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Ethiopia Colleges denounce ban on distant learning

By Binyam Tamene

Capital

Owners of Ethiopian private institutions blasted the timing of the new directive that prevents them from performing distant education programs, among many.
The owners and managers of the institutions have met with the officials of the Ministry of Education, including Minister Demeke Mekonen, last Wednesday.

The education institutes, through their association, request the Ministry to reconsider the directive’s provisions as they are “restricting them from the role they should be playing in the education sector”.
Issued at the end of last month, the Directive also prevents the private institutions from giving law and teachers educational programs, reserving these rights to public higher institutions only.
Besides, the directive requests for permission of regional health bureaus or city administrations’ accreditation in order to give health science training.
While meeting the Minister, the owners of the private education institutions expressed their surprise and disbelieve of the move made by the Education and Training Quality Assurance Agency’s introduction of the decree and they expressed their disappointment for not being involved in the drafting process of the directive.
General Manager of Ethiopian Private Higher Education and Technical and Vocational Education Training Institutions’ Association Nega Namaga said many were preparing to enroll students for the next academic calendar. He added the directive has come as a shock to the industry.
“We are not, like public institutions, solely depend on the budget, rather we carry out formulating our budget based on the fee generated from students,” he said, adding the directive directly affects their performance, as a result. “Quality of education can’t be a sole and satisfying reason to prevent us from doing our job,” he said.
Speaking of the meeting, the General Manager told Capital that the private institutions tried their best to clean the gray area but a lot of questions remain.
In addition, the Association wrote a four pages long petition to the MoE contesting ETQAA’s directive that “restricts and prevents” their performance.
The institutions expressed its fear that the private sector could run away from the business due to this, thus requested for a transition period in order to devise an exit strategy.
The Ministry of Education, however, said the directive was devised in accordance with the national strategy to implement quality education in the country and the matter will be seen in accordance to that.
The ministry repeated the general objective of the directive which says “with the current educational quality, the private institutions can’t give distant education”. Students who are currently taking distant education can finish their education but the program will be over as they end their education in all private institutes, says the directive.
However, many participants were not satisfied with the outcome of the meeting, saying their questions were not answered. One participant, who wants to remain anonymous, said the matter should be fought at a higher level. Among many things, he said “the timing is not right and they should allow us to go to a higher body and hear what we have to say”.
The Ministry of Education will meet with the private institutions again at the beginning of the Ethiopian academic year, September 18, to further discuss the issue.
In a related development, the ETQAA has ordered all media outlets not to broadcast or print advertisements of private institutions. This includes advertisement of any kind by public and private institutions saying that they give distant education.
Before devising a working procedure that enables the implementation of quality education, ETQAA prohibits says any regular new program, or increasing student’s enrolment capacity, setting up new institutions, or even opening new branches for private institutions.

Ethiopia to introduce Birr Coins in New Year

By Kirubel Tadesse

Capital

The National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) has introduced one birr coins this week. In the long-run the new coins will replace the birr notes that are relatively costly to produce because of their short life cycle. Until now, the highest valued coin was that of fifty cents.
NBE vice Governor Getahun Nana said the one birr coins will flow into the market at the dawn of the New Year, September 11, 2010. The governor called on all buyers and sellers to use the coin, which exacts the birr note value.
According to Getahun the introduction of the coins comes after rigorous study, which found the birr note to be highly costing the national treasury.
In order to print a single birr note the government spends 16 cents. The constraint has been that a birr note average life cycle is only limited to one and a half years. “Now the new coin, which costs us 77 cents each to mint, can last up to forty years without any more costs,” Getahun said. The average life cycle of coins is between 25 and forty years.
NBE has had 411.6 million coins minted, which are ready to go into the market on the first day of the coming new Ethiopian year. The overall deal, in addition to expenses reserved for extra tasks, costs the bank close to 274 million birr. However the cost is an investment for at least the next three decades, also saving resources to collect and put off old birr notes.
Despite sustaining the high costs for printing one birr notes, which has a leading share among all notes, and printing expenses mount alongside the money circulation boost that is expected alongside the five year economic plan the government recently launched, the NBE isn’t forcing all to use coin birr. Both one birr note and coins will remain in the market.
“Some time in the future we want to change all one birr notes with coins so that we can exchange with one birr coins only. Given the expense of printing one birr notes, we will move to that direction, though now I cannot say when that will happen. Now the birr notes are as good as the new coins and both will continue to circulate in the market. Nobody has to go to the trouble of changing one birr notes for coins: both are valid,” Getahun said last Friday.
The directive issued by NBE on the issuance of the one birr coin puts stiff restrictions on any use of the coin that could alter, destroy or destruct it. In order to avoid some remote areas now aging out practices of using coins as jewelry, the NBE improved both the thickness and design of the new coins.
One side of the coin has a design with a balanced scale on the inner circle, surrounded by three inscriptions which all mean one birr. The reverse side of the coin shows, like the current coins, the face of a lion on the inner circle surrounded by inscriptions in Amharic meaning Ethiopia and also 2002 in the Ethiopian Calendar.

