A must watch video about how the Meles regime in Ethiopia mismanaged the economy and lies about it with the full knowledge and complicity of the the World Bank and other financial backers of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (Woyanne). Watch below.
By Omer Redi, Addis Fortune
ADDIS ABABA — The state-owned Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE) may not claim a pioneer place in the introduction of the electronic banking card system to Ethiopia. But, it is trying to catch up with those ahead of it – the private Dashen and Wegagen banks.
Electronic banking cards give depositors 24-hour access to their money from their local or overseas accounts using Automatic Teller Machines (ATMs).
Six IT firms responded to CBE’s international tender issued in mid 2007: AT, M2M, Xiamen Longtop Systems Co. Ltd., Fintech (Kenya) Ltd., Paynet and ACI, an American company entered into a bid in partnership with the local Moti Engineering Plc. Three have been short listed since then, whose technical and financial offers are under review by CBE’s bid committee, chaired by the Vice President for IT.
However, a consortium of companies from Ethiopia and Kenya had been informed two months ago to begin contractual negotiations, before being given the green light to start work on the deployment of the banking solutions, a source told Fortune. CBE has not officially awarded the project yet.
“They [the CBE] concluded the tender process fast, but there seems to be a slight delay due to the negotiations that followed,” a source closely following up on the tender disclosed.
Though CBE seems interested in awarding the project, worth a little less than 50 million Br, to the consortium formed by Oratech Consulting, an Ethiopian technology company which is also partner to the US based Oracle, and Technology Associates (TA), a Kenyan based IT firm, the bank wants negotiations on some arrangements, according to the source, who requested anonymity.
The painstaking issues that kept the process from entering the next phase – installation – are differences over the duration of guarantee offered by the consortium and the CBE; the bank claims the bid document submitted reads three years, as opposed to the one year TA believed it had offered. The latter, however, wrote to the CBE expressing agreement to provide the three-year guarantee, but at the same time requested the client to revise payment arrangements.
TA requested about 30pc be paid as a down payment. The remaining amount would be spread over a one-and-a-half-year period, with the final payment being made at the end of this time. The period would begin after the system went operational – an arrangement meant to evaluate whether the IT solutions the consortium provides is durable.
CBE has not yet expressed whether it agrees to the conditions the consortium requested in the form of payment arrangements.
If awarded, it would be TA’s second project in the Ethiopian banking industry; it was awarded a similar contract earlier this year by Wegagen Bank, whose deal has yet to be signed after three years of floating the tender. Delay has a price to pay, according to industry observers.
In the current trend of price fluctuations, and currency depreciations of both the Birr and the dollar, any delay may affect the deal and require a further price revision, according to current prices of software and hardware.
“Experiences show that the price mostly goes up,” said an IT expert familiar with the project. “The fact that the transactions for this technology demand hard currency create another unpredictability.”
Ongoing negotiations between Wegagen Bank and Oracle is a good illustration. Although Wegagen floated a tender to procure the solution in 2005, it has yet to become the second Ethiopian bank to enter the electronic banking system market. In the meantime, Oracle has reportedly requested the bank to revise the originally offered price. Industry observors see the possibility of Wegagen losing its second place to the CBE, if the latter strikes a deal faster and speeds up installation.
Better yet, a new runner is around the corner: Zemen Bank, whose series of pledges to launch operations did not materialize last week, has hired a Chicago based IT firm to install technology solutions, which its managers promise will transform the way banking is practiced in Ethiopia.
In the interim, Dashen remains the sole player in the field of electronic banking since 2006. In the last Ethiopian fiscal year, Dashen, a pioneer in introducing international electronic payment systems in partnership with, and using VISA, generated close to 31 million dollars, a little over a quarter of what the country earned from the export of flowers during the same period.
Established a little over a decade ago, with an initial capital of 50 million Br, Dashen Bank has achieved remarkable advances in its applications of technology. Deploying close to 20 ATMs, the bank provides its clients with access to many of its 47 branches and four Forex bureaus, including Awassa, Adama (Nazareth), Bahir Dar and Mekelle.
Dahsen, a bank worth less than 10pc of CBE’s capital, leads the industry in terms of harnessing this advanced banking system. This maneuver on the technological front made it effectively snatch the pioneering role the CBE had maintained for over half a century, beginning in 1942.
If CBE strikes this deal anytime soon, Oractech – the Ethiopian company established in 2001 with a registered capital of 100,000 Br – and TA, the Kenyan company that has been building technology infrastructure in sub Saharan Africa for the past decade – will provide IT solutions to the state-owned bank, which has 205 branches across the country, and registered assets worth 49 billion Br in the fiscal year that ended in June, 2008.
Oratech’s partner, Oracle – a recognized IT giant in database technology and applications in enterprises throughout the world – will provide the database, while TA will secure the software and equipment from European companies, according to informed sources. Wincor-Nixdorf, a Germany company, will provide the Automatic Teller Machines, each estimated to cost an average of 10,000 dollars, while TeiTonator, a Latvian based technology company active in Europe, will provide Point of Sale (PoS) machines.
CBE officials were not available for comment,as they were conducting the bank’s annual meeting at the time Fortune attempted to get hold of them.
(foodbev.com) — The Ethiopian Ministry of Mines and Energy on Thursday (Aug 7, 2008) signed an agreement with the local Moha Soft Drinks Industry S.C., alloting an additional 56.8 thousand square metre of land for the company’s water mining purposes.
According to reports in The Africa Monitor and Capital Ethiopia, Moha will invest between 2.5 to 5 million Euro to enable its mineral water factory to produce an additonal 180.3 million litres over the next ten years.
