing all the gains from same.

soleRebels is at the forefront of an unstoppable movement that proves the creative agency and business acumen of the people of Africa; our desire to control the fruits of our resources, our heritages , our land and labour and the processing of these  and it will never be squelched. We will never let any usurpation of those resources and our rights to them happen again….

Ethiopia and our artisans have long been a hub of creativity, innovators of fashions long before fashion was a term. So It is long past time for us as Ethiopians and Africans to fully profit from these arts and to embed that profit and its annuity- the brand around these fine arts - here amongst those who will benefit most- the people of this country.

It is an abomination that brands can represent themselves as “African” yet are neither African owned, nor African situated, seek to reap the rewards that claiming  “African-ness” seems to bring.

Just as sure as Champagne that’s not, this piracy must be put to an end. And the best way to end piracy is to end its economic reason for being and the BEST WAY to do that is to out compete them and win!

soleRebels has been at the forefront of creating the change that is showing that Ethiopia and Africa can create, deliver and grow world class products and brands that can compete globally and win! We have stores opening around the planet - from Taiwan to Switzerland- these are being opened by us in conjunction with partners - experienced business folks who have staked their money on our ideas. Now that’s change and that’s the forefront of the possibilities that face Ethiopia. Not simply selling a product or some raw materials BUT rather getting people around the world to buy into our ideas and support, promote and grow those ideas!

Ethiopia Oil reserve may hold 2.7 billion barrels, Results will be anounced in two weeks

Tullow Oil exploration at the Sabissa site, a drilling location some 15 kilometres from Omorate town, are greatly anticipated to be disclosed in the coming two weeks.
The first of the three explorations planned to be conducted in the course of this year, has commenced last month and is expected to give promising result in the rather bare oil exploration history of the country.
Sources indicated that the first 2600 meter (2.6km) deep well exploration is almost in the final stages and is expected to show positive results of petroleum reserve.
According to the information Capital obtained from experts, the UK based firm Tullow Oil will disclose the results to the public in the beginning of the coming month. “Final result will be known in coming two weeks,” the expert said. The first oil exploration well drilling of Tullow Oil Ethiopia commenced on January 14 at Sabissa-1 exploration site located in the South Omo Valley concession of the Southern Nation Nationality and Peoples’ Regional State (SNNPRS). A Polish drilling contractor, OGEC, is conducting the drilling operation.
Tullow Oil has also announced that it will start drilling two other wells this year. According to the company, this drilling operation comes after an extensive 18 month seismic study, which also includes one of the world’s largest airborne gravity surveys covering approximately 18,000km. The results of this seismic activity helped determine the location of Tullow’s first exploration well in the South Omo block.
The recently released report indicated that, based on the initial assessment, the oil reserve expected in the Tullow’s exploration area located in southern Ethiopia is higher than similar geographical locations that the company has already drilled in Kenya and Uganda.
The report suggests that the oil reserve in Ethiopia may hold up to 2.7 billion barrels.
The other partner in the venture, Canadian based Africa Oil, said the figure was a best case, gross unrisked estimate derived from an independent review of the South Omo block in Ethiopia.
Tullow Oil has already made a discovery of oil on its own block in Kenya, which is located within the same petroleum system as South Omo.
Previously, however, several oil explorations and even drilling were conducted by several companies in different locations of the country, but no successful results were recorded. In addition, most of them were delayed to commence their exploration, unlike Tullow.
Meanwhile, Kenya’s project has reached the final stages. “It is only the final infrastructural works needed to make the product accessible for the market that remains. Every testing has been finalised in the past few weeks,” sources told Capital. According to the information, Kenya is to produce 2,650 barrels of oil per day based on the current development from its site northwest of the country and only a few kilometres from the Ethiopian border.
The drilling conducted in Kenya on January 2012 has resulted in a discovery of 1.1 billion barrels of oil. Tullow Oil is said to be planning to add more wells at the site.
Tullow Oil has also stakes in Uganda where it first found oil in Lake Albert Rift Basin and then extended its exploration to the East African Rift Basins of Kenya and Ethiopia in 2010.
Africa Oil has exploration areas in the Ogaden basin, Kenya and Puntland. These concessions were previously held by the Swedish company, Lundin Petroleum. Recently, Africa Oil has successfully accomplished its exploration in Puntland, the self-declared state from Somalia.
“Given that this is the first oil exploration well in the area testing for an entirely new petroleum system in the undrilled South Omo Basin, it may take several months to determine the results. The rig is expected to drill up to two further wells in Tullow’s Ethiopian rift basin area during 2013,” Petros Abebe, Tullow Oil Ethiopia country manager, said when the drilling operation commenced back in January 2013.
Tullow is a leading independent oil and gas, exploration and production group. The group has interests in over 100 exploration, and production licences across 23 countries which are managed as three regional business units: West and North Africa, South and East Africa and Europe, South America and Asia.
South Omo is situated within the Tertiary age East African Rift just north of Lake Turkana in neighbouring Kenya, which itself has recently found promising signs of substantial oil reserves, one of the last great rift basins to be explored in East Africa, said the company. Seismic and gravity data from Africa Oil show robust leads and prospects throughout the South Omo Project area.

