The audacious Woyanne regime in Ethiopia sent election observers to monitor this month’s U.S. elections, according to the following news release from its embassies. This must be a sadistic joke on the suffering and subjugated people of Ethiopia by the disgraceful American ambassador in Addis Ababa.
Two senior officials with the National Electoral Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) were recently invited to the United States to observe the country’s Presidential and Congressional elections.
During their stay, NEBE Chairman of the Board Prof. Woyanne Donkey Merga Bekana and Deputy Chairman Dr. Addisu Gebreizabhier took part in a three-day conference sponsored by the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES), which drew top election officials from more than 60 countries to Washington, D.C.
Prof. Merga and Dr. Addisu met with U.S. election commissioners and discussed cooperation between NEBE and IFES with IFES President and CEO Jean-Pierre Kingsley.
In addition to observing elections in the states of Virginia and Maryland and in the District of Columbia, the Ethiopian officials traveled to Atlanta, Georgia, for meetings at the Carter Center.
RANDOLPH TOWNSHIP, NEW JERSEY – Paul Michael Designs, 477 Route 10 East, will hold a holiday open house fundraiser to benefit Ethiopian orphans from 5 – 9 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 13, 2008.
The event will feature jewelry made by the children of the Orphans and Vulnerable Children Program of the Medhan Social Center in Addis Ababa.
Sale proceeds will be donated to the program through the township-based Medhen Orphan Relieef Effort (MORE).
Founded eight years ago, the non-profit organization has raised over $100,000 for the program. For more information, call (973) 989-3993.
Widespread arrest of Oromos in Addis Ababa and other parts of the counrty continued, this time targeting women, including a 3-year-old child, OLF News correspondent reported from Addis Ababa.
Among several women who were apprehended from their homes and work places in Addis Ababa on November 4 and 5, 2008, by the government “security” forces that wear plain cloth are Mrs. Asaadaa Imaanaa; Mrs. Caaltuu Taakkalaa; Mrs. Urgee Abbabaa fi; Mrs. Dirribee (Boontuu) Ittaanaa.
Particularly, Mrs. Urgee Abbabaa is reported to have been arrested with all her family: her brother Darguu, her husband Girmaa and more shockingly, with her three year old child.
This is a continuation of the current wave of arrest of the Oromo people by the regime in power, as reported by OLF News and many other media outlets, including TPLF government controlled media.
It is also to be recalled that OLF News has reported that, on October 30, 2008 the TPLF forces have arrested a prominent Oromo TV journalist Mrs. Lalisee Wadaajoo, the wife of Mr. Dhaabasa Wakjira, a journalist himself detained for three years and now forced into exile.
As we have reported earlier, Mrs. Wadaajoo have been denied visit of her relatives which only strengthened the suspicion that she must have been severely brutalized in prison. Particularly from the latest report, which indicates that, the lawyer of Mrs. Wadaajoo was turned down and even intimidated when he attempted to visit her on November 3, 2008.
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.
ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA – The Addis Abeba City Administration has started claiming back land and government properties illegally obtained by officials of the former provisional Administration of the city, some of whom have been retained by the current Kuma-led administration.
Those officials still within the city administration will face removal from their current positions as part of the measures to be taken against them.
After running the city for three years, the administration under the helm of the former Mayor Arkebe Oqubay, now State minister of Works and Urban Development(MoWUD) administration, was supposed to hand over power to the then Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD), which had won 137 of the 138 seats in the City Council.
But CUD failed to take over administration of the city as it could not come to terms with EPRDF. As a result, the Federal Government assigned the reins to the Caretaker Administration of Berhane Deresa, which administered the city for two years.
A report by the Federal Ethics andAnti-Corruption Commission disclosed that land grabbing was rampant in the few months before Arkebe handed over the administration to the Caretaker Administration.
The administration that came to power in May 2008 seems determined not to let the illegal possession of government properties go unchallenged. The Kuma-led administration has been developing special mechanisms of getting the land back.
Revelations of the illegal possessions began last Ethiopian summer when EPRDF sent about 2,000 of its members, who are officials at different levels of the city, to Alagie Agricultural Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) College near Zeway town, 163Km from Addis Abeba for training.
Top officials from both the Federal and City Government and senior party leaders like Bereket Simon, Arkebe Oqubay, Kuma Demeksa, Mekuria Haile took part in the training of the officials.
Several of the trainees were district and kebele executives during Arkebe’s time who have also been candidates for Kuma’s administration.
The officials, who took the training on the party’s strategic policies in two groups of 1,000 for a month each, had also undergone EPRDF’s infamous self evaluation in groups of their respective districts.
According to a source who attended the training, the trainees just began to voluntarily confess each of all the illegal acts they had committed, including the unlawful acquisition of public houses, land and condominium houses.
Those who were in charge of facilitating the confessions cautiously listened to the details and later submitted them to the party’s Addis Abeba office, the source told Fortune. The office discussed the case and decided to take measures against those who had confessed to the illegal acts.