ETC CEO resigns on threshold of French take-over

By Muluken Yewondwossen

Capital

Amare Amsalu, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the state-owned telecom provider Ethiopian Telecommunication Corporation (ETC) has resigned from his position as per September 15, 2010 Capital has learned.
France Telecom, the French based telecom company has recently got a contract agreement with ETC to take over the management for the next four years to modernize the state-owned company.
The official hand over of the management to French is expected to take place this month. According to information obtained from officials at the ETC, the Ethiopian management team will also be part of the France Telecom-led management team. For this new management system ETC is selecting new managers from its own members of staff and other organizations.
The new management staff of ETC is expected to get a CEO from another organization, according to a source. The new ETC director will work closely with the France Telecom CEO. However, the source did not specify, who will come and from where.
An official at ETC told Capital that, according to the plan, the new management that will work with the French side will soon be assigned but he couldn’t say anything about a new CEO. “It is in a too early stage to say anything about appointments” the official explained.
Amare has served about four years as head of ETC. He replaced the previous CEO, Tesfaye Birru, who is now in jail for corruption charges in connection with the purchase of telecommunication equipment.

Ethiopia - Ban on used cars to be effective after Ethiopian New Year

By Muluken Yewondwossen

Capital

A new directive to ban the import of outdated second hand cars to Ethiopia is to be ratified shortly after the Ethiopian New Year. The government thereby seeks to reduce the number of fuel consuming and polluting vehicles in the country.

The ban will be passed by the Ministry of Transport and Communication (MoTC) and has been under study for more than two years now. The ministry has finished its economic analysis and set the criteria for cars that are allowed to be imported.

Recently the policy planing department has transferred its conclusions to the legal department to setup the regulation. “We evaluated the draft and returned it to the policy and planning department again, because it needs a detailed specification on technical and age restrictions of the imported secondhand vehicles,” a source from the legal department told Capital.

“The directive is in its final stage and we expect it to be indorsed in the first half of this budget year by the new parliament,” the source added. The ministry has studied various policies of different countries on the import of secondhand vehicles. It tried to assign a foreign consultancy firm to undertake the study, but ended up preparing the policy itself.

According to the source, the new directive focuses on the import ban of outdated secondhand vehicles, which cars are forbidden will be clearly specified. The new law that is thought to be necessary to enhance effective usage of fuel and spare part, as well as reducing pollution was originally expected to be ratified by July 2008.

Experts say the ban will also reduce the number of traffic accidents that have been sky-high for several years now. More than half of the cars driving around in the country suffer from technical inefficiencies or are simple run-down, the Addis Ababa Traffic Police office has stated. This is one of the factors causing the number of accidents to rise.
The ban is expected to encourage Ethiopians to import new cars or buy them from local manufacturers, which will have a positive economic effect. “If the country encourages the import of new vehicles by tax and customs due, its foreign currency savings will be freed from additional cost of spare parts and fuel. Also local manufacturers are expected to improve their capacity and see their market grow,” an expert at the Transport Authority said.

Ethiopia - Drivers indicted on export theft

By Yohannes Anberbir

Capital

The Federal High Court passed some stiff imprisonment penalties on five drivers who have been found guilty of stealing Djibouti-bound textile meant for export. The thieves face up to 25 years of imprisonment and have been fined up to 20,000 birr.
Their crimes have injured Ayka Addis, a Turkish textile firm. The drivers were hired by Ayka Addis to transport the textile cargo to the Port of Djibouti. However, before delivering the items to the port, they made an unscheduled stopover somewhere between Mojo and Nazareth (Adama) in Oromia, where they unloaded some of the textile illegally.
After that, the drivers are said to have continued their trip to Djibouti with their reduced load, while their associates returned the stolen textile to Addis Ababa to sell it on the local market.
Consequently Ayka got several complaints and refund request from its recipient clients, who stated the received textile did not meet with the agreed quantity.
Ayka’s documents never showed any discrepancy, but a stream of similar complaints forced the Turkish textile producer to report the case to the Federal Police of Ethiopia. The latter launched an investigation which resulted in the arrest of several drivers, middlemen and alleged recipients of the stolen goods.
The Feds passed details of its investigation to the prosecutors of the Ethiopian Revenue and Customs Authority (ERCA), an entity responsible for controlling the import and export activities in the country.
“Recipients in the Addis Ababa local markets have pointed us to their suppliers, which finally lead us to the drivers,” Fiseha Alemayehu a prosecutor involved in the cases, told Capital.
“We charged over eleven people involved in the illegal business,” Fiseha said. “Out of this group, five people have been found guilty and have been given a final verdict of a maximum 25 years imprisonment and up to 20,000 birr penalty.”
Kidus Ayalew, one of the drivers, got the highest penalty: he has been sentenced to 25 years of imprisonment and 20,000 birr fine. Furthermore, drivers Seyfe Kibret and Bissrat Kassa will be jailed for 23 years and has to pay a fee of 15,000 birr; Tesfaye Shenkute for 22 years with 14,000 birr fine and Tamiru Shewa faces 21 years of imprisonment with 13,000 birr penalty.