(GIN)—By a close margin, Zambians chose a centrist candidate, Rupiah Banda, as president in this southern African country. African regional electoral monitors said voting had been free and fair.
At his swearing on Nov. 2, Banda promised “to be an agent of continuity, good governance and will campaign against corruption,… I also promise to fight poverty because poverty is demeaning.”
Banda called for national unity since citizens were greatly divided during pre-elections campaigns.
“It does not matter which party you voted for, at the end of the day we are all Zambians,” Banda said. “It is time we all unite and work for a better future.”
Banda, 71, succeeds Levy Mwanawasa who died unexpectedly in August after suffering a stroke.
The Government of Southern Sudan has secured assistance from USAID to carry out major reconstruction of the badly eroded and impassable road. According to Mr Mark Wease of Louis the Berger Group, the 192-Km road would effectively boost trade between Uganda and south Sudan. Many Ugandan traders say the construction of the road would offer a great opportunity for trade because of smooth transportation of goods.
“This is good news for us who want to take advantage of the trade boom in Sudan. Those people still need our services but the bad state of the road was a major hindrance to us,” Mr Emmanuel Acidri, a Sudan-based Arua businessman said. Due to delays, several traders have had their merchandise perish before reaching intended consumers. About seven people perished in October over the bad status of road.
In South Sudan, there is high demand for cement, iron sheets, soft drinks and agricultural produce. Mr Wease said the other link to south Sudan through Gulu is also under construction.
Nigeria’s High Commissioner to South Africa, Buba Marwa, said yesterday in Pretoria, that Nigerians and South Africans are soon to enjoy visa-free regime.
He told the Southern Africa correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) officials of both countries were now studying the proposal.
He said the visa-free regime was one of the issues discussed at the meeting of the implementation committee of the Nigeria-South Africa Bi-national Commission, which ended in Pretoria on November 6.
“At the meeting, we reviewed our relationships and tried to move the visa regime to another level, whereby holders of red and blue passports of the two countries can do away with visa.”
This is the first step towards what will be the ultimate regime of completely doing away with visa between our two great countries in due course,” Marwa said, adding that he was disappointed at “the uncivil and unruly” behaviour of a South African immigration official who verbally assaulted and humiliated some Nigerian officials on Saturday.
He said the Mission had already sent a strongly worded letter of protest to the South Africa’s Department of Foreign Affairs and wondered how a senior immigration officer should be lacking in such a simple elementary civil behaviour at this point of strategic levels of relations between Nigeria and South Africa.
A South African immigration official was reported to have verbally assaulted a former Nigerian High Commissioner to South Africa, as well as two Senators at the OR Tambo International Airport.
Insurance for Ethiopian livestock is poised to become more widespread as it will now be supported by weather information and satellite imagery. The pilot project nearing completion in Asai, Kenya aims to provide insurance companies with the necessary information to offer policies insuring livestock owners against disease and drought.
The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), currently operating in 15 countries, is developing satellite imagery to plot agro-climatic information and create an animal survival capacity database. This data will supply insurers with the tools to properly calculate risk indexes and create policies tailored to the specifics of the land.
Carlos Sere (PhD), director general of ILRI, told Capital that one of the major ways ILRI is working to help poor pastoralists is to reduce the risks of drought, famine and disease. This information portal will provide the data to facilitate insurance not only in Ethiopia, but also throughout the world.
“It is not good enough to give pastoralists a good breed of cow; if there is drought risk, that cow will die,” says Dr. Sere. “This mechanism will help to manage risks. Previous approaches concentrated on increasing grazing and watering points, but this initiative targets the financial side of the business.”
Tanzanian model Miriam Odemba was second in the Miss Earth 2008 pageant held in the Philippines on Sunday.
It was the first time that Tanzania finished in the top three positions in one of the most prestigious global beauty pageants.
Odemba also won the Miss Aficionado title in the tightly contested pageant featuring 85 contestants from all over the world.
Her victory breaks an eight-year barren spell for Africa, which last made a significant impact in the contest in 2002 when Kenyan Winfred Omwakwe won the crown in Manila.
Since 2002, most models from the continent performed poorly at the show. But in 2005, another Tanzanian, Rehema Sudi was placed as a top semifinalist.
“I am very happy to have finished as the first runner-up,” said Odemba in a telephone interview with The Citizen. “I thank God and Tanzanians who supported me during my preparations.”
She said her success was for the country, which she was representing.
Odemba said the competition was very tough, but she managed to fight with confidence to the grand finale. She had spent one month in camp in Angeles City.
Miss Philippines Karla Henry, 22, won the event with Miss Mexico Abigail Elizalde Miss Brazil Tatiane Alves finishing third and fourth, respectively.
