[Updated with some corrections]
By Elias Kifle
An Ethiopian man named Yared (his real name is withheld for his safety) went to Ethiopia a few months ago to sell his family house after his parents moved to the U.S. One of the reasons he decided to sell the house was that after hearing about the recent land ownership decree, he realized that a few years from now the house will have little or no value.
Yared succeeded in selling the house for 2 million Ethiopian birr. The buyer, probably some fool from the Diaspora, deposited the money in Yared’s account at the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE), which is run by the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE).
After removing his furniture and handing over the house to the new owner, Yared went to the CBE to withdraw his money and either deposit it in a private bank or convert it into hard currency in the black market so that he can bring it to the U.S.
To Yared’s shock and surprise, the CBE management told him that the bank doesn’t have the money to give him and that he has to wait. When Yared asked how long he has to wait, the managers told him they don’t know.
Yared told an Ethiopian Review associate that he has been sitting in Addis Ababa for the past 3 months waiting for the bank to give him his money.
Ethiopian Review has been reporting that the financial system in Ethiopia is in deep crisis. Ethiopia’s central bank, the National Bank of Ethiopia, is running out of money because of huge number of borrowers who stopped making payments, not to mention the massive corruption that has been going on in the bank. NBE is also the personal piggyback of Meles Zenawi and Azeb Mesfin.
Those who are close to the regime know about the financial crisis and are getting their money out of the country as fast as they can.
The Woyanne junta recently ordered National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) to print 50 billion birr [read here] to in preparation for further devaluation of the currency.
49 thoughts on “National Bank of Ethiopia runs out of money”
yih kewushetim wushet bolom kefes yiqelal.
Elias, you mean commercial bank of ethiopia?
I thought you already told us, there is no money over there…
Elias doesn’t know the difference between commercial bank and national bank. A la Elias!
weyGud replies:
December 15th, 2011 at 7:14 AM
Alula,
It is clear that you know nothing about banking operations at all.
In a country’s banking system, the national bank requires the commercial banks of that country to deposite a percentage of their toal capital in the national bank. At any given time the amount reserve requirement may go up or down. When the reserve amount goes up commercial banks will not have enough money in their vault, hence, customers can not withdraw more than a certain amount at a time. In Ethiopia the situation looks so gloom, it may take about a year to withdraw two million birr.
This is so true. My sister came back empty handed after tried and failed to get her money from the bank. Hers is a smaller amount, about 200,000 birr. She waited for over 4 months. Unless you have some family connection, if you have that much money in the bank you can not get it out.
this is a white lie! There is a waiting peroid to withdraw any cash more than some amount and 2 million is very far than that amount…
and I think 3 months is just an exaggeration way to find something bad on the gov…
I wish you hadn’t mentioned the dude wanted to change his money in hard currency in the black market. You – do you realize this is illegal?
Do you also realize that you have criticized government officials, and business people for taking their money out of Ethiopia in the same manner. It makes you look like you are on both sides of the issue.
Faranji replies:
December 19th, 2011 at 6:22 PM
I wish you hadn’t mentioned the dude wanted to change his money in hard currency in the black market. You – do you realize this is illegal?
Illegal is painting free market black. I remember times in my country when exchanging money in the market was illegal and it lead (together with the following issues) to the revolution.
Illegal is selling your country to chinese government.
Illegal is banning your people from impoving their conditions.
Illegal is blocking developement of communications in Ethiopia to prevent the people from getting true informations.
Illegal is ifluencing The Orthodox church by political power.
Illegal is imprisoning people for saying truth.
Illegal is making Ethiopians stupid.
All these things mean that illegal is ethiopian goverment.
My very wish is the peaceful revolution in Ethiopia as it was in my coutry 22 years ago. However I am afraid it cannot be peaceful but I am sure it will happen.
This os simply bearaucratic bank officials. Nobody will be convinced that the bank will not be able to pay sich zamount.May be the guy is also a suspected member of opposition party,like ginbot7….by the way after publisizing all these information u cant keep it anonymous,Elijay am questioning your iq level,am sorry!!
