Ethiopia vows to finalise mining reforms
Ethiopia will finalise reforms for its underdeveloped mining and oil sectors within the next two months as it seeks to encourage foreign investors, its mines and petroleum minister says.
The country has already cut taxes for mining companies in recent years but the government wants to attract more foreign investment and ease a dollar shortage in the country.
Mines and petroleum minister Samuel Urkato said promoting the mining sector has become a priority and indicated that further tax incentives are on the cards.
“We are reforming all the laws, the national mining policy and the strategy that goes with that policy. These reforms include all fiscal regimes too in order to compete for global mining investments,” Samuel said on the sidelines of the African Mining Indaba in Cape Town.
Newmont Mining is among a number of gold companies prospecting in Ethiopia and Norwegian fertiliser maker Yara International plans to build a potash mine and a fertiliser factory in the country.
Other firms, however, have been put off by poor infrastructure, a shortage of skilled professionals and a lack of transparency in licensing, industry consultants in Ethiopia say.
Australia’s BHP pulled out in 2012, while Israel Chemicals terminated a potash project in 2016 amid a tax dispute and claims the government had failed to provide infrastructure.
Since coming to office nearly a year ago, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has announced shakeups across industries, including plans to open up the once closely guarded telecommunications, logistics and power monopolies. Enormous government investment in infrastructure has helped make Ethiopia one of Africa’s fastest-growing economies, but exports of garments and other products have struggled to gain traction, which means the economy is not generating enough dollars to pay for imports.
Encouraging the mining sector could help. Though still small, it brought in $3.5bn in foreign direct investment in the past five years, helped by new incentives that included updating the country’s geological data, extending duty-free access to companies engaged in exploration and offering to build infrastructure to accommodate mining sites.
“Take a company working at a remote site. They shouldn’t construct roads. The government should do that. They shouldn’t work on railways. The government will provide that,” Samuel said.
The government reduced the corporate income tax rate for miners from 35% to 25% two years ago, and more recently lowered the precious metals royalty rate to 7%, from 8%. The current law guarantees the government a 5% minimum equity stake in projects, lower than many other African countries.
Samuel said it plans more incentives to jump-start the industry. “We will see later how to improve these royalty and fiscal regimes. We will gradually improve the size of royalties,” he said.
TAKE A COMPANY WORKING AT A REMOTE SITE. THEY SHOULDN’T CONSTRUCT ROADS. THE GOVERNMENT SHOULD DO THAT