Transition from rural society to urban society

[abesha]

I just ran into this short article and thought I would share it.

Sebeta’s Tallest Building Costs 14.70 Br

Written by Fortune, Sunday, 5 September 2010
Monday, 06 September 2010

-Municipality contributes 3.6m Br towards building for former farmers, helps them to establish SMEs

The Sebeta Town Municipality has constructed a six-story commercial center for 14.7 million Br around the area commonly known as Yedrow Menaherya.

The building which is meant to generate income for the municipality is the tallest in the area and should spur local investors to engage in even taller and better construction, the municipality hopes.

The building covers an 833.49sqm area, while its premises measure 2, 151.18sqm area, while its premises measures 2, 151.18sqm.out of the 3,984.55aqm that is available for rent, Oromia International Bank (OIB) has already rented 103sqm of ground floor space for a monthly sum of 10,300Br.

The municipally will invite bids to rent the rest of the space, according to Gadissa Debela, administrator of the municipality.

“The bank has shown interest from the very beginning of the construction and followed each of the construction” he said.

The construction was undertaken by Mescon Construction PLC, with whom an agreement was assigned on March 4, 2008.Construction was delayed until September 2, 2009, because of the price of materials, according to Girum Chernet, manager of Mescon Construction. The consultant for the project was Shasho consulting Plc.

The municipality contributed 3.6 million Br out of the million Birr it cost to construct the three-storey building in Welete. The outstanding amount was raised by 470 farmers whose land had been given to developers to fulfill the town’s development plan.

The farmers raised their share of the money from the compensation they had been paid for their land. The municipality has no share in the ownership of the building.

“We made the contribution from the town’s revenues in order to help the farmers,” Gadissa said.

Two groups of farmers are also in the process of erecting their own buildings.

Each group has been given 1, 5000sqm of land by the main road, according to Gadissa.

Some former farmers have found it difficult to adjust to city life. A number of them have continued farming on spare plots on the outskirts of the town, while the municipality is preparing to organize them into small and medium enterprises (SMEs), according to Gadissa.

The town has so far spent 87.4 million Br for the establishment of such businesses, Gadissa said.

http://www.icdconglobal.com/index.ph...6630&Itemid=30

Ethiopia will undergo some pretty fast urbanization in the next few decades and with it a lot of challenges will arise, such as, how to create employment. Urban living is very different than rural living so that transition is challenging.

What do you think is the government's role in this?