I wish you hadn’t mentioned the dude wanted to convert the money in hard currency in the black market. Do you realize that is illegal? You diluted the story with that info. And as someone already said, it is standard bank practice to set grace period to withdraw that kind of money. The only red-tape, if that is what you are reporting about here, is that the staff said they don’t know when the money would be available. In the whole scheme of things, is such red-tape worth your ink or your reader’s time?
Pick a topic of substance to be incensed about ER.
Where is my comment!?
How the issue of converting into the black market possible? From the beginning Ethiopian Banks dont pay in foreign currency. They pay only in Ethiopian Birr by the daily exchange rate. Therefore, this is unrealistic.
weyGud replies:
December 15th, 2011 at 7:21 AM
CHILO used to be dog’s name, that suits your role as a weyane cadre.
You obviously didnot understand the articel at all. The articel didnot say that the person attempted to withdraw his money in foreign currency. He wanted to get his money from CBE, which, in the current situation looks impossible.
Mr. CHILO please go to school, if you register for 1st grade to day you will a full man in 12 years.
Maru replies:
December 15th, 2011 at 10:34 AM
Can you read English ? ‘Yared went to the CBE to withdraw his money and either deposit it in a private bank or convert it into hard currency’ To convert it into hard currency outside the bank .
woyane bado bank new takefo yalew limen ewenetun anenagerem ,even yalehen birr lemawetat sitehed be bank wiset genzeb endelele yenegerual ena le next week temeleseh na lelaw sew siyasgeba lante birru yikefelehal yelalu elias tekekel zena new Yawetahew sewu ye geza genzebun eyata new …yehen eyaye ye woyane buchela bond egezalew eyale birrun lemanem wero-bela yasrekebal hahahaha
we are subjected to extortionists.
About 9 years ago we made a huge mistake of our lives. We were busy with
work and new babies at hand. Instead of buying a house ourselves, we
made pacts with a family to search and locate and make a purchase a house in the city of Addis Ababa. A family member did just that. He asked us whose name he should register the tittle? We gave my wife’s
younger brother who was 9th grader then. We selected his name because
we foot his bills for food, board, clothings all the time. Also he does
not have income, job, nor means to live wothout our financia support.
He was under age about 16 years old back then. The whole family agreed
with us back then. Now, we have made two voyages to do quick deeds and
build our dream home in the country we call our birth place, at the site
we invested our hard currency without success! The boy we raised as brother have turned on us! He first, made million excuses to avoid us.
When our time came to an end we left to go back to the USA last year.
Soon he appeared with demands of extortions. He demanded one million
dollars from us for dilapitated old, mud house that sits on 377 kares.
Its ours he knows, the whole family knows it. Mother and all sibilings
came on our defenses, but he got after them with live weapons, to kill
all of them. The police took him into cell for a day two and released him on bail. His mother and the whole family are refugees in their own
country hiding from this criminal. The judge is suspected to have close ties with the groups that is supporting this thug. We are trying to get
explanation why criminals such as this boy let out to terrorize his own
mother? So far we are heart broken, worried to death about the safety
of children and women trapped in between. We are optimist, the rule of law would catch up with the maniac we helped. Instead of thank you we became his hostages, so as our investment.
The house we bought then looks discusting, we can not do any building till we win in court. The courts are ardous, long, difficult to get to
win our case since we live thousands of miles away from Addis.
Who ever read this be advised, this is very common in Ethiopia. You can not trust anyone Ethiopia any more. In attempts to regain our property
back we have paid millions to individuals who promise you victory over nights. We gave the thug who is extorting us so much over 14 years, in return he has brought EX OLF members to his support, that they followed us everywhere. We were unsafe.
Among the ex OLF that aggitate this boy to rob us, of our property are,
Abuna Shabu militant OLF fighter whe served jail time at Melka WaKANA.
Currently resides in ADABA TOWN OF western Arsii Zone.
Ibrahim Nure Gamada OLF combatant who was captured and served some time in jail.
Mohamed Nasir Ali the man who is active OLF member, who has nick name
Xabassa QUIT. Residant of Adaba town, who swindled money from Adaba Mosque.
The extortionist is Muzeyen Kadiro Nure who had robbed more than 10 people and again residant of Adaba town. These people are centeral players in looting diasporas. Becareful of the above snakes who would
lure Ethiopian Americans and rob, using phony legal methods. These people are reasons why many children and women are in descrete hidings.
