Africa

Ethiopia splits state owned giant public utility into two

Tesfaye Ejigu

The government in Ethiopia split into two the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation (EEPCO), one of the state owned giant public utilities and renamed it the Ethiopian Electric Power Office (EEPO) and Ethiopian Electric Service (EES). The two are tasked to undertake what industry analysts say is an over ambitious plan of becoming an international company. The government says it decided to split EEPCO after three years-long study and consultation with an international consultant.

Africa

Governing by crisis : A labor migration gone terribly wrong

 The abuse of Ethiopian migrant workers in Saudi Arabia is not an overnight happening; it took decades and involved Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia and the world at large. To contain it Ethiopia is now in a state of governing by crisis  

 Tesfaye Ejigu

Over the past two decades, the face of migration in and from Ethiopia has been changing from small numbers of political refugee flows in the ‘70s, ‘80s and early ‘90s to a gradual mass form of labor migration as Ethiopians started to enjoy traveling freely to seek employment opportunities abroad. Although Ethiopia is witnessing its own share of skilled labor drain, the larger picture of labor migration is now characterized by low skilled mass labor migration mostly to Middle Eastern countries notably Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Lebanon, Qatar, Bahrain and Dubai.