US Policy towards Ethiopia neglects the most important human resources (the Ethiopian Diasporas) who are willing and able to promote US citizens economic interest and goodwill in Ethiopia. Instead, the policy directs US foreign assistants worth billions of dollars (the largest in Sub Sahara Africa) to the ruling regime, which ends neither up without much returns for the US citizens economic interest nor alleviates the poverty for the intended recipients. It is not surprising that a policy that does not require accountability of the regime to be transparent abridged US investment, but also indirectly failed to demonstrate a good stewardship to the US citizens. Furthermore, it caused the US to loss the opportunity, to utilize the vast human and financial resources of the Diaspora, who would have been active in investing in the region, and protect the US interest which includes promoting the goodwill of the American people. For instance, there is no a single institution in the US that promote US investment in Ethiopia, nor the government of Ethiopia attempts to encourage the US citizen to invest in Ethiopia by providing transparent investment information and incentive, thus preventing millions of US citizens from participating.
The US embassy in Addis Ababa is not doing its job either; it seems the Embassy is dolling money as if it is a charity than a promoter of US interest in the country. With close to a million Ethiopian Americans in Diaspora, the only US businesses listed in the US embassy website are only two dozen businesses.
Also, there is not much effort by the US commercial officers in opening up the country to US investment or a follow-up to identify causes that prevents US investment in Ethiopia. In general, the regime in Ethiopia is not providing equal opportunity for US citizens for the massive Economic assistance it receives from US tax payers. Instead, it only promotes Diaspora remittance and more foreign Aid from the US and many other sources than investment. Thus, US citizens are left with forums and unreadable information from the government and different sources that have no transparency. For instance, some are organized by the ruling regime cadres out of Ethiopian embassies and consulate to lure unsuspecting Ethiopian Americans; others are simply taking advantage of inside information to make quick buck without putting much effort.
Another example is the Ethiopian Diaspora Business Forum which is a hollow salesmanship in investment promotion in Ethiopia. The forum is organized by The Ethiopian American online Magazine, and Precision Consult International to lure Ethiopian-Americans to invest in their birth country without providing any independent information or explaining the political and market risk caused by the absence of transparent policy of the regime and investment information.
The forum presented a personal opinion of the organizers and most of the panelists claim to plenty of investment opportunity with out illuminating sources. Sponsored by George Washington University, USAID and VEGA (Volunteers for Economic Growth Alliance), and by the invitation only forum without publicly reviling invitation requirements. However, the organizers claim there are “lots of investment opportunity in Ethiopia” see the video of the 2008 forum made public.
It seems the organizers and the sponsors must have privileged investment information that is not available for the public on the government’s own official investment portal-Ethiopian Investment Commission www.ethiomarket.com/eic/. What makes it rather unusual with the forum is that, the panelists who are invited to promote investment opportunity in Ethiopia are not investors or have any official capacity in government. Some are professors in unrelated fields and others are non governmental organization reps.
The US was represented by Ato Addisu Alemayhu of US Aid representative to promote African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), that promotes Ethiopian products in US free of duty, but yet, there is no US agency that promote US products to Ethiopia.it was announced the forum held it’s forth gathering of 2009 on July 12 in Washington DC, (No information is public yet)
For an average observer, it is hard to ascertain whether it is out of fear or they are simply government agents’ who are attempting to lure unsuspecting Ethiopian Diasporas to invest their resources in the name of investment. The official government investment promoters (The Ethiopian Investment Agency and The Export and Import Promotion Agency), the known Chambers of Commerce (Ethiopian and Addis Ababa Chamber of Commerce) are nowhere to be found in all the three forums held in the past, but the same unknown individuals.
The Managing Director of Precision Consult International Mr. Henock Assefa, one of the ‘organizers’ and the panelist spoke about many investment opportunity with out sighting sources. It is clear the forum organizers and their regularly invited guests must have no idea of what a simple investment requires or took it up on themselves to say what they are told by the government without fact checking. Such action negatively impacts the Ethiopian Americans who can potentially change the course of the Ethiopian economy if there was transparent information and a coherent investment policy in the country than to rely on unknown individuals and firms about investment opportunities information.
In our previous expose we explored how the nation’s investment portal was run by rogue individuals out of the US by channeling foreign investment inquiry through www.ethiomarket.com. Our search for investment information on official government websites noting worth to consider investment is found. Once again, we are finding investment promotion by unknown consulting firm and individuals who are not officials or investors themselves, thus begging the following questions. Who are they? Where do they get the information to lure investors? How come they never raise many issues, like political risk, corruption, lack of transparency and the lack of coherent investment policy?
It is troubling to see an investment consultant who dose not raise key investment risks that would make and break an investment.
Henock Assefa, the point man of the forum and the Managing Director of Precision Consult international claimed Ethiopian economic growth of "5-12%" in the last five years with out mentioning any source, not even the government’s source. He even talk a lots about foreign investors who came to his office willing to invest and the potential of the opportunity “to make a good living” investing in Ethiopia. Looking at the official website of the firm, where all the investment opportunities may be and all the foreign investors he talked about being helped by his consulting firm Precison Consult International, we found not even one investor consulted by the firm. What we found are few non-governmental organizations, UNDP and two Chambers of commerce the firm claim consultant.
The only focuses of the firm seems raising capital from the Diaspora for real-estate development. In another website associated with the firm Diaspora Invest solicits Ethiopian Americans to invest by offering 100,000 share of real-estate. And once again the same firm is also affiliated with Ethiopian investor with noting worth investment information. Domain Name: ETHIOPIAINVESTOR.COM Registrar: TUCOWS INC. .tucows.com Updated Date: 05-mar-2009 Creation Date: 27-Jan-2008 Source: Godaddy.com
In contrast to what Mr. Assefa claims on the video presentation the firm does not have any thing that can be ascertained as a successful investment in Ethiopia on its official website nor investment opportunity information that would help the Diaspora to make a decision to invest.
The other organizer of the forum- Ethiopian America online Magazine as media serving the Diaspora also failed to ask the basic requirement of promoting investment in a given country or a company in regard to the government policy of suppressing investment information, rampant corruption, the ruling party affiliate business dominating the private sector and many other transparency issue important for any investor and the local business at home to help investors assess risk and reward.
As an “independent” media, the Magazine and its publisher Ato Yohannes Assefa who claim to be ‘a business and intellectual property attorney’ in New York, according the official website should have known better and have the responsibility to seek the facts so that investors get the whole story before they commit their resources in a country where independent information is hard to come-by and where transparency is a foreign language.
What we still could not understand is why unknown consultant with not much track record speaks on investment opportunities that are neither on its official website nor the official government’s investment agency? The record shows the domain name was registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc. Domain Name: PRECISECONSULTINTERNATIONAL.COM Created on: 09-Mar-07 Expires on: 09-Mar-10 Registrant: Henock Assefa, 40 waterside plaza Apt. #14A New York, NY 10010 (Source) godaddy.com
How a company domain name registered two years ago with not much track record can speak with authority about investment opportunity in Ethiopia is a question that needs an immediate inquiry by the media and concerned institutions.
Therefore, based on the above observations, we warn Ethiopians who entertain investment in Ethiopia to be extra careful and ask the hard questions before they commit their resources. In a country where the investment agency has nothing resembling like an investment opportunity, being lured by individuals’ talk can have far reaching consequences for investors. We also urge the media, civic organizations, and the international community to make a concerted effort in investigating transparency of commerce in order to make those responsible agencies or managers accountable.
