Ethiopia could hardly witness better growth so far because of administrative mishaps and absence of well-defined economic criteria and mechanisms in all aspects especially over the past close to three decades prior to the recent reform despite its being well endowed with rich natural resources, vast land to be cultivated as well as irrigated, abundant labor force, myriads of tangible and intangible heritages, among others.
Without a shadow of doubt, the economic trajectory of Ethiopia has been selfishly tightened by some greedy and irresponsible individuals shielding under the administrative personnel cave for many years.
Cognizant of the fact that the country can make a difference in all aspects if viable means are formulated, a three-year reform blueprint called “Homegrown Economic Reform” was announced by the Ethiopian government with a view to bringing about meaningful growth, fostering job creation and accelerating the effort geared towards poverty reduction.
The Ethiopian Herald had a stay with, Abrar Refissa, an agro-economist graduated from Dilla Univerity to have a glimpse of the significance of Home Grown economic aspect.
He said, “The fraudulent economic style which was prevailed in the country earlier can be vividly characterized by the unfair distribution of fundamental projects across the nation, and there was unfair distribution of infrastructure which has directly affected the economy of the country. The previous regime neither fairly distributes country’s resources for common growth nor employed home grown economic approach to help the nation make a difference. Officials had merely sucked what the country does have at the expense of the majority poor.”
According to Abrar, had homegrown economic reform been initiated and put into effect before the reform, Ethiopia would have brought about real change and had been capable of smashing out aid dependency and poverty at a larger scale.
As to him, there are many factors that hinder the motivation of citizens at all regional states to wholeheartedly back the initiation of home grown economic reform. In the first place, he said, “We all have to get committed to get out of the shackles of poverty and backwardness using our local companies’ products holding ‘Made in Ethiopia.’ This looks minor, but a clear mirror to help citizens look into themselves at what level they are.”
Second, he added the devastating trend of the administration before the reform has to be discarded. For example, during rulership of EPRDF, the unfair distribution of major projects carried out by the federal government—Universities, airports, network infrastructure and industrial parks was highly rampant. Surprisingly, the location of cardinal projects was mainly decided by the influence of some powers in the political realm, not by economic criteria. In simple terms, a Region/State which has had strong say in the party politics, especially the ruling party TPLF is confirmed to get the large proportion. Such a partisan and injustice move has to be made history. Thanks to the reform, all regional states are now enjoying equity and justice in terms of resource management and major projects distribution.
According to Abrar, Regional States with immense economic potential but no political influence were stranded in backwardness and poverty. Following the presence of a range of conspiracies and biased tactics, structural transformation in the country has failed because projects were installed in unproductive areas and in unbalanced manner despite the presence of huge infrastructure investment.
It is also well remembered that the National Macroeconomic Committee led by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed recently tabled first nine months report focusing on achievements and challenges of the economic sector in the light of application of the homegrown economic reforms.
The National Macroeconomic Committee which is coordinating the reform activities said the ongoing homegrown economic reform is playing a big role in resuscitating the economy that was faced by various challenges.
As learnt from the report tabled by the Macroeconomic team, the economic growth registered prior to the reform did not benefit the general public and failed to proceed due to debt burdens and related problems.
Based on the homegrown economic reform, the government has managed to benefit citizens from the economic growth in fair and equitable manner, and set up effective monitoring and follow up system in line with fixing the insolvency caused by maladministration.
According to Abrar, the country is now witnessing a remarkable economic revival and the stagnated mega projects including the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) are well undergoing and nearing completion.
Besides, it is recently stated that the export earnings of Ethiopia has shown a remarkable progress year by year. Another promising move that needs to be encouraged well is private companies have been given green light to import basic commodities using their own forex to control the inflation.
As to Abrar, a number of auspicious steps have been trekked with a view to stimulating the economy of the country including the tourism sector, as a wide range of attraction sites, development works have been carried out across the nation. National project like Koisha, Gorgora and Wonchi are living proof along this line.
As far as the agricultural sector is concerned said Abrar, irrigation-based lowland wheat production practice and cluster farming is accelerated and numerous encouraging outcomes are being secured. Besides, best practices and important lessons gained from some regional states have to be replicated to other areas as the cumulative effect of all these can drive the economic wheel of the country well. In doing so, the country has started witnessing promising accomplishments in terms of import substitution and production increment.
Abrar also stated that Ethiopia has to capitalize on import substitution and export promotion in a bid to bring about real change using home grown economy.
The implementation of homegrown economic reform that aimed at tapping the country’s development potentials, has an undeniable impact in stabilizing nation’s economy despite the outbreak of Corona virus and conflict aroused in the northern part of Ethiopia, he said.
He also indicated that the implementation of the economic reform would be of paramount importance in mitigating impacts of drought and lack of productivity in some circumstances.
He further indicated that the reform has played a principal role in managing debt stress, improving the export performance and creating stability in the financial sector that was about to collapse.
Approached by The Ethiopian Herald, a third year economics department student, Tewodros Aman, on his part said that apart from stabilizing the macro economy, the reform was essential so as to make structural changes in the economy thereby creating new opportunities.
He further stated that unlike the previous regimes that destroyed the economic trace of the country and used a clear cut separation of regional states, the current reform has tried to make all places of the nation benefited out of the bounties with which they have been endowed.
Tewodros said, “I personally believe the administration prior to the reform had turned a deaf ear and a blind eye to the best ways that help entertain homegrown economy and other mechanisms to help the mention come out of the grip of poverty it finds itself in. What makes the current homegrown economic reform full-fledged is because it makes its foundation on basic resources, local means to be productive and lucrative approaches put by the government.”
More importantly, he said the government has shown keen interest in employing home grown resources, skills and products and styles that can predominantly contribute to home grown economic progress. It is really a promising and rewarding move.
The ongoing pressures on the country’s economy and the recent price hike on basic commodities as well as export restrictions by some countries, Ethiopia has to establish policies aimed at revitalizing the farming sector and enlarging its agri-business scope particularly the crop production and service sectors.
Since the introduction of the recent reform, Ethiopia’s economy has shown a substantially faster rate and has avoided major economic disruptions created during the previous regime.
“As to me,” he said, “One is expected to attribute much of Ethiopia’s economic growth to two foremost factors—large-scale capital investment, which needs to be financed by large domestic savings and foreign investment as well as rapid production and productivity growth. If these factors can be made real and the county would run them hand in hand, the home grown economic reform will be driven in the right direction and helps the nation register higher efficiency in the economic sector, which would ultimately enhance output and increase resources for additional investment in the economy.
Generally, if the country is determined to do away with the shackles of poverty, aid dependency and impoverishment, it has to highly promote home grown economy so long as it is an irreplaceable way out.
BY MENGESHA AMARE
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD FRIDAY 1 APRIL 2022
