Diaspora Forum

Newsletter 16

 A Visionary Man to Promote Education

In this edition we will introduce you with an investor of the Ethiopian origin and American citizen. His name is Mathew Gichile.  He is one of the Ethiopian Diaspora who have got back to their home country and engaged in investment activities.

 It was before 20 years that Gichile was forced to flee his country. As he recalls, it was a time to look for means of survival. As a result, Gichile moved to Zambia       to pursue  his  higher  education  and after two years on he made his way to the United States as his final destination.

While Gichile was in the United States he obtained his BA degree in Finance and Economics from the University of Neberaska USA and MBA in Business Administration from Oklahoma University, USA.

As Gichile told us, after having wrapped up his study, he began working with the United Nations

                                                                      Industrial Development Agency (UNIDO) and later        joined the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).  As he says, this has given him an opportunity to move to a number of African countries to coordinate          in   the   African   Industrial  Partners

Programme which was one of the major tasks of the programme. It was after the collapse of the Dergue regime that Gichile had got a chance to visit his country of origin to which he was nostalgic.

While coming to Ethiopia in the early 1990’s he gave trainings on business development to cooperation managers, which was organized by the  Ministry  of  Trade and Industry and (UNDP).     

In the subsequent years he came to Ethiopia on a programme called Transfer of Know-How Through the Export National (TOKHTEN) which focuses on a transfer of know how through the export nationals.

During this historical juncture in the Ethiopian history, Gichile’s mind was preoccupied with two different ideas. On the one hand, he was extremely delighted with the fall  of the regime that made life miserable for many Ethiopians. On the other hand he was in dilemma as he was not sure on which direction Ethiopia was going by then. Despite the confusion he was determined to actually take part in the development process of his country.

                                       New Generation Addis Campus

Gichile says that as a result of all the positive developments he was witnessing he was initiated to  establish a higher education institution, The New Generation University College, with two campuses in Addis Ababa and Nekemte.

According to Gichile, the name New Generation has been given to his institution because of his vision to take part in the expansion of education in the country. As he says, “for any person or a society it is good to have new dreams and new vision, ideas. And, Ethiopia needs to have such new ideas right now. I believe that, the government is trying to have a new enlightened and educated society”. Therefore, it was imperative to name the institution New Generation for new Ethiopia.

Even if he launched the business with some hurdles in the business environment, things have begun to change in favor of investors. Particularly, as he believes, Ethiopia does have feasible policies to its diaspora. He adds, "now any Ethiopian diaspora can invest, buy property and has got a number of privileges. Specially, in the last three years, a lot of improvements have been made in attracting investment to Ethiopia. Here, what I need to stress is that, there are clear ways of doing things, the investment policies are conducive and many other favorable conditions have been put in place". In addition, he speaks of being fortunate to be able to work and run his business in this atmosphere.

Gichile told us, his institution, The New Generation University College, works in collaboration with other higher institutions in America and this has enabled it to improve the quality of education. In addition, in order to build business capacities and professionals in the country the institution occasionally invites foreign experts and gives training to compatriots.

What makes Gichile delightful is that thousands of students who graduated from New Generation in the last few years are working in various governmental and non-governmental institutions and contributing their share in the socio-economic development of their country. These students are helping themselves, their family and their country. This constitutes an encouragement for Gichile to broaden his vision more than ever before. In addition, more than a hundred people are employed in both the Addis Ababa and Nekemte campuses of the University College. This is also another source of Gichile’s satisfaction.

According to Gichile’s belief, the policies of the government have created a conducive environment for the diaspora to invest in their country of origin and invest or contribute their part to development. He says, “all Ethiopian diaspora must be able to support their country. They have to come to their country to benefit themselves and serve the people, which is a precious deed they can do in their life time”.

Finally, Gichile says, the government on its part has to strengthen the reliable atmosphere it has created to attract the diaspora so that they can be able to work closely with it.

We also need to stress that the Ethiopian diaspora can benefit themselves, and their country of origin if they come and engage in investment and other related activities. Their contribution to change the picture of Ethiopia is immense.