BY STAFF REPORTER
Recently Commercial Bank of Ethiopia launched a mobile app, entitled It Is My dam which aims to stream line the funding contributed by Ethiopians in the diaspora for the successful completion of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.
The diaspora actually have been collecting and contributing resources to varous economic and development purposes at home. However majority of the collection methods followed traditional way of fund raising events and promotions.
Similarly Bank of Abyssinia has also introduced another mobile app to harness the transfer of cash from abroad. CashGo is an international money transfer system, which allows anyone to send money to family, friends, and employees from any part of the world to Ethiopia.
For instance recently the Ethiopians have been making a lot of contributions for various projects under way in the country. The Ethiopians has registered 37.8 billion birr capital projects in the just ended budget year, according to Selamwit Dawit, Director General of the Ethiopian Diaspora Agency.
The Director General said 84 projects with a capital of 3.9 billion birr have been started. He said 84 projects with a capital of 3.9 billion birr have been launched in Addis Ababa, Amhara, Oromia and other states, adding that the projects have created 13,000 jobs.
She also said that a number of Diaspora accounts have been opened in the 2013 Ethiopian budget year to alleviate the shortage of foreign exchange.
Furthermore Ethiopians in South Sudan have also contributed funding for the construction of GERD. “The construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam is a manifestation of our existence and sovereignty,” he said. More than 3.5 million birr revenue was collected through a support statement and fundraising program.
With the participation of Ethiopians, people of Ethiopian descent and Eritreans living in the Juba region, $ 64,100 bond and 25,000 South Sudanese pounds have been pledged for the Grand Renaissance Dam. At the same time, $ 15,100 and Sudanese pound 10,000 were donated to support the heroic Ethiopian Defense Forces.
He said all Ethiopians and Ethiopians of Ethiopian descent are encouraged to stand together for the security and development of the country.
In another development more than 7.3 million birr has been raised in support of the Ethiopian Defense Forces (EDF) during a meeting with members and diplomats of the Ethiopian Community Association in Dubai and North Emirates.
The meeting was attended by the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia to the United Arab Emirates, His Excellency Suleiman Dedefo and the Consul General of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia to Dubai and the North.
During the meeting held at the Consulate General of the United Arab Emirates in Dubai and North Emirate, it was explained that internal and external enemies have joined forces to wage war to destroy Ethiopia.
The ambassadors also said that the comprehensive support being given to the heroic national defense force should be strengthened.
Diplomats, members of the board of directors of the Ethiopian Community Associations in Abu Dhabi, as well as in Dubai and the Northern Emirate, urged them to play a leading role in coordinating other Diaspora associations and patriotic members of the Diaspora.
Accordingly, members of the board of directors of the Ethiopian Community Association of Dubai and Northern Emirates have decided to donate 500,000.00 (five hundred thousand) dirhams in the name of the association in support of our heroic defense force in response to the call of the people and the country to save Ethiopia. The Abu Dhabi Ethiopian Community Association is expected to take similar action.
In addition, diplomats at the FDRE Embassy in Abu Dhabi and the FDRE Consulate General in Dubai donated a total of $ 1,300,000.00 (one million three hundred thousand birr) each, and local staff provided support according to their income.
All the aforementioned sum of financial contribution by the Ethiopian diaspora was made in recent weeks and mobilized through the usual practice of soliciting citizens contribution. But considering the commitment of the diaspora as well as the potential of availing the necessary technological means to solicit funding , a lot more resoruce can be mobilized, according to the experinces of coutnries.
Studies indicate that some countries deploy a growing assortment of migration-and-development or diaspora policies designed to enroll migrants as benefactors and development actors, as well as (re)producing notions of an extended, extra-territorial nation in which migrants are re-inscribed as members.
For instance in Mexico, the largest recipient of collective remittance in the world, the diaspora collective remittances and the 3×1 Program have improved the living conditions for the general population in the communities of origin, where hundreds of basic infrastructure projects have been implemented.
Despite the marked limitations of the program’s budget—at the federal level only US$15 million for 23 states in 2005—its most significant contributions have been the promotion of transnational community organizations and the establishment of negotiating room for those communities vis-à-vis the three levels of government.
The Ethiopian Herald August 8/2021
