Minister of Culture and Tourism, Dr. Hirut Kassaw launched the nation’s first-ever tourist taxi service in Addis Ababa. Dr. Hirut Kassaw said the government has permitted tax free car motor imports in a bid to tackle air pollution and foster job creation in the car assembly sector.
The Minister urged the founder of “Hello Taxi”, Aklog General Trading to promote the tourism and hospitality sector of Ethiopia while transporting visitors to attraction sites.
Representative of Aklog General Trading, Shemsedin Abdurohman handed over a number of Hello Taxis, Ten Tourist Ambulances and 50 digital translation devices that help translate words from visitors from 59 languages to 110 job seeking youths with full loan via Culture and Tourism Minister, Dr. Hirut Kassaw. The drivers will be trained under the Ministry of Culture & Tourism on serving tourists. The tourist taxis have been distributed to 36 members of five taxi associations through a raffle. The remaining 214 members will be receiving the taxis within 65 days, according to Daniel Yohannes, founder and general manager of Hello Taxi. The plan is to replace the old blue taxis in the city with these new models, according to Daniel. Three years ago, interested blue taxi drivers registered to buy the taxis by paying an initial 25,000 Br down payment. The cars, both manual and automatic, have seven seats and four-cylinder engines.