FG invites Ethiopia, World Bank to restructure Abuja Commodities Exchange

The Federal Government has invited experts from Ethiopia Commodities Exchange and the World Bank to assist in the restructuring of Abuja Securities and Commodities Exchange (ASCE).
It will be recalled that the White Paper of Odife report gave birth to the Abuja stock exchange. However, pressure from some quarters that the nation should not have two exchanges in Nigeria gave way to the establishment of the Commodity Exchange from the initial Abuja Stock Exchange.

Minister of Trade & Investment, Olusegun Aganga

The Minister of Trade and Investment, Mr. OlusegunAganga, who disclosed this during the week, said the revitalisation of ASCEwill help local farmers to make more income from their farm produces.
“In order to achieve this, the ministry brought in experts from the Ethiopia Commodities Exchange and also sought the support of the World Bank. They came in and looked at what we have, and then made proposals for which the ministry had set up a committee known as the Technical Working Group comprising executives of the Commodities Brokers Association of Nigeria (CBAN),” said Aganga..
The Managing Director, Abuja Securities and Commodities Exchange, Mr.YusufAbdulraman, stated that the revitalisation project of ASCE must go on, but in order to get the full support and buy-in of the private sector and ensure adequate funding for the project.
“So, Nigeria will soon have a commodities exchange which is predominantly financed by the private sector,” he affirmed.
However, Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines AND Agriculture (NACCIMA), said for the Commodities Exchange to work like their counterparts around the world, government should play the following roles: “Promulgation of decrees to give legal backing to the bye-laws of the exchange. The bye-laws must be properly discussed, canvassed and understood by the interest groups.
Taking a small (about 25 percent) equity share of the Commodity Exchange Clearing Banks (CECB) through development finance institutions like the Bank of Industry (BOI).
Speaking through its Director General, Mr. John Isemede, NACCIMA said there is need for government to also set up the Commodity Exchange Commission as the apex regulatory body of the exchanges to be midwife by Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) which is to register and the supervise the brokers can operate here.

Chief vet sees how Ethiopia deals with TB in its cattle

CHIEF Veterinary Officer (CVO), Dr Christianne Glossop, has returned from a week’s tour of Ethiopia to see its bovine TB cattle vaccination project.
Ethiopia has one of the largest cattle populations in the world, with an economy highly dependent on livestock. It also has a significant challenge with bovine TB.
Dr Glossop began her trip in the Ethiopian capital city, Addis Ababa, meeting the country’s Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Tefera Derbew, and Chief Veterinary Officer, Dr Bewket Siraw Adgeh to discuss TB eradication.
The Welsh Government believes that cattle vaccination could contribute to TB eradication and is keen to explore all options.

It is developing a vaccination strategy, the first stage of which will be technical trials, and is working closely with the European Commission and colleagues in England.

