Mismanagement of
cash flows at the Central Bank, has led to the momentous challenge of
finding ways to store billions of Birr while trying to find ways of
disposing of used ones.
Central Bank
Vaults Overflow with New and Old Notes
The vaults of
the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) are facing a serious
overcrowding with the arrival of newly printed Birr notes, supplied
by the French company, François Charles Oberthur Fiduciaire (FCOF).
The old and new
headquarters of the central bank, located on Sudan Street, have full
vaults, in the basements of the two buildings, because the old Birr
notes have been sitting there since they were taken out of
circulation. Adjacent to the two buildings, sharing a wall with
Artistic Printers, the Bank has storage spaces, which are also as
full.
There are eight
billion Birr in old notes that were taken out of circulation due to
age or the misuse on the part of users. The notes were supposed to
be destroyed using incinerators to make room for the new bills that
were ordered by the central bank. Because the incinerators at the
NBE have not been working at capacity and have also faced mechanical
troubles, the bills have not been burned at the required pace,
leading to the extreme overcrowding in the vaults of the central
bank, reliable sources disclosed to Fortune.
Fuel truck
owners are planning to stage a demonstration on Tuesday, September
5, in protest of a newly amended directive put out by the federal
government but what they say is against their constitutional rights.
Although it
lifted a ban of two years, the new directive issued by the Federal
Transport Authority (ETA) on July 28, 2006, allows only incorporated
companies to import between 10 and 25 fuel trucks. Following the
announcement, over 300 companies registered with the Authority,
disclosed sources. The deadline is on September 8.
In an
unexpected turn of events, an expert at the Ministry of
Water Resources has resigned and has left the country. Musa
Mohammed, head of the Trans-boundary Rivers Affairs
Department, was a revered figure in the Nile Basin
Initiative; his departure leaves the Ministry with the
difficult challenge of replacing someone with his level of
experience, according to informed sources.
Musa
resigned from the Ministry on August 3, 2006, reliable
sources disclosed. He was one of the most senior officials
to represent the country in Nile basin negotiations over the
last eight years.
The Nile
Basin Initiative was launched in 1999 with the help of the
World Bank to reduce the potential of conflicts related to
the River Nile; it instead aspires to benefit all parties,
as a transitional arrangement until a permanent framework is
in place.
The
importer and distributor of the Red Bull energy drink, Country
Trading Plc, was awarded a license that would allow it to conduct
duty free business, last week.
Monopolised for over 40 years by the
Ethiopian Tourist Trade Enterprise (ETTE), the duty free sector has
only seen the entry of two private firms, with the most recent
addition of Country Trading.
Although the ETTE was awarded monopoly
rights in the sector through a proclamation three years ago, and
amendments have not been made to it, Al Faraj, a private firm was
awarded a similar license, making it the first private company to
enter the sector.
Two prominent
real-estate developers in Addis Abeba have found themselves locked
in a vicious dispute over what an observer described as “the toilet
war”. The right to use sewage lines for two adjacent buildings on
Africa Avenue (Bole Road) has caused yet another round of sharp
controversy between businessmen Salahadin and Abdulhamid Abubaker,
owners of Garad Plc and Getu Gelete, owner of Get As International
Plc, respectively.
Although this
was not the first dispute for the parties over the constructions of
the two neighbouring buildings in the area of Olympia, the “toilet
war” remains unresolved to date. In a latest development, a court
ruling favoured Getu as despite a series of executive decisions by
city bureaus that say the Abubakers’ have the right to use “a system
laid under the public domain”. Not even a negotiation moderated by
third parties selected by both sides brought the toilet row to an
end.
Queen of Sheba Tour and Travel Agency will be leasing the 41
year-old Seven Olives Hotel in Lalibela, which it will be fully
operational as of September 2006.
Seven Olives
was founded by Princess Hirut Desta, the grand daughter of Emperor
Haile Selassie, on 12,000 sqm of land adjacent to a Palace built for
the Royal family at the time. The hotel is built on a hill
overlooking the 12th century
rock hewn churches of Lalibela, making it a tourist attraction in
itself. Currently, Seven Olives can accommodate 108 guests and
employs 25 staff.
The
Ethiopian Civil Aviation Authority has planned to equip the
Bahr Dar, Mekelle and Dire Dawa airports with all the
facilities of an international airport, including light
systems for the runways and other traffic control systems
and efficient manpower
to run
a 24 hours service. These changes are to be made in the
current fiscal year. The Authority has reserved a budget of
250 million Br for the airports and other 20 projects it
envisaged to do this year.
