ADDIS ABABA– Oromia secured over 208 million USD from exporting precious minerals to the global market during the past fiscal year, the State Mineral Development Authority said, adding the revenue exceeded that of 2014 EC by 30%.
Authority Head BezuWakebeka told the Ethiopian Press Agency (EPA) that the state managed to secure 208 million USD from 394.9 million plan set for the reported period. The overall performance is better in all sectors income wise as it has shown a 30 % rise compared with the same period previous Ethiopian fiscal year except gold.
“Import substitution was our main engagement in the past fiscal year and we managed to save 156 million USD accordingly.”
Regarding the sector’s performance, Bezu indicated that over 6,363,618 tons of industry products, 2,694 kilograms of gold and 8,876 kilograms of precious metals were produced in Oromia. Moreover,
84,443 tons of metals and 25 million meter cubic construction minerals were produced in the reported period.
The sector also employed 157,385 citizens in the state.
Contraband remains the major setback in the state’s efforts to increase revenue from mineral export. Consolidated efforts are underway to tackle the problem and register a better performance in years to come, he remarked.
It was learned that in the reported period, more than 469 million Birr was obtained from mineral sales to the domestic market.
BY MESERET BEHAILU
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD TUESDAY 22 AUGUST 2023