However, legislation and technical issues mean European countries are not currently able to use such a vaccine.

Dr Glossop said: “We want to develop a sustainable relationship with Ethiopia.
“They have practical experience of vaccinating cattle against TB and we have been focussing on TB testing, biosecurity and movement restrictions.
“There are opportunities for us to both help and learn from each other.
“Considering options for vaccination as part of our eradication plan is a priority for the Welsh Government.
“We know it is going to take time to get there and that there are hurdles to be overcome but we are keen to do all we can to accelerate the process.
“This visit to Ethiopia confirmed my view that cattle vaccination can only form part of a comprehensive TB eradication programme.”
After her meetings in Addis Ababa, the CVO visited a number of farms across the country to consider how lessons learned in Wales might feed into the establishment of training seminars and workshops for Ethiopian vets and cattle keepers.
Dr Glossop visited Awash and Ziway before travelling into the country’s highlands.
She visited different types of cattle production including mixed farms and commercial dairy herds, as well as spending time with the Afar tribe of pastoralists.
She met people benefiting from Send a Cow charity projects, and also lectured at the College of Veterinary Medicine and Agriculture in Debra Zeit.
Looking to the future Dr Glossop said: “We are forming a working group with our Ethiopian contacts to develop collaborative opportunities.
“I hope some of the group’s members will visit Wales later this year and I plan to return to Ethiopia, as part of Welsh Government’s Wales for Africa programme.”
Last December Dr Glossop chaired an international workshop in Cardiff to advance thinking on the role that a cattle vaccine should play in TB eradication.
Her observations from this Ethiopian trip will feed into further deliberations following publication of the workshop’s report in March.

Ethiopian Central-Bank Order May Mean More T-Bills, Less Lending

An Ethiopian central bank order making lenders limit 40 percent of their loans to a year or less by 2015 may crimp credit growth by forcing more government- security purchases, the International Monetary Fund said.
A National Bank of Ethiopia directive from April 2011 already requires the 14 private banks in the Horn of Africa country to buy five-year bills equal to 27 percent of each loan given out. The Washington-based lender in September said that requirement was onerous and suggested lowering it so more credit would be available to banks.

The new limit on the maturity of loans “will likely require private banks to purchase more five-year NBE bills at a very low interest rate of 3 percent,” IMF Resident Representative Jan Mikkelsen said in an e-mailed response to questions yesterday.. “This will further reduce private banks’ ability to extend loans to customers.”
Ethiopia, Africa’s second-most populous nation and the world’s fifth-biggest coffee grower, is struggling to fund a five-year industrialization plan that ends in mid-2015. The state-led program is designed to diversify the economy away from reliance on agriculture, which is 43 percent of output now.
Money raised from the central-bank bills will be used for “financing of priority-sector projects,” according to a copy of the NBE order seen by Bloomberg.
The government partially liberalized its financial system in 1993 after more than a decade of communism. It has yet to allow foreign banks or free trading of the birr currency, and the state-owned Commercial Bank of Ethiopia holds two-thirds of all bank deposits.

Monetary Impact

About 61 percent of new bank deposits worth 10 billion Ethiopia birr ($535 million) were used to buy central-bank bills in the fiscal year ending July 7, 2012, according to Addis Ababa-based research company Access Capital.
The central bank’s Deputy Governor of Monetary Stability Yohannes Ayalew and Director of the Change Management and Communications Directorate Alemayehu Kebede did not answer calls to their mobile phones seeking comment yesterday or today.
The order also reduces the amount commercial banks have to keep with the central bank to 5 percent of deposits from 10 percent. Lenders will have to invest the released money into the central bank’s securities, Mikkelsen said.
“It is important to note that NBE plans to absorb the injected liquidity for all banks,” he said. “As a result, there will be no immediate monetary impact.”
Ethiopia maintains a tight monetary policy to stem inflation, which slowed to 12.5 percent in January after averaging more than 30 percent in the previous fiscal year starting July 7, 2011, according to the Finance Ministry. Growth slowed to 8.5 percent in the same period from 11.4 percent the year before.

