BY HIZKEL HAILU
Making Addis Ababa ‘New Flower’ to live up to its name must be the prior duty of the Council of Addis Ababa that is expected to be established today . To this end, every member of the City’s Council is expected to act in no time and never be idle as the city needs fundamental reform in various aspects.
As the saying of George Carlin and a verse from the proverb 16:27 of the Holy Bible go respectively: “Never let the brain idle. An idle mind is the devil’s workshop.’’ “Idle hands are the devil’s workshop; idle lips are his mouthpiece, literally, a worthless man devises mischief; and in his lips there is a scorching fire,” there should no place for the idle people at every level in the City’s Council.
The above clauses clearly indicate if anyone has nothing to do, they are likely to do some mischief. In another way, an idle person is likely to do something evil and people are more likely to do something bad and get into trouble when they have nothing to do.
Subsequently, the new Addis Ababa City Administration Cabinet has a lot to do myriads of chores following its inception as a new government with the very essential things that are reducing unemployment and applauding entrepreneurs for the city’s and the nation’s economic growth. Indeed, since the reformist government led by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (PhD) took power in April, 2018 to lead Ethiopia, the people of Ethiopia and the entire world have observed remarkable changes undertaken in Ethiopia, particularly in the Capital City of Addis Ababa.
Yet, economists still agree that the new City Administration has to take substantial tasks to build strong and healthier economy that showcases the growth of the country. According to Mekonnen Abera, an Economist, unemployment becomes an ever growing challenge in Ethiopia in general and in Addis Ababa in particular and a major impediment for economic growth.
Coupled with the fact that remarkable amount of young adults are entering the market regularly, the problem is deepening as a result of the infancy of the country’s economy to respond. Therefore, the new cabinet along with the private sectors and other stakeholders on this area should work hard for booming the city’s economy through creating more jobs for unemployed citizens.
Following the national economic agenda, cities generally across the world and particularly in Ethiopia are supposed to put in place their own working plan in order to spur their economy. Addis Ababa City Administration is among the capital cities that is making remarkable change on different aspects.
Indeed, Ethiopia’s capital city, Addis Ababa, is not only just one of the most vibrant and eclectic cities in the country but it is also often referred to as the capital of Africa. With a vision to see Addis Ababa flourishing into safe, livable, and prosperous city by 2030, the City Administration is working on political and economic reforms.
Foreseeing the city as ‘Africa’s Prosperity Hub’, the new city council should stand at the forefront as a core responsible organ to lead and realize comprehensive development plans. One of the important factors towards realizing such a vision is to manage policies and development plans through knowledge and information.
As a reflection of its commendable attributes to serve the local government and the citizens as well, the new council is expected to strive to support all its stakeholders including the private sector and beneficiaries in their efforts to achieve their respective goals through the provision of timely and analytical data or information, Mekonnen said.
Capital cities and metropolitan areas are widely considered as growth centers and focus areas for economic, social, environmental and technological concerns both from international and national perspectives, he noted. Accordingly, the Commission in collaboration with the government and other stakeholders is working hard to boom the city’s economy.
Apart from this, the new Council is also responsible to adopt different new technologies and unveil different working guidelines and manuals coupled with conducting different result based researches regarding the spatial and socio-economic sectors, the economist underlined.
Moreover, he accentuated that the new government has a homework to extend its commitment in scaling up its public servant ship and call up for due collaboration towards the realization of the booming of the city’s economy in a way to bring national growth.
According to a document from the World Bank, the city is in the middle of a construction boom with lots of new skyscrapers, roads and the like. It looks like a construction site.
Moreover, Hotels, shopping centers and office complexes rise from where small shacks once stood. Addis Ababa’s construction boom funded both from private and public coffers are being driven by the country’s recent rapid economic growth. And the government hopes it will attract further investment and help industrialize the economy so Ethiopia can reach middle-income status by 2025, the document stated.
As part of reducing unemployment rate across the city, Addis Ababa Job Creation and Enterprise Development Bureau has recently announced that the bureau has created more than 12,000 jobs during the past two months of Ethiopia’s new fiscal year.
According to Zelalem Wegayehu, Planning and Budget Monitoring and Evaluation Directorate Director at the bureau, management members of the bureau jointly with its responsible institutions have evaluated the performance of the first two months of the new Ethiopian fiscal year.
According to him, in the last two months, a total of 12,803 job opportunities have been created for of which 11,137 were permanent and 1,666 were temporary. Moreover, 111,528 job seekers have been identified and registered at one center, Zelalem said.
Adding to the point, he stated that 548 new enterprises with 1,588 operators have been established and ETB 86,872,590 loan has been disbursed to 2,150 operators in 663 enterprises. According to the management members, the hard work done during the preparation phase should be continued as it is planned to create more than 350,000 permanent jobs in the current Ethiopian fiscal year.
Mentioning that building healthy and strong economy is the priority issue of the new government in general and the new city cabinet in particular, he stressed that the coming years will bring real prosperity across the city. Besides supporting entrepreneurs, reducing and/or avoiding unemployment is the prior task of the new cabinet, he added.
Meanwhile, the city Administration Food Security and Development Safety Net Agency and Commercial Bank of Ethiopia signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) by this month to achieve the second phase of the food security program. The memorandum of understanding was signed by the Director General of the Agency, Asamne Gerawork, and the Commercial Bank Marketing Director, Desalegn Alemu.
“As an economist and as resident as well, we expect more to see the economic prosperity of the city in particular and the country in general from the new council and government respectively. And the city metropolitans should work in unison with the new council for further growth of Ethiopia and Ethiopians too,” Mekonen pointed out.
The Ethiopian Herald September 28/2021