We hope the law and the leaders in Ethiopia will make note of their criminal trails.
Ashu qite replies:
December 15th, 2011 at 1:04 AM
you know what bro i don’t buy what ever you just said specialy about Muzeyen k.Nure you need to ashem on your self for telling lie.honestly i’am not oromo but i born raised in Adaba i know whats going on thats why that i don’t buy it it’s just trush what’s comes from your mouth.
SISTA replies:
December 17th, 2011 at 12:24 AM
Ms Radiya,
This is a fact, proven beyond a shadow of daught. No one can argue
with factsm unless you are Radiya!
There is no money deposite in National bank of Ethiopia.It should be commercial bank of Ethiopia. Commercial bank of Ethiopia is a business entity as any bank whereas National bank of Ethiopia is bank and related issue monitoring unit. Please correct your news.
weyGud replies:
December 15th, 2011 at 7:30 AM
Abay,
you have a swine brain under your human skull. Yes there is money deposit in the National Bank of any country. CBE keeps only a fraction of its money and deposits the rest in the national bank, that’s called deposit requirement. The weyane national bank raised the deposit requirement recently and hence, CBE and other commercial banks are not able to meet their obligation of paying their customers.
The article said the national bank of Ethiopia directly or indirectly run the CBE. One way is controlling the amount of money that banks can keep.
Abay, you and other good-for-nothing weyanes jump in on any issue and attempt to disqualify it. Yet, you have no hint of the issue that you are talking about.
Before talking about any thing, register for 3rd grade at your nearest elemetary school.
Anyone who believes this story need to take Money and Banking 101 at his/her nearest community college. For starters,there is a huge difference between the commercial bank and the national bank.
This time Ethiopian Review’s Intelligence Unit didn’t do its homework .
Manu
Elias replies:
December 14th, 2011 at 11:03 PM
Manu, National Bank of Ethiopia is the central bank that is responsible for printing money and supervising all the other banks in the country. CBE is where people deposit money. So where is the mistake?
SOTO TONY replies:
December 15th, 2011 at 9:54 AM
NATIONAL BANK OF ETHIOPIA IS THE HOLDING OF ALL BANKS IN THE COUNTRY.
(PRIVATE BANKS OR GOVERNMENT BANKS)
THE NATIONAL BANK IS THE ONLY ONE WHO GIVES RULES, REGULATIONS AND ORDERS TO ALL BANKS IN ETHIOPIA.
COMMERCIAL BANK OF ETHIOPIA- AS ITS NAME INDICATES, IS A BANK WHERE YOU BORROW MONEY, DEPOSIT MONEY OR WITHDRAW MONEY FOR SEVERAL PURPOSES.
COMMERCIAL BANK GETS INSTRUCTION TO PAY OR HOLD MONEY TO INDIVIDUALS OR ORGANIZATIONS FROM THE NATIONAL BANK.
BANK NOTES ARE ALSO PRINTED BY THE ORDER OF THE GOVERNOR OF THE NATIONAL BANK OF THE COUNTRY.
THANK YOU
With all due respect to the poster #13 above,
I really don’t understand the Diaspora mentality that makes it OK to go to Ethiopia to buy land/house while millions of Ethiopians living and working in Ethiopia are virtually homeless and can’t afford a decent shelter. This is SO WRONG in so many levels I don’t even know where to start really:
1. When people working and earning their living in a western economy go to Ethiopia to buy land; what they are doing is distorting the real estate market for those living and working in Ethiopia.
2. When you earn your money in the west and go to Ethiopia to buy a house today, you are competing with people who don’t earn what you make in a single day in a whole month or more.
3. When you buy a house in Ethiopia, you are inflating the real estate market and we know who currently owns all the land that is both urban and rural in Ethiopia today.
4. That is right, Meles and cronies own all land in Ethiopia and when you go from the west and pay for land, you are adding to Meles’ bottomless coffer.
5. When you are buying land and building a house in Ethiopia today, remember all construction related companies (surveying, excavation, construction, transpiration, building materials supply, permits etc.) is owned and operated by TPLF front companies. Do we really want to make these people richer than they already are?