Ethiopians lay claim to “Harlem Shake”

The "Harlem Shake" has taken over the world, for good and for bad.

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 As a group of young Ethiopian university students prepped the camera and began to blast the new international sensation Harlem Shake’s music, one of the students jumped out of the crowd, yelling, “for Ethiopia so the world sees where the dance originated.”

He, like many in Ethiopia, believe that the origins of the dance date back to historical Ethiopia and the Abyssinian era, but like all modern dance crazes, many groups are staking claim.

“We are the country where this really began many years ago,” Muhammada, 23, a history student in Addis Ababa, told Bikyanews.com as she began to gyrate and groove to the music. “This is the Harlem Shake and we Africans do it best.”

The biggest dance craze right now is the Harlem Shake dance and it’s taking over the internet in viral video format. It is on pace to pass the hit “Gangnam Style” from last year, which earned over one billion views on the video-sharing site YouTube.com. But it has also seen controversy.

In Egypt over the weekend, a group of youth who performed the dance were arrested by police after complaints by local residents and have been charged with “scandalous activity,” highlighting how dance can leave concerns over human rights and police crackdowns on free expression.

Here in Ethiopia, police joined the students, who were making enough noise to be heard for streets away. One police officer told Bikyanews.com as he moved and laughed with the young kids, “this is fun, why would we arrest them. We just tell them to be calm and not go crazy and respect others, but this is fun and that is what is important.”

Not in Egypt and other Arab countries currently battling the rise of conservative Islamist sentiments.

But in Ethiopia, the students and others enjoyed an afternoon of relaxing and dancing, joining the international “Harlem Shake” movement.

Ethiopian traders eye local camel market

Kenya has become the source market for camels in the region. Traders and livestock farmers from Ethiopia are crossing over into the country to source for camels, which are thereafter exported to the Middle East where there is high demand.

Dr Hussein Mahmoud, a scholar on livestock issues, says the Ethiopian government has capitalised on a gap in the Kenyan market, and using its trade connections to give local traders access to the lucrative Arab market.

The Ethiopian livestock traders are exporting the camels to the wider Arab market especially in Yemen, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait.

“Camel traders in Kenya have responded to the growing markets by diverting camels from other markets to the new destination,” he said.

The huge demand has been lead to the creation of a market at the Kenya-Ethiopia border, where Sh5 million worth of camels — whose price ranges from Sh70, 000 to Sh100, 000 per camel — is traded on a daily basis.

According to the Ministry of Livestock development, Kenya has a population of about 70 million livestock with four million being camels.

KLM-Air France Suspend its Ethiopian Operation

KLM-Air France is stopping its operation in Ethiopia starting from March. KLM has been flying to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from its center in Amsterdam sice 2006. KLM has been flying between Amsterdam and Addis three times a week with a stop-over in Khartoum.

Dick Van Nieuwenhuyzen, KLM-Air France country manager for Ethiopia and Sudan said, the airliner decided to stop its Ethiopia operations due to decreasing number of passenger because of fierce competition from other airliners and high operational costs due to fuel price hike.

However, according to Dick, KLM-Air France will maintain its presence in Ethiopia through the representation of Kenya Airways. KLM has  a 26 percent holding in Kenya Airways.

KLM is the fourth international airliner to suspend its operation in Ethiopia. Alitalia, bmi, and South African Airways are among the international carrier  that suspended operation in Ethiopia. Currently there are 13 international carrier  that fly to Ethiopia.

KLM is the flag carrier airline of the Netherlands. KLM's headquarters is in Amstelveen near its hub at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. KLM operates worldwide scheduled passenger and cargo services to more than 90 destinations. It is the oldest airline in the world still operating under its original name.

