Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed announced a new finance minister on Tuesday, in a reshuffle that has cut the size of the cabinet by approximately a third and increased diversity.
The new Finance Minister Ahmed Shide, a career politician from the Ethiopian region of Somali, will be tasked with fulfilling Ethiopia's ambitions as an export hub.
Mr Abiy also cut the number of cabinet positions from 28 to 20 and created a new "Ministry of Peace", seeking to ease ethnic tensions. The reshuffle left only four of the former post holders in their jobs and handed half of the top roles to women.
Ethiopia's new finance minister was educated in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom before serving as a state minister for finance and economic development from 2009 to 2016, then transport minister until he was appointed government spokesman in April 2018 when Mr Abiy took office.
As a Somali-Ethiopian, Mr Ahmed's appointment will ease tensions between the Somali and Oromo ethnic groups. Mr Abiy is the country's first Oromo Prime Minister and Mr Ahmed's appointment represents greater diversity in the cabinet.
Mr Ahmed is also the chair of the Ethiopian-Somali People's Democratic Party, the ruling party of the Somali regional state in the east of Ethiopia.
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During his tenure as government spokesman, he oversaw the greatest turnaround in the country's outlook in decades. In July, Ethiopia declared peace with Eritrea, a move that has seen the revitalisation of economic and diplomatic ties between the two countries. Phone lines have been reconnected, border-crossings reopened and commercial flights are running again.
The peace has led to improved business sentiment within the Horn of Africa, but the challenges for Ethiopia will still loom large over Mr Ahmed's role as finance minister.
Although Ethiopia has long been seen as the bright spark of the region, with double figure GDP growth for more than 15 years, Mr Ahmed must modernise the economy to meet the government's vision as an export hub by 2025, Ahmed Soliman, a research fellow at Chatham House's Africa Programme, told The National.
"Internal ruptures in the country have slowed down economic growth," he said, referring to ethnic tension and protests preceding Mr Abiy's election.
"Its less about Ethiopia's economic situation than it is about how much better it needs to do to keep up the pace of change, to bring in foreign exchange currencies, to boost exports, to boost jobs," Mr Soliman said, emphasising the need to accommodate a burgeoning population.
"There is a need to create jobs for 100 million citizens and 100 thousand young people graduating from universities every year. There is a real imperative to create a million jobs a year in Ethiopia," he said.
Some economic indicators expose deeper issues. Inflation is in double digits and public debt is nearly 60 per cent of GDP, much of which is owned by China.
"Ethiopia wants to become an export hub in Africa and is banking on a new coastal alliance in the Horn of Africa, with Djibouti, Eritrea and Somaliland to make their export industries more competitive," Mr Soliman said.
Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
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At a glance
Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year
Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month
Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30
Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse
Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth
Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
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The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
