BY ADDISALEM MUALT
In Ethiopia, the chemical sector is at a very low level of development with limited contribution to the national economy. There are very few basic chemical industries such as caustic soda, soda ash, aluminum sulfate, and sulfuric acid, sodium hypochlorite, and alkyd resin.
According to Dr. Eng. Abubeker Yimam, most of the other establishments in the chemical sector produce chemical products by further processing imported chemical products. The country’s demand for chemical products is met mainly through import.
He stressed that the development of the mining sector and enhancing agricultural productivity will be very vital in this regard. Various initiations have been undertaken recently, including the homegrown economic reform and the launching of new mining and petroleum policy. These should be strengthened with a focus on the value-addition of natural resources and linkage to the agricultural sector.
By the same token, Ethiopia is endowed with natural agricultural and mineral resources for the development of the chemical industry sector. These resources, however, are not developed as resource bases for the chemical industry. The chemical sector faces a constraint in domestically produced raw materials.
The sector has been relying on imported raw materials even in the areas where the country was supposed to have a comparative advantage. There are three aspects of the problem related to the domestic raw materials constraint: shortage, seasonal supply, and poor quality.
Power shortage and electric power interruption are also at the top of major constraints for the manufacturing sector development in Ethiopia. Limited access to foreign exchange has been another constraint to import input materials, spare parts, and machinery among others. Thus, the above issues should be addressed to make the chemical sector competitive.
Ethiopia has a prospect of developing its resource-based chemical industry. Strengthening public-private-partnership (PPP) is one modality by which the Chemical industrial development strategy can be fostered. Various incentives have been initiated including equities on joint ventures and access to credit.
These should be strengthened. Investment promotion for both potential local and foreign investors on the opportunities (homegrown chemical products) should be undertaken. Additional supporting chemical product investment policy (in line with the recent mining and petroleum policy) should be formulated and implemented.
Of late, The Ethiopian Press Agency had a short stay with Professor Belay Woldeyes. He is a founding member of the Ethiopian Academy of Sciences Certificate of long and outstanding services for the faculty and the education of engineering in Ethiopia. He has been serving his motherland in a wide spectrum of capacity once in a great while.
In the same fashion, he has served as head of the Chemical Engineering Department, the board of director of Ethiopian Chemical Corporation, Board of Director of Ethiopian tannery, the board of director of NIB International Bank, Faculty of Technology and what have you.
His research interest mainly focuses on optimization of energy, and chemical processes coming to grips with the substitution of imported raw materials.
Speaking of which, the professor had touched upon a wide array of issues revolving around his personal and professional life. Excerpts are below:
As the only full professor of chemical engineering in Ethiopia, what do you think has been your notable contributions to the country in the areas?
At the start, having graduated from widely known higher learning institutions positioned in highly developed countries, I had the opportunity to live and work there just as I had hoped. But as I give priority to my country more than anything under the sun, I returned home and embarked on serving my country diligently and selflessly with all my heart.
Before I returned home, there was a foreigner who was paid in hard currency once every month in my profession. However, the instant I came back home, I took over the foreigner’s position and managed to save the much-needed dollars in a short space of time. Strictly speaking, I would venture to say, I have served my country in multifarious ways every once in a while.
Over the past forty years, aside from producing quite a lot of manpower in the chemical engineering field, I have played a part in graduating thousands of undergraduate and postgraduate students in various fields of study. On top of that, I managed to establish the department of chemical engineering at Addis Ababa University in conjunction with a foreigner.
As things stand at present, we have been getting ready several university lecturers for thirteen chemical engineering departments situated in various higher learning institutions of the country.
Along the same lines, over the past years, I served as department head, dean of the faculty, senate member, and things of that sort. Apart from that, I have taken part in profit accessibility of various factories such as Adami Tulu pesticides, sulfuric acid, caustic soda, and things of that nature in pursuance of getting higher the chemical sector throughout the country.
In addition to this, I managed to serve as a consultant in more than 10 public and private agencies. However, I failed to put my all into my country because impediments were pouring cold water on our efforts time and time again.
What were the main setbacks along the way?
It is abundantly clear that Ethiopia is inundated with highly educated scholars in various fields of study. In former times, the country had no room for scholars. Furthermore, pertinent bodies were not in the position to lend their ears to the country’s intellectuals no matter what the cost may be.
As educated people were considered as adversaries, cadres were not that willing to look up to educated people. Furthermore, the community at large had no room for educated people and education. They were time and again demeaning the educated ones. The general public was persistently saying, “It is better to possess a shop than a third degree.”
In the same manner, the population as a whole does not appreciate technology seeing that they do not know the nuts and bolts of how many educated people partake intending to form a fully-fledged technology.
