Acquiring construction permit in Ethiopia a major challenge

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Acquiring a construction permit in Ethiopia continues to remain a major challenge for aspiring contractors. A case in point is Getaneh Terefe, a foundation architect in Ethiopia. Even after 25 years in the construction sector, Terefe is amazed that getting a  construction permit in Ethiopia is a big challenge.

Mr. Getaneh is the owner of a consultancy firm called GT Consulting Engineers, where he works with a staff of four. He has found the big problem to be the limited capacity of the licensing government bodies at all levels, going all the way down to the wereda structure.

A construction expert said that in the construction permit departments one needs to be better than the people that prepare the designs and apply for the construction permits, there are experts at the construction permit departments who cannot successfully speak their remarks and suggestions well,

Depending on the type of construction, the permits are to be sought at wereda, district or municipality level.
Urban Regional Planning Head and Director at the Ethiopian Institute of Architecture, Building and City Construction Graduate Program me, Fiseha Wogayehu, suggested a short term preparation for specialist at the permitting body of the administration in order to increase the competence and value of the work being done.

He also thought that at the phase of seeking go-ahead to build, coordination should be well thought-out to maintaining aesthetics and that a soil map of the city was needed instead of a soil test for each and every construction application.

The Ethiopian Building Proclamation and construction Directive given by the Ministry of Urban Development Housing & Construction in May 2011, buildings are categorized into ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’ types that acquire their permits from the district and the municipality Construction Permit and Control Authority, respectively.
Indeed there is a lot of procedure for one to get a construction permit, in Ethiopia and many other African countries.