Addis Abeba is deeply troubled by what many see as secretive deals entered into between the government and increasing numbers of rich gulf state companies - whose strategic objective is to meet their countries' food security - hold concessions of vast plots in Ethiopia, eventhough it is through lease.

Land in Ethiopia belongs to "nations and nationalities"; whose power is being exercised through the ruling party and its web of allies in the regional states. Until very recently, it was these regional states that were allocating vast plots for commercial farming; after the companies were granted investment licences from the federal government. There has been a change in that arrangement lately. Now, it is the federal government, on behalf of the regional states, that allocates these plots then transfers the proceedings to them.

Hot spots for this latest development are Oromia, Afar, South and Benshangul Gumuz regional states, although the Amhara Regional State seems to have its own little shares. The influx of multi-billion dollar companies from the Middle East claiming concessions of agricultural land in countries such as Ethiopia is a subject of fierce debate, globally. The companies are called "food pirates" and their business is described as "land grabbing."

It was within this context that Mohammed Ali Al-Amoudi brought over 500 delegates from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and policymakers in the East Africa to strike potential business deals. Come they did - in droves of heads of states, foreign ministers as well as trade ministers.

The grape vine in Addis Abeba observed that the Saudis were sent home in dissatisfaction when it cames to Ethiopia. They had had anticipated to sign a series of memorandum of understandings with various Ethiopian authorities, alongside the talking shop at the UNECA and the trade exhibition held inside the Millennium Hall. They did not, affirms gossip. And the blame is shared by the Foreign Office, the Ministry of Trade as well as the federal investment agency.

Despite the photo ops and the highly publicized conference, the House of Saudi has several concerns when it comes to Ethiopia, according to gossip. There is a cloud of uncertainty hanging over their heads that stems from the forthcoming national elections. Neither does Ethiopia's deadlock with Eritrea give them much in the way of comfort when it comes to committing their resources here, gossip observed.

Nonetheless, none would be as frustrating to them as the time it would take and the bureaucracy they would be obliged to go through to get concessions on farmlands here. Despite the suspicion harboured by Addis Abebans, Ethiopia is up in competition with countries such as Rwanda and Uganda to get resources from the Middle East. The Saudis were told these countries are ready to sell (not lease) their plots within a few days, alleges gossip.

The Saudis also abhorred the prospect of investing their billions of dollars in a country that has a despicable quality of telecom services. They were unable to absorb the fact that there is a telecom monopoly with a kind of service that has frustrated its own nation, claims gossip.

Being accustomed as they are, Gossip observed [rather gleefully], to a highly competitive network environment in their own country with Saudi Telecom, Mobily, Zain and Brave serving a combined subscriber base of 21.5 million and having a penetration rate of 89pc.

Compare that to the sole operator here with a subscriber base of a little over a million and penetration rate of 1.45pc. Uganda on the other hand enjoys 25pc mobile penetration, allowing six operators to compete in serving a base of 8.2 million subscribers. It has a total population half the size of Ethiopia's, gossip assessed.