The agreement states that the company is allowed to mine mineral water on a small scale in the new licensed area, which is situated in West Gojam Zone Bure locality, Amhara National Regional State in Ethiopia. Inititally the license has been issued for five years, but can be extended for a further ten years.
The company produces both Kool Spring and Kool Mineral water at its factory, which it acquired for 27 million Ethiopian Birr (1.8 million Euro) from the former Bure Babuna Mineral Water Company. In addition to being sold on the local market, Kool Mineral is exported to the Middle East.
The agreement was signed by Alemayehu Tegenu, Minister of Mines and Energy and Getachew Birbo, Moha Soft Drinks General Manager at the Sheraton Addis. Following the signing ceremony, the Minister said the government has designed an “encouraging” policy in order to support investors in the sector.
So far 65 companies have obtained 115 licenses from the Ministry of Mines and Energy to engage in mineral water development.
Moha’s parent company, MIDROC Ethiopia, has invested over 500 million Ethiopian Birr (34 million Euro) expanding the company, which has been in operation since 1997.
By Mikael Deribe
The life line of TPLF’s iron clad hold of power is the reluctance and inability of different Ethiopian political forces (in organization level) to move beyond their archaic and rigid political maneuvers. Each group seeks to obtain victory all alone in a quest to exercise its own political ideology without having to worry about appeasing any other organization. I doubt if they have realized yet that the old winner – loser politics will bring neither peace nor development to the people they claim to represent. TPLF has injected the possibility of cessation of any ethnic-based region by ratifying article 39 of its constitution early on. This issue all alone has been a single source of the uncompromising mentality reflected on the stubbornness of each political group and a problem that sustains TPLF’s hold of power by making a viable coalition of opposition forces nearly impossible.
Nationalist Ethiopians reject the idea of working with groups such as the OLF and ONLF by automatically citing their agenda of separating from Ethiopia and their account of Ethiopian history. OLF’s and ONLF’s claim of being “colonized” by Ethiopia angers many who consider Oromos and ethnic Somalis as fellow countrymen whom they have suffered alongside through the centuries long misrule under different regimes of our nation. Predictably, the TPLF regime works to exaggerate these differences as it knows that any dialogue and compromise between nationalists and cessationist will prove to be a major threat to their hold of power.
However, we should recognize that the leaders of OLF and ONLF have at different times shown their willingness to cooperate with nationalist forces (peaceful or armed) to work together toward liberating Ethiopia from the few TPLF mercenaries who live lavishly over the misery of our people. One example of this willingness is the formation of the Alliance for Freedom and Democracy (AFD) nearly two years ago that had TPLF leaders suffering from an acute case of paranoia. However AFD’s objectives were vague and lacked a clear picture of post-TPLF Ethiopia. AFD’s future endeavors were not discussed enough as some of the political forces in the alliance had conflicting political agendas. The alliance was not formed based on the prospect of bringing peace, stability and development to Ethiopia in a post-TPLF era but solely on the aim of overthrowing the TPLF-dominated regime. This apathy could have proved disastrous if AFD was viable until the eminent demise of the TPLF regime plunging our country into another political chaos.
Therefore, I believe, if any of the leaders of the Ethiopian opposition forces genuinely care for our people who currently suffer under a fascist regime, they will take the time to approach each other and set up a conference to at least discuss the root cause of the oppressive Ethiopian political culture and the prospect of a peaceful post-TPLF Ethiopia. This action will be crucial not only in clearing up the uncertainties of our future co-existence but also in nourishing our hope of liberating ourselves in unison. We Ethiopians do not expect these different political organizations to have a common manifesto overnight; however we do realize that there will not be unity if we remain afraid of dialogue and compromise. A viable coalition based on well-discussed political objectives regarding the pre and post-TPLF Ethiopia will be an unstoppable force not only to free our people from the ruthless tyranny, but also a remedy to tackle the many problems that has kept as the poorest of the poorest in the world.
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The writer can be reached [email protected]
ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA — On Sunday, August 10th, over 50 Ethiopians attended the Ethiopians for Obama meeting with Senator Obama’s African-American Constituency Director. The importance of each person’s vote was discussed as well as ways that Ethiopian-Americans can participate in the election by volunteering in registration drives.
The meeting took place at Bahir Dar Ethiopian restaurant in Alexandria, Virginia. Those in attendance were excited to see their fellow Ethiopians organizing such a structured and effective meeting. The message is clear, organizing and participating in the political process is a vital development in our community. The 2008 election marks the political maturation of the Ethiopian-American community. There are tens of thousands of Ethiopians who live in vital battleground states such as Virginia, Minnesota, and Georgia. A robust participation by Ethiopians in these states can be instrumental in helping to elect Senator Obama our next president.
In addition to voting for Sentor Obama, Ethiopian-Americans have an ability to take part in the electoral process on the local and state-wide races. Decisions that have an impact on our lives are most often made on the local and state level. A representative for Congressman Moran–a friend of the Ethiopian community–was in attendance to make this very point. In a state where local and state races often come down to a few hundred votes, the Ethiopian-American vote is vital to ensuring that salient issues in our community are addressed.
Voting is a right which we cannot take lightly. While the Ethiopian community is thriving in America, enough of us are not taking part in the political process by exercising a key right–our vote. Over 50 people attended the meeting to find out ways they can volunteer and help other Ethiopian-Americans to get registered. They left fired up and ready to ensure a record turnout from the Ethiopian-American community on November 4th.
published by ethiopiansforbarackobama.com
For more information, contact [email protected]
Union of Ethiopian Democratic Forces (UEDF) evaluates the policies and strategies of the opposition parties and comes up with its own proposal on how to bring an end to the fascist Woyanne regime in this 6-page statement. Click here to read.