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ADDIS ABABA. — Addis Ababa’s concrete skyline, cranes tower high amid blasts from nearby drills and diggers. At the feet of buildings shrouded in bamboo scaffolding, excavators dig up dirt tracks, to be replaced by paved roads and a modern railway.It is a scene common to most neighbourhoods in the Ethiopian capital, which has turned into a giant building zone and a city in transformation.
“It looks like a construction site when we compare from the previous time,” said Berhanu Kassa, manager of B.B. Construction in the Ethiopian capital.
“Especially in the past five years, it’s a really big change,” he added, speaking at the site of his latest project, a mixed-use commercial building on one of the city’s main thoroughfares where workers offload concrete slabs from a delivery truck.
Addis Ababa’s construction boom – funded both from private and public coffers – is being driven by the country’s recent rapid economic growth.
But the government hopes it will attract further investment and help industrialise the economy in order to reach middle income status by 2025.
The public works projects, worth billions of dollars, include new roads, railways and massive power generation schemes across the country.
Meanwhile, the majority of new buildings are owned by private investors, who by law must be Ethiopian citizens.
The development promises to boost Ethiopia’s economic growth, officially 9,7 percent last year, though the International Monetary Fund pegs it at closer to 7 percent.
“The basic engine blocks of economic transformation are the infrastructure,” said Zemedeneh Negatu, managing partner and Ernst & Young in Ethiopia.
“The Achilles heel of Africa is power, lack of power, lack of road networks, lack of the basic needs that you need to transform your economy.” But analysts point out that the boom in construction is also a symptom of the weakness of the financial system, which leaves the business community with few investment opportunities outside of the sector. — AFP.
Online Reporter