The Ethiopian Ministry of Technology and Innovation (MinT) has signed an agreement with the European Union (EU) to accelerate the implementation of the digital reform plans under the Ease of Doing Business (EDB) program. The EDB program if one of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s programs that aims at improving the business climate in Ethiopia.
The program is part of large-scale reforms undertaken by the Prime Minister’s office. It includes the Ministry of Revenue, Trade and Industry, and Documents Authentication and Registration Agency along with 5 other governmental institutions.
The Ministry’s Digital Transformation Program Director, Abiyot Bayou, says that the agreement with the EU is going to focus on supporting government agencies and organizations in developing e-government processes such as transactional and managerial processes.
Under the agreement, the EU is set to provide approximately 1.2 million EUR in the form of a one-time grant. Incorporating Bahir Dar and Dire Dawa into the national business portal is expected to be streamlined due to the added spending power created by the agreement. This is in turn going to improve the EDB program by further automating essential government services.
Abiyot also indicated that the agreement is going to play an important role in helping Ethiopia become part of the Top 100 countries of the Doing Business Index. In 2019 Ethiopia was ranked at 159th of the 190 countries that are part of the index.