6. If you have immediate family in Ethiopia and they don’t have a house, it may be OK to help them with money so that they could buy and build their own house with their name on the deed and title.
7. I can understand wanting to have a house in a country of your birth, but knowing what we know about Woyanie, it is not in your best interest to line up the Meles’ pocket with your hard earned cash. You see, if we don’t buy the land at the astronomical that they are demanding, they have no use for it other than sell it to the locals at an affordable price.
8. So there you have it. Let’s please stop cutting out the locals from affordable dwelling by not buying in Ethiopia until there is a truly Ethiopian government in Ethiopia.
9. And finally all the TPLF thugs are aware that the real estate bubble in Ethiopia is going bust and they are running around like rats on a sinking ship and selling like mad.
Respectfully,
-Surafel
Tegen replies:
December 15th, 2011 at 10:23 AM
Surafel has made a brilliant analysis. I totally agree with what surafel has stated enumerating the cons of investing in a market that is not free at all and its true buying property in Ethiopia can severely aggravate the sufferers and the poorer which sums up the 95% of the population.
Until the TPLF regime is completely removed and responsible government elected by the free will of the Ethiopian people takes place it seems wise the playing ground only favorite the cupola of the regime.
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/the-world-s-happiest–and-saddest–countries.html?page=2
The 5 saddest countries:
Yemen (Photo courtesy of Mohammed Huwais/AFP/Getty Images)
5) Yemen
Civil unrest, few liberties, little education for girls. Only a third report any form of employment.
Pakistan (Photo courtesy of AP Photo/B.K.Bangash)
4) Pakistan
Ineffective, unstable government. Very dangerous, intolerant of outsiders.
Ethiopia (Photo courtesy of Tom Cockrem Lonely Planet Images/Newscom)
3) Ethiopia
Literacy is just 30%; undernourishment 40%; unemployment rate 20%.
Zimbabwe (Photo courtesy of AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi)
2) Zimbabwe
Inept, corrupt, kleptocracy. No civil rights. Pervasive political violence.
Central African Republic (Photo courtesy of AP Photo/Schalk van Zuydam)
1) Central African Republic
The worst. More than 10% of children die in their first year. Classes average 91 students per teacher. No foundation for future growth.
Bertu replies:
December 16th, 2011 at 9:08 AM
this is nonsense. Where is Somalia, Eritrea, Afghanistan,Iraq, Palestine, Haiti, etc ?
forget it man.
Is it not what they did to Ethiopian’s of Eritrean origin ? What is surprising is people who are really surprised about this. This is just another form of looting.
It would not surprise me if they start deporting Ethiopians of Amhara or Ormia origin. The moral of the story is ” if whatever happen to a person or a given society , it will happen to some one else. Injustice for one is injustice for all.
Let me clear you up!
CBE instructs customers to pre-notify before withdrawing a certain level of money. But that’s only on papers under normal circumstances. Due to the stiff competition it is facing from private banks, it never rejects client requests to take their own money. If it faces liquidity problem, it absolutely refers to NBE for help. As you know, when banks are holding excessive level of cash they must surrender it to NBE and when they are short of cash, the vice-versa. So, when the 2mill withdrawal was presented, I’m sure a liquidity problem that was unsolvable in a reasonable time must have hit them.
Since Ethiopia is the most stiff nation with no option to capital transfer-out, it’s normal to use the black market as an option. If you are an Ethiopian, with no interest in Ethiopia but with a lot of money to use in overseas. And you know you can be rich, create job opportunity, build the name of Ethiopian-ness, etc in overseas, you have only one option. Since NO BANK WILL ASSIST YOU IN YOUR CAPITAL OUTWARD MOVE, YOU CONVERT IT TO HARD CURRENCY BY ALL MEANS AND BUY A SHOP TO RUN IN MALTA FOR INSTANCE. and you should not be blamed for loving Malta than Mercato. What matters is you’ll be a respected Ethiopian trader in Malta for whom Malta communities will love Ethiopians because of your good deeds and your kindness. In return, when u settle back to Ethiopia, u bring back blessing, working culture, money, and good example to Ethiopia.
The main reason for the existence of black market is something wrong with some policies. Black market in all countries portrays itself as an option!! Option of the needy that the state has no remedy for. And in Ethiopia, the black market is actually gray as the state itself uses its service to some extent. (Dig in to the Humera and Somaliland republic trade lines).
