ADDIS ABABA – The planned move to digitize trade registration and licensing will save citizens plenty of time and money, and improve ease of starting business in the country.
Talking to The Ethiopian Herald, Amelework Muniye, Director of Trade Registration and Licensing at Ministry of Trade said that the Ministry is working to make trade registration and business licensing even more accessible by developing a software that would allow citizens to access the service from the comfort of their homes. Once the system is up and running, anyone can access the service through the web or their own mobile phones, she added.
Such service is anticipated to not only save time, add convenience, and minimize the hassle and need for visiting the Ministry, it also improves the ease of starting and doing business in the country, the Director noted.
According to Amelework, a pilot service is expected to be launched in a three month time with the preconditions to fully start the service well underway. The project is given serious attention by the government, she said, which will give serious push to develop the project and start the service in earnest.
As it is known, the Ethiopian government is seriously working towards to launch e-commerce and e-government service delivery. In the last few days, Ministry of Innovation and Technology has held talks with the leaders of Estonia and Denmark on ways they can help Ethiopia achieve its set agendas in this regard. In his meeting with Estonia’s President Kersti Kaljulaid recently, Minister Dr. Eng. Getahun Mekuria has stated that Ethiopia can learn many things from Estonia, a country where virtually every government service is delivered online, except for marriage.
While the government is working to unlock the benefits of digitizing trade registration and licensing, there are bottlenecks that need to be bypassed to fully operationalize the service.
There might be challenges once the service is launched, one of which identified is problems related to lack of awareness. “So, to this end, we are thinking of first doing works related to awareness creation.” Other problems that are identified relates to internet interruption and other related issues.
There are also other things that are being considered in order to solve future problems that may originate from other offices as the work involves online exchange of information with other involved/relevant stakeholders, and the work process might not go as planned or expected. “We have already identified the problems that we will face, and may face once the service becomes operational.”
As to the Director, the Ministry is also doing other works with the aim to further facilitate its services. One of those services is devolving some of the services given at federal level to state level trade bureaus. For instance, license for export and importing used to be only given at federal level, but the service is now given at regional level. They do not have to come to the Ministry, and can get service from their respective States from now on. All in all, the Ministry is working hard to increase its service accessibility and solve good governance issues, she concluded.
The Ethiopian Herald February 20/2019
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BY ROBEL YOHANNES