The Addis Abeba La garre Customs Office last week increased its
working hours from eight to 16 hours a day, more than a century
after its establishment.
The La garre
Customs Office was established following the opening of the Ethio-Djibouti
Railway Services, 116 years ago, and has always followed the same
working hours exercised in all governmental offices in the country,
of eight hours a day. On Wednesday August 23, 2006, the Office
doubled its working hours.
The Ethiopian Postal Service (EPS) has completed a draft
proclamation to be presented to the Council of Ministers for
approval; the proclamation is to re-establish EPS, founded in 1894,
as a Corporation.
The draft is
expected to be presented at the beginning of the coming Ethiopian
fiscal year.
According to
the Ministry of Transport and Communication (MTC) the draft had been
waiting for the results from the Business Process Re-engineering (BPR)
undergone by EPS.
The Kera branch of the Federal First Instance Court
suspended the tender for 19 truck-tractors that had been issued by
Weyra Transport S.C. on January 12, 2006, in the state owned
newspaper, the Ethiopian Herald. The court suspended the tender on
Friday July 21, 2006.
Abeba Gidey
Trading House and the Automotive Manufacturing Company of Ethiopia (AMCE)
were the only two bidders that qualified for the tender, which was
issued by the state-owned Weyra Transport.
With only one
week left before the New Year celebrations begin, the capital’s
major markets have already started to notice a decrease in the in
Oxen, sheep and butter prices as opposed to an increase in poultry
products.
Slaughtering
animals being one important features of this Ethiopian holiday and a
legacy engraved in the country’s culture, the alarming situation
that had developed during the Easter holidays with a suspected
outbreak of “avian flu” seems to have settled down as the price of
chicken has climbed back from eight birr during the Easter market to
the current price of 30 Br.
Abyssinia Steel
Integrated Plc received seven hectares of land six weeks ago in
Chancho, in the Oromia Region, on which to build a cement factory,
paying 0.1 Br per square meter.
The seven
hectares are located three kilometres from Chancho town on the road
leading to Derba.
The factory is
expected to start production in December 2006. In its first phase it
will manufacture 300tn per day, increasing to 1,300tn per day when
it reaches full production, in August 2007.
The trade town
of Agaro, located 390 km from Addis Abeba, in the Jimma zone, in
West Oromia Region, has not received any fuel services for the past
four weeks.
The capital of
Goma wereda, Agaro, is a trade centre for coffee beans coming from
the Gera and Mana wereda, known for the quality of their coffee; the
town has two Shell and one Total petrol stations, which stopped
giving services four weeks ago, because of a fuel shortage.
Although the
Ethiopian Fuel Enterprise told Fortune there hasn’t been a
fuel supply problem in the country, residents state that
because of the unavailability of fuel, they have been forced to
commute 44 km to Jimma town for fuel provisions.
Nib
International Bank (NIB)and Awash International Bank (AIB)are
opening sub-branches in Togoch’ale, a town in the Somali regional
state, near Somaliland.
A bank expert
told Fortune that the business relations between Somaliland
and Ethiopia have improved after the Berbera Port became an
alternative for smaller goods transported into and out of Ethiopia.
The major share of the business in the area is khat and livestock.
Improved
business relations have enticed Ethiopian banks to open foreign
exchange transaction sub-branch offices in the border town of
Togoch’ale, a town with a population of 5,000.
In 2003, at
the instigation of the German Development Service (DED) and
Kindernothilfe (a German NGO focused on children,) the self
help group (SHG) approach was introduced to Ethiopia. This
approach has had a direct impact on targeted communities, improving
livelihoods and living conditions, increasing unity and social ties,
promoting healthy practices and motivating the social and financial
emancipation of women.
The SHG
approach is based upon the idea that poverty is not simply material
in nature, but that it is a cyclical process of disempowerment that
is experienced through the denial of choices, rights and
opportunities; through discrimination, disparity, subjugation,
displacement and a myriad of dehumanising experiences.
The boom in
the construction sector, particularly seen in housing development,
has led to somewhat of a decline in the cost of rentals. Granted the
sector is facing some problems lately due to the shortage in cement,
it still holds true that more spaces have been made available for
both living and business and that the average tenant now has a lot
more options to choose from.
Prior to the
slowdown a few months ago, there were considerable incentives that
were being given out to real-estate developers, leading to the peak
in that sector and the growth of the capital today. Availability of
land and tax breaks were two of the enticements that were given to
private investors.