In 2009 I bought a land in Ethiopia which is now endangered by the new law. Everyday i got to sleep if I could have transferred that money to Kenya where I could have bought me two taxis and rented a shop to do me a business. But there was no option. If I kept the money in bank, inflation could have swallowed its purchasing power. But Ethiopia, as a motherland, didn’t give me the option to do what was best of my interest. Imagine how many foreign investors reject investing in ethiopia due to uncertain probability of ability to transfer-out their year-end profit back to the head office. As you know transfers are subject to the banks’ consent to utilize its own reserve fund for your will against commission fee. If MTN Telecom makes 700 million USD profit after delivering Ethiopians excellent telecom service with broadband internet in every home, which bank will afford to send this money back to RSA? What they must do is go to back market, convert it to USD over a long period of time and gradually smuggle it out. Like Yared was hoping to do. Which is a common practice until Ethiopia opens up to SOLUTIONS by listening to elites!!
False allegation.
Elias, I hope you mean the commercial bank housed in the building of the National Bank. Please, make the correction Commercial bank.
Elias’s reporter might have mixed National Bank with Commerical Bank, afterall both banks used to be in the same building. The National Bank is the Reserve Bank, it is Ethiopia’s FED while Commerical bank is the biggest State owned bank. The state owned bank has been in trouble for many years. TPLF’s ill trainned bankers have banktrupted the place. They have given lots and lots of loans to their buddies. This has been the classic case of bank looting through investment in real estates and trade. Look at the high rise buildings and ask how the construction was financed. The Commercial bank has been trying to force foreclosures for sometime but Meles blocked this to protect his cronies at the expense of the state owned bank. For more on this see Wikileaks.
Unless the 2 million dollar amount was invested in a time deposit or some kind of short term investment, the individual must be able to get his/her money. Yes, banks also ask their depositors to notify them usually from 10 to 30 days about major withdrawals. A bank manager who says he/she does not know when the deposit is going to be honoured suggests that the bank is in a serious liquidity trap.
The liquidity trap is more than likely to be exacerbated if there is a run on the bank. The news of the new print of birr also appears a credible news. The National Bank cannot let the Commerical Bank go under. So the situation plus the government’s spending is forcing it to go to the printing press again.
As to the Diaspora’s houses in Ethiopia, a number things can be said. First, it has inflated real estate prices in Ethiopia, making housing unaffordable to the locals. Second, this is happening in a country where the government is owning all land. By controlling urbank land supply and using lease bidding system, TPLF has enriched itself by selling state property. Corruption and crony capitalism reached its climaz. Third, the Diaspora’s money was invested in an idle capital, residential houses and commerical buildings, thus contributing almost nothing to TPLF’s wild growth statistics. Many houses are rented in dollars, and the landlords take the money out of the country through non-official channels. Evidently they do not pay taxes.
So the bottom line is that Elias’s story has some truth in it. It just needs more research. Keep up the good work Elias!
People die of starvation because they do not get food aid for not supporting EPRDF/MELES and supporting foreign terrorist groups.
People build houses and do not get runing water , electricity and/OR phone lines for not supporting EPRDF/MELES while the line passes through their front door way down the street to another EPRDF/MELES supporters house.
People do not get their passports renewed for not supporting EPRDF.
Just like everything else If you are EPRDF supporter you can get your money out of the bank right away.
If you are not EPRDF supporter you do not get your money from the bank UNTIL YOU TAKE A GOOD LOOK at yourself.
It is the same with everything , Better to make a smart choice because every action has a reaction.
Elias,
Ere tew! yihen Wedek siluh tesebere maletn.
Who said that National Bank of Ethiopia is purely REGULATORY BODY?? It has additional duty similar to commercial banks – National Bank is account holder of all government organizations accounts, which means that National bank has duty of some sort of commercial banks….the impact in shortage of cash/money flow is shared b/n NBE & CBE
Anonymous #13,
I have no doubt your story is very credible.You see, I personally believe Weyane’s arrived in Addis with much, then unknown to many Ethiopians, sinister plan with their possession. There is reason to believe that some foreign officials must have given them a blue print that will do away the Ethiopian we have known up to that point.
