The Ethiopian government had vowed to introduce measures that would reduce the cost among all the government agencies. As expected, the office of prime minister introduced issued a directive that would prevent top government officials from using high-powered vehicles.

There was a letter that was released a couple of weeks ago which sought to ensure that the vehicles being used by the government officials were well distributed. Also, the vehicles were to be of the same specifications. This letter was signed by the Ethiopian Prime Minister, Alemayehu Tegenu. 

The officials who will have to use new cars that will help in cutting down the maintenance cost are the commissioners and deputy commissioners, state ministers and ministers, speakers of both houses and their deputies as well as the president and his deputy.

The high-end vehicles that the officials will have to part ways with are the SUV vehicles such as the Nissan Pajeros together with the G-9s and Toyota Prado’s which are used within the capital city. However, the directive says that these vehicles can only be used outside the capital city of Ethiopia.

However, the ranks of the officials dictate the type of vehicles they can use. For instance, eight CC vehicles can only be used by deputy and deputy speakers, ministers, state ministers, vice president and presidents and finally by the commissioners and deputy commissioners. Vehicles that are of 6 and 4 CC are meant to be used by directors of the various sectors in the country.

Each and every government office throughout the country has been given the mandate to regulate how the vehicles are used. The move to make use of vehicles that have low maintenance costs will provide a market for the vehicles that are assembled in Ethiopia.

The regulation requires that the vehicles that are purchased from the Ethiopian vehicle assembling firms must be centralized, cost-effective and sustainable. In addition to that, there is a clause that stated that future vehicles that the officials will be using will have to be exclusively purchased from local assemblers.

In case of a higher demand for vehicles in government offices, the Ministry of Finance and Economic Cooperation (MoFEC) is authorized to allocate the available vehicles. In the same provision, public government officials are not allowed to use vehicles that are donated or purchased on loans.

There also other limitations on vehicle use. For instance, a government official is only allowed to use 135 litres of benzene in every month. Thus, where more gas is needed to power the vehicle, the ministry is required to investigate such an issue before the vehicles are fueled again.

All the government offices are now permitted to continue using their current rides since the locally-assembled vehicles have not been made. This order was to remain effective up early August 2017.