Addis Ababa — Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has urged Ethiopians to work with extraordinary devotion towards realizing the country's aspiration to eliminate aid dependency and become food self-sufficiency.

In a wide-ranging interview with EBC, the Prime Minister stressed that aid dependency in Ethiopia is a grave concern.

A big nation like Ethiopia being unable to feed itself and becomes food self-sufficiency as well as pleads others for aid is unacceptable, the Prime Minister underscored.

He also emphasized that we should not pass on dependency to others.

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The Prime Minister also elaborated that the government has firm stance not only to address the grave consequences resulted from dependency and eliminate it but also to extend hands to others and bring about change in this regard.

To this end, the government has held extensive public discussions up to the lowest administrative level where the public responses were exciting, the prime minister stated.

Now, Abiy added that eliminating aid dependency has become a shared view of Ethiopians and the government.

The prime minister added that concrete results have been registered in a concerted effort by the public and the government to stop aid dependence.

This is evident in the reduction of aid recipient citizens in Ethiopia who stand at 3.9 million as we speak now from nearly 27 million five years ago, Abiy noted.

Extricating 23 million people from aid dependency amounts to an indicator of Ethiopia's rising, Abiy underlined.

The Prime Minister stated that the government is devotedly working to lift Ethiopia from aid dependency entirely in a couple of years.

The Prime Minister urged the public to continue their consolidated efforts not only in eliminating aid dependency and becoming self-reliant but also to support the initiative of extending hands to others.