It will be time consuming to list all the social engineering and the transformation of the Ethiopian society in the image of weyanes.
First, there is this spread and wise use of ‘chat ‘among the population. I mean its usage and demand is so rampant many of the least fortunate are forced to make living from it. Even the farmers who happen to be God fearing don’t hesitate to allocate their small parcel of plot to grow this substance for cash. One can observe this chat farming and its phenomena on the road from Gondar to Gojam,it is abundant by the side of the high way.Then,too the young people of Ethiopia, for long now, have been feed genetically engineered foods, often send as gifts from U.S,Englad and, Canada.
I am not expert in genetics; however, when I was on extended visit in the country I observed that there is visible change in the physical structure among the young generation of Ethiopians. For instance, most of the young generation of both sexes appear to be very tall than the height of the former generations. I brought up this point to long time friends who are still in the country. They agree about my observation that there is a manifest physical change that they can see but could not attribute if this be the result of the diet they eat or to some other event.
In addition to making Ethiopians dependant on perpetual food aid, the weyanes also have preached to the young people what they call it competition or what they call it “Tile Malef”.Ofcourse this sickness and its message is spread by the ruling junta not because all Ethiopians are truly participating in healthy competition but only because the weyanes must use this mantra as a front in order to hide their theft from the public. But the tragedy of this motto is that the majority of Ethiopians don’t have anything to compete.Neverthless, thy use this word “Tilo Malef” in their every day conversation. This pernicious and dangerous method is finding support among some of the young as a result they appear to be less interested to engage in support of families or relatives.
In a way weyane has ripped apart the moral fabric of the society as a result it appears that the youth prefer to put their life first, something very different from their former generation. Of course there is exception to every generalization.Neverthless, it is also true many of the young generation seems to prefer money and possession than anything else. To make matter the weyane legal system is a brocken system. As far as weyane is concerned jails and prisons are to serve first political prisoners.Weyane is frightened only those who peacefully oppose its abuse and miss rule. When it comes to other social criminals the weyane prison is a revolving door for the hard core ones. This could hardly come as a surprise for most Ethiopians who know the criminal weyane clique. I once witnessed in the northern part of the country many night breaking in to the houses of people by the unemployed. Even though there were ill armed local guards around the breaking in to the houses and business continued. Then, at last resort weyane sends its military and rounded up the perpetrators. I mean they went house to house and arrested the suspects living no doubt that they knew about the thieves in advance. I asked how this could be. I am told they weyane knows about the condition of the city all along but they wait to the last minute to teach and make sure to the residents of the city that government service is much needed by the people.
With all this social evil, economic collapse, political persecution that is taking place how long is we to bear with this?
They, weyanes ,due to our neglect, will continue to urinate on us so long we permit it. However, if we believe God has already numbered their days because of their evil nature and continue to believe that at the moment of our uprise God is there to lead and strength we then in deed weyanes will be history.Belivers need to humble ourselves and pray about our country. The leaders of the many organizations need to see beyond the immediate and personal ambition. Instead they need to fix their mind upon the plight of the people and the critical condition of the nation. If not now when are we to rise to save what is left of the weyane looters?mm
weyGud replies:
December 16th, 2011 at 8:33 AM
Wendewesen
you have presented simple to undestand, precise, and independent analysis. You are not even drawn in to namecalling and cursing, as most of us do.
Thannk you,
Bertu replies:
December 16th, 2011 at 9:24 AM
“social engineering and the transformation of the Ethiopian society”
you raised a good point man.
“foreign officials must have given them a blue print that will do away the Ethiopian we have known up to that point.”
that is also very likely, because woyanes, many of them aren’t even graduates of elementary school,lack the qualifications to do such kind of social engineering.
It is really alarming that western NGOs are allowed to infiltrate Ethiopian ministries,educational institutions,etc even up to village level. We dont know what kind of studies and experiments they conduct with the population, what kind of data they collect etc.
But even under this situation we should try to do what we can to inform and awaken the population, let us not just sit with folded arms and watch things happen, lets do something.
Why don’t you say the country is in deep shit.
