To construct a fertilizer project in Dire Dawa, the Ethiopian government signed a Joint Development Agreement with Morocco OCP Group, a Moroccan state-owned phosphate rock miner, phosphoric acid maker, and phosphate fertilizer producer.

The agreement was reached during a high-level delegation visit to Morocco led by H.E. Ato Ahmed Shide, FDRE Minister of Finance, and including representatives from the Ethiopian Chemical Industry Corporation (CIC), Ethiopian Agricultural Businesses Corporation (EABC), and Ethiopian Mineral, Petroleum, and Biofuel Corporation (EMPBC).

The visit was utilized to negotiate and obtain an agreement on a Joint Development Agreement to form an Ethiopian joint venture firm to carry out a project to build a local fertilizer factory in Ethiopia.

The agreement is based on feasibility, conceptual, environmental, and social impact assessments, as well as hydrological and geotechnical investigations.

According to the agreement, in Dire Dawa, an integrated fertilizer complex would be built utilizing local resources (Ethiopian gas and Moroccan phosphoric acid).

During the first phase, the project will invest approximately USD 2.4 billion to develop a 2.5-million-ton fertilizer production unit that will combine Urea and NPK/NPS products and have a production capacity of 3.8 million tons per year, with a total investment of up to USD 3.7 billion in the second phase.

This project is expected to make a substantial contribution to satisfying Ethiopia’s ever-increasing need for fertilizers (mainly urea and NPS+). Fertilizer imports in Ethiopia are expected to exceed USD 1 billion by 2022, and might reach USD 2 billion by 2030.

Ethiopia’s government reiterates its strong support for agriculture and continues to work diligently to develop specific solutions to the country’s agricultural and industrial issues.

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The Minister of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation and Moroccan Expatriates, Nasser Bourita, held talks yesterday Tuesday, May 25^th, with the Ethiopian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Demeke Mekonnen Hassen, and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration of the Republic of Ghana, Shirley Ayorkor Botchway.

During the first meeting with the Ethiopian minister, Bourita noted the progress made in the implementation of bilateral cooperation agreements, especially after the visit of His Majesty King Mohammed VI to Addis Ababa in 2016. The two ministers also agreed to continue maintaining this cooperation in sectors of priority such as education, vocational training, infrastructure and agriculture in addition to renewable energies and decentralized cooperation.

After recognizing the enormous potential at the level of bilateral trade exchanges, investments and economic cooperation, the two ministers reaffirmed their common commitment to continue developing their economic partnership by creating an environment more conducive to mutual investments, encouraging investment and taking advantage of the opportunities offered by markets and infrastructure, as they welcomed at the same time a proposal regarding the establishment of the Moroccan-Ethiopian Business Council.

On the other hand, Mekonnen Hassan praised the joint project between Ethiopia and the OCP Group, which established a fertilizer production plant in Dire Dawa, thanking the Kingdom for its support in the agricultural field, stressing that this project represents an ideal model for South-South cooperation.

Moreover, the two ministers valued the creation of the Moroccan-Ethiopian Coalition for Sustainable Energy Access, which promotes universal access to clean and reliable energy, and expressed their strong determination to develop and strengthen bilateral cooperation in the field of renewable energies.

The two ministers highlighted the great importance of the joint Moroccan-Ethiopian committee for cooperation as a mechanism to strengthen the existing partnership between the two countries and to explore new areas of cooperation. In this context, they agreed to hold the first session of the committee at an agreed date.

As for the second meeting with Shirley Ayorkor Botchway, the two ministers noted the distinctive friendship and solidarity relations existing between Ghana and Morocco, which were further strengthened through the visit of His Majesty King Mohammed VI in February 2017 to Accra, which culminated in the signing of 25 legal documents that include governmental and other agreements related to the partnership between the public and private sectors in various areas of cooperation.

On the other hand, the two parties welcomed the results of the general elections that Ghana witnessed on December 07, 2020, which took place in an atmosphere of freedom, transparency and respect for the popular will, thus dedicating African optimism based on the political reforms launched by President Nana Akufo-Addo.

Bourita congratulated the Republic of Ghana on its choice to be home to the headquarters of the General Secretariat of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), as well as its recent reelection for a second term as Head of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), highlighting the personal commitment of President Akufo-Addo in his capacity as chair of the group to find a solution to the political crisis in Mali.

For her part, Botchway reiterated Ghana’s strong support for the AU Resolution No. 693, adopted by heads of state during the 31st Union Summit in July 2018, and which stated the UN’s exclusive supervision, as a consensual framework, on the series that would lead to an acceptable political, realistic, pragmatic and definitive solution to the Saharan issue.

And based on the desire of the two parties to establish an economic partnership based on mutual benefit, it was agreed to strengthen cooperation in the priority sectors such as agriculture, tourism, health, vocational training, energy and mining.

The two ministers stressed the importance of implementing the Moroccan-Ghanaian Economic Council with the aim of encouraging the private sector in the two countries to explore other investment opportunities and strengthen partnerships between the public and private sectors, which would constitute a model for South-South cooperation in Africa.

At the multilateral level, Bourita and Botchway pledged to ensure optimal coordination of their actions and support each other within regional and international bodies, as well as to promote the partnership between the two countries in the field of peace and security.

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Aziz Rabbah, Minister of Energy, Mines and Environment, recently held talks with the Ethiopian Minister of Water and Energy, Seleshi Bekele, via videoconference, in preparation for the work of the Moroccan-Ethiopian alliance to access sustainable energy.

According to a communiqué of the Ministry of Energy, Mines and the Environment, these talks, which took place in the presence of the Ethiopian Minister Delegate for Energy,  Frehiwot Woldehana, and the President and Director General of the Moroccan Solar Energy Agency (Masen), Mustapha Bakkoury, mainly dealt with the progress made in the works aimed at implementing this alliance.

The communiqué indicated that the two parties were briefed on the final stage of governance projects and the road map for the aforementioned coalition, adding that the two sides also agreed to launch a phase of mobilizing strategic partners for the technical and legal establishment of the coalition secretariat, and work to mobilize the necessary funds by the end of the current year.

According to the same source, the detailed work plan for 2021 was also approved.

At the conclusion of the meeting, Rabbah and Bekele called on technical teams in the two countries to continue their work and consultations in order to hold the first meeting of the advisory council and launch the alliance as soon as possible, within the horizon of the actual launch of its legal structure, on the sidelines of the high-level dialogue that will be held next September in New York, and the organization of the first practical activities on the occasion of the “COP26” conference scheduled to be held next November in Glasgow.

It is noteworthy that the alliance was announced during the Climate Action Summit in 2019, on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, with the aim of ensuring universal access to sustainable energy in the least developed and other developing countries, in line with the 2030 Agenda.

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