After a considerable time, a certain teacher in the faculty managed to make a certain radio that could help the wider community to have access to a wide spectrum of radio programs. It was a big move. At that very moment, only some people possessed radios throughout the territory.
When the faculty requested the government to give the go-ahead to produce many radios for the community at large at reasonable prices, the government formed a committee that would deal with the matter.
To the surprise of everyone, over time, the committee ended up throwing cold water on the effort of the teacher saying the new radio does not meet international standards in radio communication compared to Japanese radio standards. At that very moment, there were merely two radio stations all over the country. Needless to say, the new radio could help the public to have access to radio programs broadcasted from the two stations. On a side note, Japan managed to reach the current state of radio technology by producing a simple radio like that of the teacher. They did not reach where they are at present out of the blue. They have passed through various highs and lows. Having spent a lot of time and money on research
and development, the country has now access to the latest radio technology.
Why did most of your chemical industry development studies fail to bear fruit?
It is no secret that Ethiopia is inundated with a rich climate and vast watersheds to grow sugarcane. Over the past 50 years, Ethiopia has been producing sugar from sugarcane to a much lesser extent on numerous occasions. We have been producing small scale ethanol at two factories in addition to producing sugar which is an outdated practice.
As things stand at present, Fifty years ago, sugar was a major commodity in Ethiopia. During the reign of the emperor, sugar was given free of charge at different schools to accustom the community at large to sugar. Frankly speaking, even though there is still a shortage of sugar across the country, it is possible to get to the bottom of the problem by converting sugarcane into various products by utilizing biorefinery.
For the sake of truth, some countries such as Brazil, India, Cuba, Thailand, South Africa, China, and the United States managed to boost their economy by renovating technology and bringing forth a substantial amount of products by dint of biorefinery. If we take Brazil as an example, the country was able to produce ethanol in more than 500 factories, and make more than 50 percent of their cars or 40 million vehicles across the country to make the most of ethanol as a gasoline substitute.
In a similar vein, India has made more than 50 million people play a part in sugarcane production. If we would like to take Ethiopia to new horizons, we can create several jobs by converting sugarcane to a wide spectrum of biofuels using biorefinery. Converting sugarcane into biofuels will be the biggest industry that help create jobs for millions of young people down the road beyond a shadow of a doubt.
Intending to modernize the sugar industries of the country and produce different products, scientists and famous engineers lead by myself in collaboration with the Ethiopian Academy of Sciences, Institute for Policy Research, and the Ethiopian Sugar Factory did research that lasted for four years.
In consideration of the foregoing, we managed to bring to light the fact that the most desirable products such as ethanol, pulp, cheap wood, fertilizer, animal feed, electricity, and other related aspects can be produced with the aid of sugar industries. However, following the reform, the case is left on the shelf. Reasoning from this fact, our dreams could not bear fruit.
You are recommending huge investment in the Sugar industry, and yet the country is not even meeting its daily sugar consumptions. What do you think has gone wrong?
Unfortunately, the government and we were not working hand in hand. It was originally intended to produce a few products. Over time, we failed to achieve the wished-for target provided that the whole lot was embezzled.
At that specific point, although the head of the Ethiopian sugar corporation explained in black and white the reality on the ground, the House of Peoples Representatives were not in the position to lend their ears. They ended up giving the cold shoulder. As the saying goes, “It is no use crying over spilled milk.”
To my mind, the government should hunt for fraudsters and take immediate measures against them. The next step does not have to be only putting the accent on producing sugar just like before, but it is necessary to convert sugarcane to biofuels bringing into play biorefineries.
You have long been toiling to make the planned fertilizer factory constructions become a reality, however, your efforts were not materialized once again. Where did the problem lie?
It is crystal clear that more than 80 percent of the country’s population is dependent on agriculture. As the consumption of fertilizers has been increasing year on year, we spend more than a billion dollars to import fertilizers. Quite the opposite, our country is challenged by a shortage of hard currency once in a great while.
Frankly speaking, over the past 25 years efforts have been made to produce fertilizer in our country and get to the bottom of the problem. On my part, even though the intended target has not been achieved, I have made a lot of effort to turn my vision into reality.
As a final point, is there anything else you would like to convey?
It is no secret that the country cannot exist in the absence of a government by any means. The government needs quite a lot of educated people intending to create a successful country. Above and beyond, they should be able to live respectfully.
In some government offices, the educated ones have no room and are given the cold shoulder given that they are less qualified than them. If at all possible, they would like to detach themselves from the general public by claiming that their education is just a piece of paper. A lot of Scholars go to work only to give up what they can contribute to the development of their country.
The Ethiopian Herald 16 January 2021
