Though Ethiopia had been basking under the thumbs up feedback of World Bank (WB) the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the like for its laudatory, rapid and double-digit economic growth for some years in the row, the growth was not free from abnormality.
The nation was displaying an amorphous growth, for few were leading a life of affluence, while many were struggling to get a daily bread tied down to the apron strings of a grinding poverty.
Worse still, the gap was widening by the day as the corrupt rich that kept a tight grip on the rein of power and hence immoral and impudent to use underhand tactics were getting richer, while the poor, as standers by, were turning poorer. That is why many rant this trend is symptomatic of unfair and non-inclusive growth.
The fall of the economy in the hands of few had allowed members of this group take undue advantage of the sky-rocketing price of consumers’ goods as they could pull strings with invisible hands. Manipulations and sabotages, some of which might have political ends, were evidenced.
Here, it suffices to mention a joke circulated by word of mouth among the mob “Previously one weeps while chopping onion but now one weeps while buying the same.”
The country is also asphyxiated by the dearth of hard currency badly needed for the importation of drugs and agricultural inputs and cannot-do-without things. As an attendant ill of this tragic episode, the value of Ethiopian Birr is seen ever nose diving exacerbating the inflation, which the government is grappling with to tame. Here, it is necessary to reflect it is those in the lower income bracket who will be the hard hit.
Not only that, the country is also sweltering under a back-breaking debt burden. Needless to mention, with this albatross around its neck the country could hardly materialize taking its growth to the required level.
The unemployment rate was also snowballing courting troubles, which naturally it could bring on its wake.
The combined strain created on the economy by the conspiracy of the formidable challenges had made it an instable one. It is to troubleshoot such challenges the reformed government, in concert with USAID, came up with a three-year macroeconomic reform project entitled Advancing Economic Diversification in Ethiopia.
Aside from helping the country keep its steps with its rapid economic growth, the project will help the country surmount the aforementioned challenges like unemployment hemming in the country. Above all, it will be instrumental in stabilizing the economy.
To curb the forex dearth, the country must focus on coming up with export-oriented-manufactured products and thereby spurring industrialization. As it is known, the country is blessed with abundant resources like land and water that could be harnessed to optimize its income, which could precipitate down to the grassroots. Miss managing these resources is also a task the country must ward off.
Hence, it is the belief of scholars that the project could serve as a springboard to uplift millions from economic morass embracing them in Micro and Small-scale Business Enterprises.
In so doing, the project could render the ground level and all-embracing when it comes to tapping resources. Moreover, the project has contribution for the liberalization of the economy. It could as well facilitate things for inflow of capital as well as the transfer of technology and skills.
Though the country’s thrust in all spheres of endeavor is appreciable, it proves irksome in the eyes of many due to the above listed challenges. Thus there is ample room for improvement, which could be effected via the translation the macroeconomic reform into action. The incumbents initiative call for a high five.
The Ethiopian Herald September 1/2019
