Investment Holdings Oversees Leadership Overhaul At Ethiopian Construction Works Corp

Corporation set to pay dividends for the first time

The Ethiopian Construction Works Corporation (ECWC), one of the state-owned enterprises under Ethiopian Investment Holdings (EIH), has overhauled its leadership and board structure, with the reshuffle marking the latest in a series of corporate reforms across government-owned firms.

The decision includes the replacement of the corporation’s Chief Executive Officer and all board members; a move that officials say follows a comprehensive review of the company’s governance and financial standing.

Yonas Ayalew, who led the Corporation for seven years, has been relieved of his position and appointed as a state minister under the Office of the Prime Minister.

According to documents reviewed by The Reporterthe changes were made under the direction of EIH, which oversees the performance and management of state-owned commercial entities.

The board overhaul also removed former chair Aisha Mohammed, minister of Defense, and her deputy Alemu Sime (PhD), minister of Transport and Logistics.

Other outgoing board members include Abdissa Yadeta, head of Secretariat at the Transport Ministry; Abreha Adugna (PhD), a state minister of Water and Energy; Lemma Gudissa (PhD), deputy director for academic affairs at the Ethiopian Civil Service University; Afework Nigussie, deputy manager at the Information Technology Park Corporation; and Muluneh Aboye, vice president for risk and compliance at the state-owned Commercial Bank of Ethiopia.

Their replacedments include yettmgeta asrat, a state minister at the Ministry of Urban and Infrastructure Development, Who Now Chairs the Board; Berhanu Tesfaye from the Prime Minister’s Office; Helina Belachew, CEO of the Ethiopian Railway Corporation; and Wubishet Jeqube, A professor at Addis Ababa University.

Additional appointments have been made from the audit, finance, and investment sectors, including five members drawn from EIH and independent institutions. One-third of the new board now represents independent bodies, according to officials.

Robel Tesfaye, former deputy CEO of the Ethiopian Engineering Corporation, has been appointed as ECWC’s new chief.

Brook Taye (PhD), Chief Executive Officer of EIH, confirmed the board and management reshuffle was carried out as part of a broader reform plan. Speaking to The Reporterhe said the change reflects the end of a major institutional restructuring phase led by outgoing CEO Yonas.

“Yonas has been serving for about seven years. He has now completed that assignment and has been transferred to another post,” Brook said. “We are very, very grateful to him.”

Brook recalled that when Yonas assumed the leadership of ECWC, the institution was in financial and administrative distress.

“When Yonas came in, the Corporation was in a very difficult state. It had serious corporate governance problems, was burdened with huge debts, and was entangled in unresolved and outstanding issues,” he told The Reporter. “He managed to correct those issues, set the institution on the right path, and now the company is profitable.”

The EIH head explained that despite its improved profitability, ECWC’s previous debt exposure had depleted its capital base. As a result, the Corporation received government approval for recapitalization, allowing it to begin paying dividends to both the holding company and the government by end of current fiscal year.

ECWC is one of the state-owned developers involved in large public construction projects. Most recently, it signed contracts valued at 67 billion Birr as part of the Chaka Housing Development Project, a 72-billion-Birr public-private partnership set to construct more than 4,100 housing units in Addis Ababa.

The project, initiated in July 2025, includes multiple private and public developers, such as Ovid Real Estate, ICE Housing Development Consortium, and ECWC. It is implemented through a 70/30 financing structure, with ECWC handling a portion of the civil works on 24 hectares of land.

According to the Ministry of Finance, ECWC was selected for the project due to its prior experience completing eight residential buildings valued at more than 800 million Birr.

“It was selected for this project because of its experience and partnership with private housing developers,” Abebe Gebrehiwot, head of the PPP department at the Ministry of Finance, said at the time.

However, ECWC has also faced criticism for project delays. In January 2025, The Reporter cited correspondence from the Ethiopian Engineering Corporation (EEC) noting that ECWC had finalized less than a fifth of a 65-kilometer road project linking Alaba and Wato despite taking more than double the contractual period. EEC attributed the delays to management inefficiencies, while ECWC representatives cited right-of-way issues and denied resource shortages.

Despite such challenges, EIH now lists ECWC among its profit-making subsidiaries. The corporation is expected to make its first dividend payment to the holding company and the federal government by the end of the current fiscal year, according to Brook.

“The Corporation will begin paying dividends—that is the tangible measure of reform,” he said. “When a state enterprise pays back into the system, it demonstrates sustainability, accountability, and operational maturity.”

EIH executives say oversight mechanisms have been strengthened, and a third of the Corporation’s new board members now come from independent bodies.

EIH expects the new CEO, Robel Tesfaye, to continue down the reform path. Robel, who previously served as deputy CEO of the Ethiopian Engineering Corporation, is credited with building its construction division from scratch.

Data obtained from EIH indicates that under Robel’s watch, EEC reported 8.9 billion Birr in revenue for the 2024/25 fiscal year, exceeding its annual target by 17 percent and the previous year’s figure by 81 percent.

It reportedly completed 111 design projects, 272 supervision and contract administration assignments, and 53 construction projects during the reporting period.