Ethiopian-Swiss Partnership to Improve Economy, Trade Competitiveness

Through evaluation of various products, Ethiopian Conformity Assessment Enterprise hopes to improve consumer confidence

The Ethiopian Conformity Assessment Enterprise (ECAE) and the Swiss Social & General Services (SGS) wrapped up a year-long negotiation for the evaluation of the quality and security of products, as maintained by national and international standards.

The deal will have the SGS inspecting the conformity of products imported into Ethiopia at the country of origin, whilst the ECAE will do the same for exports leaving Ethiopia.

Negotiations began in May 2011, after the Enterprise was established, following the division of the Quality & Standards Authority of Ethiopia (QSAE) into four entities.

The agreement is expected to build the recognition of the ECAE among international clients, according to Albert Stokell, managing director of the SGS. The Swiss company, which employees 75,000 people in 1,500 offices and laboratories across 140 countries, has a wide reach.

The agreement will help to improve the country's economy, international trade and competitiveness, by promoting products that comply with established standards and through building the confidence of consumers, according to Mahamuda Ahmed Gaaz, state minister of Science & Technology.

The agreement will extend the ECAE's limited business scope and resources, echoed Gashaw Tesfaye, deputy director of the ECAE.

Currently, the ECAE provides independent third-party inspection services for around 10 categories, including; metal, cement, plastics, textiles, leather and agricultural products. With 220 people at its headquarters and eight regional branches outside Addis Abeba, the ECAE will be the local face and contact point for SGS in Ethiopia.

The management team at ECAE have already visited SGS activities in Kenya, Korea and Germany. They have plans to continue their visits, in Vietnam and Thailand, as well as Hong Kong and Shenzhen in China.

This will not be SGS's first endeavor into Ethiopia. It had an agreement seven years ago with the Federal Inland Revenues Authority, now the Ethiopian Customs & Revenues Authority (ERCA), to conduct price evaluations on imports. The company was founded in 1879 to provide inspection, verification, testing and certification services anywhere in the world, according to its official website.

"It is a win-win situation for all parties involved," said Stokell, when discussing the importance of the agreement. "The ECAE will have access to specialised services and experts to help it gain recognition in Ethiopia's target markets", he added.

Lake Hawassa: Ethiopia's lake of love

Lake Hawassa, popularly referred to as the "lake of love" is one of Ethiopia’s natural wonders. The Lake situated in the Southern region of the country is a major tourist attraction and a source of employment for many local youth. CCTV Addis Ababa Correspondent Girum Chala recently visited the Lake of Love and tells us just how it earned itself this romantic title.

It is one of the most beautiful natural gifts of Ethiopia, the locals call it Lake Hawassa, but it is famously known as the lake of love. From every corner of the country people gather to admire the hypnotizing sunset and enjoy the beautiful lake view on board these tiny boats. This is a place where you simply fall in love with nature.

A visitor said, "It is so beautiful. By the way, I came with my co-workers and we had long week of work and here we are passing a good time together. We have a special feeling here."

Lake Hawassa, popularly referred to as the "lake of love" is one of Ethiopia’s natural wonders.

Just 10 years ago this was a dumpsite for Hawassa town residents. At that time, people were not conscious about their environment. However Gizachew and his friends saw an opportunity, they cleaned up the lake and started offering boat rides.

Gizachew Tilahun, Hawassa Lake of love entertainers, said, "10 years ago this place was not preferred for recreation. It was used as an open air lavatory. But our association took the initiative to develop the place and cover it with trees so that it can be used by the public also it became means of income for all of us."

Today, the lake attracts tourists from across the country and the world. Many say Lake Hawassa is the perfect to repair broken hearts, and it’s also the place where lovebirds cement ties.

Nebiyat Abebe, visitor, said, "We came from Addis Abeba with my wife. We came here for a third time. This place is amazing. Every time we come here, we see good changes. The lake gives both of us a pleasure. We love it so much."

Despite its enormous potential, Lake Hawassa is little known. Never mind it is a source of income for many.

Lake Hawassa, popularly referred to as the "lake of love" is one of Ethiopia’s natural wonders.

