Close partnership has been formed with the Ethiopian Statistical Service to address the absence of well-organized data in the manufacturing industries and to foster the sector’s growth, the Industry Minister said.

Speaking to FBC, Industry Minister Melaku Alebel stated that lack of comprehensive data has been hindering the government’s efforts to promote the manufacturing industries.

The emerging manufacturing industry is seriously impacted by lack of well-organized and systematically filed data and it is becoming difficult to know what kind of industries Ethiopia has and to realize their production capacity. It is also troublesome to identify what kind of infrastructure and input do the industries need.

Systematic data collection is crucial to identify the type of infrastructure, supply and market linkages demand of each industry and to understand the number of jobs that are being created in the facilities, Melaku added.

Ethiopian Textiles and Apparels Producers Association Secretary General Agazi Gebreyesus for his part said that manufacturing industries are working to create direct producer- to- producer linkage and foster production. “However, there are a number of information gaps that need to be bridged along this line.”

Beverage Industries Association Manager Ahenafi Meried said, “Manufacturing industries, for instance, can get foreign currency through National Bank, but the latter doesn’t have full information about them.”

Afar State Trade and Industry Bureau Head Muhammed Humed indicated that the bureau has also been challenged to lead the industry using a knowledge based approach as a result of the information gap. Even, he said, most of the industries are not well known at what level they are operating, what kind of input they need, and their general status due to lack of information.