THANKS TO MELES ZENAWI’S DIPLOMATIC SKILLS CHINA AGRRED TO RESCUE ETHIOPIA FROM IT’S FINANCIAL PROBLEMS !!
Dec. 15 (Bloomberg) –The Commercial Bank of Ethiopia signed a memorandum of understanding with the Export-Import Bank of China for a $300 million DOLLARS credit facility, Ethiopia’s state- owned lender said.
“The amount is to be used by the CBE whenever it needs it in the future,” Chief Business Development Officer Isaac Mengesha said in an e-mailed response to questions yesterday.
The terms of the loan and interest rate will be negotiated later, Isaac Mengesha said. The money will help fund projects as part of the country’s five-year growth plan.
Faranji replies:
December 19th, 2011 at 6:46 PM
Thanks to Meles Zenawi’s diplomatic skills Ethiopia is slowly being sold to China, including all her land, people, narural and cultural heritage.
Will you allow Meles to sell The Arch of Covenant?
Ali replies:
December 19th, 2011 at 10:41 PM
300 million is nothing for a country like Ethiopia. This money will evaporate as soon as it arrives in Addis Ababa. This junta governement is borrowing money without any restriction and leave a huge debt for our children. The chinese would not mind to lend the country and they would come and confiscate the land, building and infrastructures in the country. I do not see how you could say this is a good news.
This story must be true. The Ethiopian government has come up with a white lie story of Nile Dam to cover the cash liquidity it is facing. Recently I attended a propaganda campaign to sell to diaspora Nile dam bond. They told us any one even people from the neighbouring countries can buy the bond. Imagine that they have confiscated and evicted many Eritreans from Ethiopia a decades ago without compensating them. They are begging these people now to fund the problem they have brought on Ethiopian people. This clearly demonstrate why they have abandoned their internal policy of excluding Eritrean. If the Ethiopian governement was serious of this Dam Project, it could have sold shares not bond. If it was shares, people could get more money than they have invested. However, bond is a joke. With less than 2% interest, one would be better if he/she invest in other place. I would invest my money where I could get a high return. Moreover, taking the liquidity of the current Ethiopian government, how we could be sure that we could get our money back.
The EPRDF government in Ethiopia is economically illitrate. In a recent report made known by Wikileak, a German government official has been heard of saying that Meles Zenawi lack a basic concept about economy. Taking into account what has happened in the last twenty years of this government, one would not be surprised if Ethiopian run short of cash in the immediate future. Recently I travelled to Ethiopia, I have witnessed that the Ethiopian currency has lost any purchasing power. This trend is detoriating from day to day. And it is feared that that the currency could just become a bundle of papers just as it happened in Zimbabwe.
What Meles and his cronies do not understand is that the more money circulate in the economy, the worst the economic development becoming. They should have taught the Ethiopian people to save their money. The government is spending a huge money in fake projects around the country. The corruption is rampant that all officials are spending the puplic fund for whatever purpose they deem necessary. In each regional office, a bundle of cash is being distributed among the cronies every night. This money is smuggled out of the country.
I am from region 5 and I have a person knowledge how the current regional president is distributing the public fund to his cousins coming back from somalia, kenya and other western countries. If you are a clan member of the regional president, you will be paid your air ticket, accommodation and all expenses. When you go to the regional state you would be awarded with new villa built by the tax payers money. Recently, the chairman of the faction that signed accord with the governement, Salahidin Mao, took millions of dollar and fled from the country. A new hungry hyna replaced him who would also receive more money and run away. This is the vicious cycle of how the country is being robbed by this unelected government.
I do not know why the Ethiopian people would not raise up against this incompetent government. Many people around the world had done so and many people are rising up against dictators. This is the right time to stand up and say this is enough. Ethiopian is being changed to point of no return.
Meles and his cronies will go and print and fasten the end of their regime.
how stupid can people sometimes get i don’t understand, what part of NBE controls all banks in Ethiopia including CBE don’t you understand? or if you forgot what is what.. the Federal Reserve in America Vs. all the other banks including BoA… when the recession hit, BoA wasn’t able to pay out its customers.. then Federal reserve printed some money and they got bailed out. similar story! if the central bank goes weak, no other bank can make it in a federal system. So customers might not directly deal with NBE but the actions of NBE definitely affects customers’ of all banks in Ethiopia. wuy Elias endet tekatilehal!