Girum Chala, Hawassa, said, "This Lake is one of the Examples of Ethiopia’s waters resources. The country should start at least utilizing these resources soon-the resources it had for thousands of years."

Isac Bedassa, Hawassa Lake of love entertainers, said, "I used to work on my own and the income was fine. But now that we are entertaining the public with my colleagues, the income has improved very much. I’m using the money I get from this work to help my family and myself."

The Lake of love that helped the establishment of Hawassa town, still needs better planning to wisely exploit the gift it has. The few privately owned new resorts surrounding the lake are strong signs of progress on this amazing lake. But still this is just a scratch for the lake that can deliver if worked on properly.

Lake Hawassa, popularly referred to as the "lake of love" is one of Ethiopia’s natural wonders.

Lucy and Selam's Species Climbed Trees: Australopithecus Afarensis Shoulder Blades Show Partially Arboreal Lifestyle

Australopithecus afarensis (the species of the well-known "Lucy" skeleton) was an upright walking species, but the question of whether it also spent much of its time in trees has been the subject of much debate, partly because a complete set of A. afarensis shoulder blades has never before been available for study.

For the first time, Midwestern University Professor David Green and Curator of Anthropology at the California Academy of Sciences, Zeresenay Alemseged, have thoroughly examined the two complete shoulder blades of the fossil "Selam," an exceptionally well-preserved skeleton of an A. afarensischild from Dikika, Ethiopia, discovered in 2000 by Dr. Alemseged. Further preparation and extensive analyses of these rare bones showed them to be quite apelike, suggesting that this species was adapted to climbing trees in addition to walking bipedally when on the ground. "The question as to whether Australopithecus afarensiswas strictly bipedal or if they also climbed trees has been intensely debated for more than thirty years," said Dr. Green. "These remarkable fossils provide strong evidence that these individuals were still climbing at this stage in human evolution."

The new findings are published in the October 26 issue of the journalScience.

Dr. Alemseged, assisted by Kenyan lab technician Christopher Kiarie, spent 11 years carefully extracting the two shoulder blades from the rest of the skeleton, which was encased in a sandstone block. "Because shoulder blades are paper-thin, they rarely fossilize--and when they do, they are almost always fragmentary," said Dr. Alemseged. "So finding both shoulder blades completely intact and attached to a skeleton of a known and pivotal species was like hitting the jackpot. This study moves us a step closer toward answering the question 'When did our ancestors abandon climbing behavior?' It appears that this happened much later than many researchers have previously suggested."

Selam was a three-year-old A. afarensis girl who lived about 3.3 million years ago, and she represents the most complete skeleton of her kind to date. After freeing the shoulder blades from the surrounding rock, Green and Alemseged digitized them using a Microscribe, and then took detailed measurements to characterize their shape and function, comparing them to the rare shoulder fossils of other early human relatives: Homo ergaster ("Turkana Boy"), Homo floresiensis ("The Hobbit"), A. africanus, and two adult specimens of A. afarensis. They also made comparisons with an extensive modern sample of juvenile and adult chimpanzee, gorilla, orangutan, and human specimens.

The analysis of the shape and function of the bones revealed that A. afarensis shoulder blades are apelike, indicating a partially arboreal lifestyle. Drs. Green and Alemseged also found that, like living apes, the shoulder anatomy of juvenile and adult representatives of A. afarensis were quite similar. "Human scapulae change shape throughout ontogeny in a significantly different manner than closely related apes," said Dr. Green. "When we compared Selam's scapula with adult members of Australopithecus afarensis, it was clear that the pattern of growth was more consistent with that of apes than humans." At the same time, most researchers agree that many traits of the A. afarensis hip bone, lower limb, and foot are unequivocally humanlike and adapted for upright walking. "This new find confirms the pivotal place that Lucy and Selam's species occupies in human evolution," said Dr. Alemseged. "While bipedal like humans, A. afarensis was still a capable climber. Though not fully human, A. afarensis was clearly on its way."