Although it came out belatedly, the quarterly journal of the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) finally declared its Ethiopian Academy of Financial Studies (EAFS) open for business. Nevertheless, the Prime Minister’s office shocked the central bank community last week with a decision that gave the 120 million Br facilitiy in Akaki/Kaliti District to the Addis Abeba University (AAU).

Director of the Academy, Dr. Eyob Tesfaye, was summoned on Tuesday, October 31, to the Prime Minister’s Office, where the decision was communicated to him by Brehanu Adelo, head of Cabinet Secretary under the rank of Minister.
 

A day earlier, according to reliable sources, President of the University, Andreas Eshete (PhD), met Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, and made his case that he needed the facility - that was kept idle for two years - to graduate close to 800 PhD students in the coming three years.
 

AAU has about 1,300 lecturers under its payroll, 30pc with a PhD level: more are needed to fill lecturing positions when the federal government completes the construction of 13 universities. Those that will be graduating from the new centre are meant to satisfy this need, according to sources from the academic community.
 

This was indeed shocking news to those who were eager to open the first Academy specialised in finance. It would be an upgraded programme to the Banking and Insurance Institute, an organization that has been providing training on finance and insurance for the past 30 years, but boxed in a one floor space at the headquarters of the Construction and Business Bank, also known as the Mortgage Bank.

The Central Bank spent 120 million Br to accommodate the new upgraded Academy, in a modern and luxurious facility that rests on 165,000sqm plot, located 20Km east of Addis Abeba. It was completed in 2004, a year after the original deadline.
 

The Academy was planning to receive undergraduate and graduate students as of the end of 2005, and had started talks with a financial institute in the United States, to recruit volunteer instructors from University of Maryland and the Bank of England in the U.K., according to Eyob, the director.
 

Officials at the NBE are dismayed because their hope in producing a specially trained workforce to the growing financial industry has been dashed with this week’s decision. They argue that a country without a developed financial sector can hardly survive the vices of globalization, where money laundering and financing of terrorism has become real threats.
 

AAU officials, however, are of the opinion that the country cannot afford to have every federal agency open its own training facility. Whatever the financial industry requires as training, it has to come from the university community whose very purpose is to produce educated human resources for the country.
 

“What does the national bank need a training centre for?” asked a senior official of the AAU, amused.
 

The University lobbied the Prime Minister for six months, urging him the allow them the use of the idle building. Meles made the decision, reportedly, following a final briefing this week by Andreas and one of his lieutenants. Brehanu wrote a letter on November 1, instructing the Bank to hand over the facilities entirely to the University.
 

“This is the worst news for the Bank and the Academy,” said a management staff at the NBE.

He believes this was as a result of leaving the facility idle. Another NBE staff welcomed the decision, although he regretted that it came at a time when the Bank was finally trying to grow after 30 years of no attempts to change.
 

“It was left to sit idle when it could have started work,” said a staff member.
 

The new Academy began operation in August 2005 at the new building after the government decided, in April 2006, to give eight offices for the University of South Africa, which wanted to open its East African office for distance education in Addis Abeba.
 

The remaining 12 were left to the Academy before AAU officials put their eye on it, although the only move it made to use the new facility has not amounted to much more than transferring some materials used by the Director.

NBE had signed a 15 million Br contract with state-owned Awash Construction S.C. for the construction of a swimming pool; it had also collected proposals from five IT companies for the installations of a campus area network worth about 15 million Br.
 

It is not known if the University will refund the investment the Central Bank put into the construction; launched in March 2001, the construction by AKIR Construction took four years to complete.

Andreas declined to comment before the handing over process with the Bank was completed next week.