Ethiopia: ERA Head Zaid Removed by PM Office

Zaid Woldegebreil, the person who has been on top of Ethiopian Road Authority (ERA) and led the organization at a Director General level for the past ten years, was removed from his position on Friday, October 31, 2014 by a letter from the Prime Minister Office.

The reason given for the removal of the Director General from his post was that there is a need to restructure the management of the Authority. The letter reads, “We appreciate the efforts you have done in the Authority but as there is a need to restructure the management of the Authority, you are not going to stay on the post after now”.

The decision by the Prime Minister Office was made after three days a letter from Ministry of Transport (MoTr), headed by the Workneh Gebeyehu, came to the Office requesting for the approval of Zaid’s removal from his position stating the whole Authority needs a restructure. The letter from MoTr was dated Wednesday, October 29, 2014.

Zaid went to Addis Ababa University (AAU) for his undergraduate studies and holds a Bachelor of Arts (BA) Degree in Economies. He furthered his studies and went to United Kingdom (UK) for his graduate studies and earned a Masters Degree in Transport Economics from Leeds University.

According to Fortune, he worked in the transport sector for the past 30 years and started his trek at the Federal Transport Authority (FTA) and MoTr as planning head. He later in 1998 joined ERA where he became the director general of the Authority in 2004.

Source: Fortune