Urban Economy and Role of the Town

The town is mainly industrial and woreda administration center. There are 3 manufacturing industries, 45 wholesale trades, 1780 retail trades, 21 Garages and 6 fuel stations in the town. There are also three banks and two micro finance organizations giving service in the town.

      The average annual revenue of the municipality in 2000-2004 was 6,087,194.01 Birr and the major sources of revenue were house rent, taxes and service charges. The major investment opportunities in the town are textile industry, tourism and hotel development.

       According to CSA 2007, economic activity rate was 54.3 for both sexes, 62.0 and 47.1 for males and females respectively. The rate of unemployment in the same year was 18.3% for both sexes and the male and female unemployments were 12.8 and 25.0% respectively.

     Kombolcha town has economic linkages with the surrounding areas and Addis Ababa. The town gets grain products, livestock supply, natural resources (fuel wood and charcoal) and labor from surrounding areas and manufactured and commercial products from Addis Ababa. Manufactured products are sent from the town to other areas.

Social Services

Education

       There are 14 privately owned kindergartens; seven private and nine government a total of 16 (1-8 Grades) primary schools; and two governmental senior secondary (9-10 grade) schools; one preparatory; one TVET; one university; one government colleges in Kombolcha town.

 Health 

       Regarding health services in Kombolcha town there are seven government health posts, and three government health centers and 11 private clinics. One ambulance owned by the Red Cross and another one by the town administration give service for emergency cases.                   

 Municipal Services

Kombolcha town has two public meeting halls, abattoir giving slaughtering service for both Christians and Muslim; general and cattle markets meeting twice a week on Wednesdays and Saturdays, and one daily market.  Solid waste is collected by a tractor and ten horse drown carts and disposed in an authorized open dump site. There are 30 solid waste containers in the town. Two MSE associations are involved in collection and disposal of solid waste. There are four public toilets in the town and liquid waste is collected by the municipality’s vacuum truck and disposed in authorized open dump site.

 25% of the town is covered by natural greenery. There is a park with area of 400ha, two playgrounds, and street trees planted along 5Km of the streets in the town. There are one public library and hotels of different standards in the town. Two Rivers called Borkena and Berbere Rivers exist in the town. Regarding religious services, there are five churches for Orthodox Christians, four churches for Protestants and five mosques and a municipal cemetery in the town.