Millinium Dam A.K.A renaisance dam is a white come project to milk Ethiopians living abroad.Imagine what the wayne and its Junta cronies are doing in western countries. They are trying to sell a bond to any one. Even a thief can buy this bond. That is what I heard from one of the Ethiopian government official explaining to people how to buy the bond. According to this official, even an undocumented asylum seeker could buy this bond. However, this is illegal in most of European countries where they ban asylum seekers from working and earning for themselves. They have to be supported by voucher until their asylum is processed. Imagine when you the wayne Junta is soliciting cash from undocumented asylum seekers. How can they hand their money to this unelected untrustworthy government. If I were an asylum seeker and have earned some money through cash in hand, I would not send my money to wayne despot. Tomorrow they would not aknowledge the reciept of this cash because I do not have any documentation prove. It is also illegal to solicite money from undocumented asylum seekers in the United Kingdom. If the UK governement comes to know this fact, it would have big diplomatic repurcussion between the two country. The wayne dictators even does not understand how to respect the law their host country. I do not also understand the logic behind why Wayne junta tried it best to screw our hard earned foreign exchange while they deny us the basic right. They have introduced a yellow card just to make sure that we are thrown out any time they want. They could have granted dual nationality instead of hiding behind the yellow card. This scheme was used by money dictators. In the 60s when the Arabs were acquiring their independence from the European colonisers, they had used the same yellow card differentiate jewish from arab. The same tactic was used by Adolf Hitler to mark the Jewish people from the other German citizen. Yellow card is being used to mark us as a foreign national and any time they could legislate any law that would rob us any rights- property and personal right. It is not a long time ago that they have sent many Eritrean from the country just because they have fallen for their scam designed by the two cousin Meles and Esayas. Let us get rid of these two dictators and bring peace and tranquility to the Horn of Africa. The war machinery is being used to shore up support from the western country. The Meles-Esayas alliance in 90s was mainly aimed to create a islamic fundamentalist group that would make sure that the USA that has a phobia whenever one talk about terrorism support the scheme of this two rebel leaders. I knew friends and colleague who were sent to Pakistan to train in the 90s by the two regimes in these two country.
When we were kids our parents used to frighten us using hyna story to make sure that we do not behave. The Wayne regime is using the same method to make sure that they get the unfettering support the western government. If we want to bring down this government we have to make sure that the somalia problem is solved sooner than later.
In North American Banks if someone has a checking or a saving account he can take a maximum of 1000 dollars per day. Some banks don’t allow their clients to take more than a certain amount if they have a saving account. In addition to this if an individual withdraws money from a bank say more than 2000 or 3000 dollars it will be reported to the government as a precaution. Therefore in the case of Ethiopia we don’t know what is the rule or regulation regarding millions of Birr. However it is against the interest of many Ethiopians when Ethiopians convert their money into dollars and send it to Europe or America, it will finally add to Billions of dollars lost wealth. So let’s be frank when we report.
Alula says you cannot withdraw more than $ 1000 from your saving account or current account in USA bank. He also claims that you would be reported to the government if you withdraw more than 2000. Alula is mixing some fact and just to protect the despotic rulers in Ethiopia. His assertion is true if you are someone who has no legitmate business or it is difficult to prove where you have acquired the money. This rule has always been in the banking system and it is aimed to fight against money laundaring. The scenario in Ethiopia is totally different. The Ethiopian government has in the last 20 years screwed the the economy that the country’s currency has lost its purchasing power significantly. The current government is a master of gagging any democratic movement that would less reluctant to suffocate the economic, social, political and legal system in the country. For example, they have banned any civic organisation to represent people with disabilities, human rights, civic rights if the NGO is receiving more than 10% of their income from foreign donors. However, the government receives more than 95% of its annual budget from the international community. This clearly shows the double standards the government of Ethiopian is practicing. making the equality of everyone infront of the law. anyone contemplating to buy the Nile Dam Bond is funding the spread of democrartic principle across Ethiopia. The wind of democratisation is blowning from the Arab spring and we should not let the Weyane Junta to tell us lie to make us forget what the wrong they doing against Ethiopian people. Raise up raise up raise up.