4.1 Urban Economy and Role of the Town

The town serves as regional administration center, trade, tourism, services and conference center. There are ten banks and one microfinance institutions in the town. The average annual revenue of the municipality within the 2008–2012 period was 49,741,020.50 Birr and the major sources of revenue were taxes, rent from shops, and service charges. In Bahirdar town there are 10 banks, micro financial institutions, 15 hotels of 1-4 stars, Tana Lake where tourist could relax and the Tis Abay falls nearby the town.

The major investment opportunities of the town are: hotel and tourism, horticulture, agro–industry processing, urban agriculture and different industries. Bahir Dar has economic linkages with the surrounding areas, medium and small towns and Addis Ababa.  The town gets grain products, livestock supply, natural resources (fuel wood, charcoal,) surplus labor from surrounding areas and agricultural inputs as well as manufacturing and commercial products and some construction materials from Addis Ababa and the city serves as tourism and market center for the surrounding areas.

4.2 Social and Municipal Services

Social services

Education

There are five government and 29 private kindergartens, 31 government and 21 private primary schools; six private and seven government secondary schools; six government high schools including preparatory; six private high schools including preparatory, one government preparatory school; one private and one government TVET; one government and nine private university colleges and one government university in Bahirdar town.

Health

Regarding health services, there are one government and two private hospitals, ten government health centers and ten health posts, 51 private clinics and 21 private pharmacies in the town.

Municipal services

Bahir Dar town has a public meeting hall, abattoir; fire protection brigade, ambulance, two public libraries and municipal cemetery. It has a general and cattle markets meeting once a week on Saturdays and four general markets and many daily markets. Solid waste is collected with eight dump trucks and disposed in open dump waste disposal sites. Micro and Small-scale Enterprise associations with 320 members are engaged in solid waste collection services. There are 15 public toilets in the town and liquid waste is collected by two vacuum trucks of the city and disposed in the prepared site. There are green recreation areas in 27 places and 39 ha have been developed  as a park in the town; One old stadium and one modern stadium  under construction, 15 hotels which have  1–4 star  and highly standardized and street trees are also planted along  the road side in the city. Regarding religious services there are 50 churches for Orthodox Christians, 15 churches for Protestants 10 mosques.