By NDUMBE BELL GASTON
The State of Ghana and the Ethiopian have signed a convention enabling The Ethiopian to assist Ghana revamp its airline services and be included among active West African and continental airways.
The surprise announcement was made by the Group C.E.O. of the Ethiopian, Tewolde Gebremariam recently, without much details attached. The government of Ghana happened to undergo the procedures of signing this partnership agreement after having suffered from serial setbacks at their inability to manage Ghana Airways and Ghana International Airlines known to have become obsolete.
Besides, The Ethiopian’s success story based on their expertise is now acting as the continent’s consultant in the expansion, creation and revamping of fallen airlines in the continent for anyone who applies to have their services. Tewolde Gebremariam sees this development as an opportunity to support Ghana in order to increase the percentage and presence of African airlines in the continental market which is regrettably as low as below 20%.
According to some details of the convention which were supposedly leaked, the Government and private sector will have 51% while The Ethiopian has the remaining 49%. The government had already protected itself from the private sector by mandating 10% of the investment capital before the rush by the private sector.
It is public knowledge that The Ethiopian had helped countries like Togo (AskyArilines), Lilonguwe in Malawi, Zambia, Mozambique, Tchad, to be revamped and expand. Many in Cameroon hope Camair-co will also join the list someday.