The Ministry of Finance and Economic Cooperation of Ethiopia declared that it is engaged in a detailed research for 50 potential projects for Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) with the assistance of the World Bank Group (WBG).

According to MoFEC’s Communication Director, Ato Haji Ibsa, in the 2017/18 fiscal year, the Ministry was successful in finalizing structural and legal frameworks for PPP. The Communication Director said, “Among the 50 projects, 26 are in the final stages and international bids will be announced soon.” “Lack of enough research prior to starting a project and less bargaining power costs the government,” he added.

During the past 12 months, the economy was challenged by continous inflation and export earnings decreased by 2.8% (USD 78.9 million) in the 2017/18 fiscal year. In the last fiscal year, the government had planned to collect Birr 237 billion from tax and non tax revenues. However, it only collected Birr 108.6 billion.

According to the communication director, as a result of a high budget deficit in the past fiscal year, the payment of some mega projects was pushed to the next fiscal year. The 2017/18 fiscal year saw a Birr 53.8 billion budget gap which is going to be transferred to the current fiscal year.

The government was forced to look for loans in order to fill the budget deficit. The ministry plans to improve tax policies in order to increase revenue. According to a report from the Ministry, there will be tax reforms in the coming fiscal year.

Source: Capital Ethiopia