Others who completed the line of eight finalists were Mariana Rodr�guez (Colombia), Adriana Rever�n (Spain), Nasanin Nuri (Switzerland) and Daniela Torrealba of Venezuela.
Hana Svobodov� (Czech Republic), Seo Seol-hee (Korea), Uko Ezinne (Nigeria), Karolina Filipkowska (Poland), Ruxandra Popa (Romania), Anna Mezentseva (Russia), Piyaporn Deejing (Thailand) and Jana Murrell (USA) were among the semifinalists.
According to Maria Sarungi, managing director Compass Communications and Miss Earth Tanzania organiser, the judges asked Odemba what advice she would give US President-elect Barack Obama if she were to meet him.
Sarungi said Odemba told them she would advice Obama to give some “serious thoughts” about addressing environmental issues and unemployment among the youths.
Odemba is expected to sign a management contract with the event organizers. She would stay in the Philippines for over two weeks to finalise the procedures.
After returning home, Compass Communications would supervise her activities while looking for other contract with the agencies.
Other African country representatives were Nametso Ngwako (Botswana), Olga Yumba (DRC), Katissia Kouta (Congo Republic), Kidan Tesfahun (Ethiopia) and Sara Adoley Addo of Ghana.
Also in the list were Marit Woods (Liberia), Cynthia Akazuba (Rwanda), Matapa Maila (South Africa), Nok Nora Duany (Sudan) and Ugandan Daisy Nabagereka.
ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA – The Federal Government sacked Abe Sano, president of the state-owned Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE) last Friday, November 7, 2008.
The government ordered the Public Financial Enterprises Supervisory Agency (PFEA) headed by Eyob Tesfaye (PhD), to replace Abe with his Vice President, Bekalu Zeleke, who had been working under Abe for the last two and half years.
Many were surprised when the then 34-year old Abe Sano was appointed as the youngest top executive in CBE’s 64-year history in January 2006; similarly, his dismissal was equally unexpected among employees of the bank.
“It is the government’s decision,” a senior government official told Fortune.
Abe was appointed to the post following the suicide of his predecessor, Gezahegn Yilma.
Despite a performance that led to improvement within the bank, Abe could not escape the decision by the Revolutionary Democrats to relieve him of his post for reasons yet unknown.
It is under his leadership that the bank’s annual gross profit soared to a record 716 million Br in March 2008 for the first time in CBE’s history. The volume of Non Performing Loans (NPLs) indicated a marked decline to an all time low of 13-15pc from over 50pc four years ago. Abe’s management team achieved these results within one and half years of his appointment.
Further excelling in their achievement, his management managed to lower the NPLs of the bank to the internationally required level of 10pc by the third quarter of the 2007/08 fiscal year. In the second quarter of 2007/08, the bank’s gross profit shot up by 28pc to 1.3 billion Br.
The staggering ratio of 50pc NPLs that the bank registered a few years ago when the International Monetary Fund (IMF) pressured its management to set a target to reduce it to 24pc within two years, significantly declined under Abe. These achievements, however, did not occur within a short period.
For example, despite aggressive campaigns in attempts to recover loans in the years following IMF’s squeeze, CBE did not go any lower than 29.2pc in 2004/05 fiscal year in terms of NPLs.
CBE registered the current healthy level NPLs ratio, even as its lending increased to 15 billion Br within the third quarter of 2007/08, up by 56pc in the same period the preceding year.
This figure represents an amount almost equal to that of loans advanced by all the commercial banks in the country in 2006/07.
Abe told Fortune that he had not yet received any letter officially notifying him of his removal from office, his tone clearly indicating the disappointment that he did not verbally utter.
“He performed remarkably,” a senior government official said. “However, he failed to transform all the branches into the IT age.”
CBE, a 64-year old East African banking giant, has still not installed an electronic banking system, when the younger private Dashen Bank, which has a total capital equivalent to only 10pc of CBE’s, has taken a lead in the industry by harnessing this advanced banking system.
Nevertheless, CBE has been in the process of evaluating and negotiating with international IT firms to install the system that gives depositors 24-hour access to the money in their local or overseas accounts through Automated Teller Machines (ATMs).
The new president, Bekalu, has ousted Abe as the youngest executive appointed to the top most post in CBE as he is only 31 years old.
Bekalu can also be equally credited for the bank’s current performance as he was vice president of the Finance and Accounting Department of the Bank, before becoming Abe’s second in command.
Like Abe, by late Friday the new CBE boss had not yet been officially informed about his promotion to the bank’s highest position.
The oldest commercial bank in Ethiopia, CBE swung into business in 1942 with a 65 million Br capital. That capital has steadily risen to 4.2 billion Br, giving the bank the capacity to lend as much as one billion Birr to a single borrower.
It was the first time that Tanzania finished in the top three positions in one of the most prestigious global beauty pageants.