The Sheraton
Addis is renowned for its bi-annual New Year celebrations, bringing
internationally renowned artists to Addis Ababa.
For the
celebration of the Ethiopian New Year 1999, it is with great
pleasure and pride that the Sheraton Addis brings to its stage, Ja
Rule, Aster Aweke, Mahmoud Ahmed, Ephrem Tamiru, Hamelmal Abate and
the Fab Four band.
Born in Queens,
New York, on February 29, 1976, Ja Rule started rhyming of the age
of 16, while he made his first vocal appearance as a rapper, in
1995.
Fegegta is a talk
show presented on ETV every Sunday from 12pm to 1pm, with reruns
from the previous weekend broadcast at 11:20 pm, after the Africa
Journal Programme.
The programme was first aired on ETV in December 2005, with
Solomon Abate as its host for its first three months.
Fegegta is a programme addressing health issues in
Ethiopia, primarily focusing on HIV/AIDS and society. The show’s
objective is to promote behavioural change in society so as to
tackle stigmatisation and discrimination against the people who live
with HIV/AIDS and encourage Voluntary Counselling and Testing (VCT)
and discussions that will raise awareness. This is done by providing
a setting in which youth, health professionals and teachers can come
together to raise their concerns and ask questions in an
entertaining and informative manner.
The seven
photographs presented here have been picked as being the best pictures
captured and printed by Fortune in the Ethiopian year of 1998. In honour
of the moments captured through our photographers' cameras, Fortune will
award one out of these seven photographs the title of Best Fortune
Picture of the Year. To cast your votes on your picture of preference,
please send the number of your favourite photograph to pictureoftheyear@addisfortune.com.
You may only select one.
Fortune is pleased
to announce that the one voted most popular by our readers will be
published on the front page of our next issue.
The sensational singer, Tewodros Kassahun, a.k.a Teddy
Afro, walked away from a deal with the Sheraton Addis to
perform at the Ethiopian New Year’s concert. Teddy and
the Hotel had agreed on a contract worth over 130,000 Br
for an overnight performance. The song that he produced
for his third album, Redemption, is believed to be the
cause of his decision to break up the deal. Those who
negotiated on behalf of the Hotel wanted him to drop the
idea of playing Redemption, a song written by Teddy,
which talks about national reconciliation.
Prominent
businesswoman Hadiya Gonji was at a flower farm in Holeta, 44km West
of Addis Ababa, when she got word of the floods that struck her
hometown of Dire Dawa through a telephone call from a relative.
When she first
heard about the disaster, she was shocked beyond belief and
immediately returned to Addis Abeba, while insistently making phone
call and trying to discover the situations of family members and
friends in Dire Dawa. “I was shocked and extremely worried about my
family,” she said.
Hadiya, who was
born and raised in Dire Dawa, is one of the first individuals to act
in response to the natural disaster that occurred in the town on
Sunday August 6, 2006 claiming the lives of 256 people.
It was inevitable
for the government to transfer the price burden of fuel to consumers, in spite
of the risks of causing inflationary pressure on the economy. Urban households
with fixed incomes are the most affected, according to Eyob Tesfaye (PhD). In
his assessment of the impact of the fuel price adjustments introduced last week,
for the second time in three months, Dr. Eyob advises additional and
The EPRDF remains
unflinching in its defence of public land ownership. Though this may
reflect the preferences of many Ethiopians, it might be wise to
review some of the arguments for and against private land ownership;
particularly as many economists view this as the single biggest
obstacle to development in Ethiopia.
Finally, the
federal government looks to have recovered its macro-economic
sanity, doing away with its expensive and unaffordable state
subsidies on oil. After leaving prices untouched for over a year
before June 2006, the Council of Ministers has announced two
successive price increases in three months.
There has been a big change in the United Nation’s engagement with
the private sector, influenced by its stewardship of the
Millennium Development Goals (MDG). It was the urgent need to
enhance the contribution of the private sector in achieving the MDGs
that prompted Secretary General Kofi Annan to appoint a commission
to examine how the role of the private sector in this major global
effort could be maximised.
One might mention
many contributing factors for the mounting poverty in rural Ethiopia
today; but for me the primary problem is the limited amount of
arable land available per family as compared to the galloping
increase of the rural population.
The past week has been one of the strangest I have ever had
the experience of. Nothing unusual or out of the ordinary happened,
but these seven days were offsetting to say the least.
I managed to finish my work early, so that I might have
more time to do God knows what. But then, everything stopped; I do
not mean that in the literal sense, as I am sure that I would not
have been the only one to notice had everything actually stopped.