Mekuria Haile, city general manager, confirmed to Fortune that action has been taken against the culprits.
“Further measures will follow for those who were involved in land grabbing,” he said.
The administration has already started taking measure in districts such as Lideta, Bole and Nefas-Silk-Lafto.
Biniam Haregu, speaker of the Lideta District Council and Tsegaw Yimer, head of Bole District Youth and Sports Office, have subsequently been removed from their posts.
According to the source, the administration has already confirmed that there are many others who got condominium houses while living in government houses and some who illegally took plots of land to construct houses on them.
Well-heeled shoppers in New York, Paris, Tokyo and other global fashion centers are beginning to see a new name, Taytu, beside familiar Guccis and Chanels among the ladies’ handbags in exclusive shops.
Ethiopia, home to the largest livestock population in Africa, produces and exports millions of hides annually, mainly in the form of semiprocessed leather. Eyeing higher profits, Ethiopia is moving to develop its own trademarked leather products. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is helping Ethiopia develop its leather processing and branding sector; the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and other development groups are also assisting.
“The Ethiopian government supports an export sector of high-value, finished leather products, not semiprocessed leather,” said Taytu Trade and Industry Managing Director Salpi Nalbandian.
Taytu markets the products of 12 Ethiopian manufacturers of leather goods. The consortium was formed in 2006, when the Ethiopian government identified the leather industry as a potentially lucrative sector.
For example, Cabretta leather, prized for golf gloves, because of its strength and elasticity, brings the Ethiopian herder $2 for the skin needed for one glove, $5 to the exporter of the leather, and $25 to the retailer of a glove manufactured outside of Ethiopia.
Another Ethiopian leather product, the Bati goat skin, is reputed to produce the softest, finest suede. Ethiopian herders make about $10 for the skin need to make one suede coat. The leather exporter collects about $40-$50 after tanning. The coat, which is manufactured outside Ethiopia, will bring at least $400 to the retailer, according to Light Years IP, a group that helps developing countries spur growth through the use of intellectual property rights.
Taytu handbags sold by the upscale Barneys New York fetch prices around $1,500; one particular Taytu handbag design is priced at $22,000, according to the company’s Web site. Taytu made contact with Barneys and other high-end foreign retailers by participating in trade shows in New York, Paris and Los Angeles. Theory, another high-end retailer of clothing and accessories, is considering marketing Taytu bags, according to Nalbandian.
Entering the international market is difficult, and Nalbandian credits USAID and UNIDO for helping to make that happen.
“It involves a long chain of work, getting the raw materials, meeting delivery deadlines, correspondence, understanding the work and business conditions abroad. We must win the confidence and trust of foreign buyers,” she said. She said UNIDO provided expertise in design and manufacturing and USAID, in marketing. “They have guided Ethiopia into the high-end market niche,” she said. “They have advised that Ethiopia should not compete with China and India in producing for the mass market.”
Taytu’s sales revenues have risen from $25,000 in 2006, when the consortium was formed, to $85,000 in the last fiscal year. Five months into the current fiscal year, which runs from July to June, Taytu has received about $70,000 in foreign orders. Sales from its shop in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital, also are rising sharply as a result of Taytu’s entry into foreign markets.
“When local newspapers wrote about Taytu’s success in New York and other cities, Ethiopian consumers became excited about the Taytu name,” said Teshome Kebede Redie, a USAID contractor working in the Ethiopian leather sector.
Nalbandian said as Taytu profits rise, it will wean itself from USAID financial support. USAID pays the Taytu shop rent in Addis Ababa and the salaries of the shop staff. The agency also bought the computers and furniture in the Taytu shop.
In another attempt to extract potential leather profits, one Ethiopian leather company, Jonzo PLC, plans to enter the shoe business, which absorbs 60 percent of the world’s leather output. Now, Jonzo specializes in leather garments and handbags, some of which are marketed by Taytu.
“Footwear is a big opportunity for Ethiopia,” said Jonzo General Manager Solomon Yesuf. He said he expects Jonzo to start shipping footwear to the St. Louis-based Brown Shoe Company in 2009.
USAID’s Redie said that many shoe companies in the United States, Germany and Italy are looking away from China to shoe suppliers in other regions because of rising prices that Chinese manufacturers are charging.
Jonzo is building a shoe factory on the outskirts of Addis Ababa and expects to have the capacity to make 55,000 pairs a day by the end of 2009. Its goal is to export half the production. The Ethiopian government facilitates the growth of the shoe industry by providing customs facilities, bonded warehouses and concessionary rates for land rental at the factory site.
Getting the financing for expansion from Ethiopian banks has presented a challenge for Jonzo. But USAID has played a helpful role by offering to guarantee 50 percent of the loans as an enticement for an Ethiopian bank to put up the other 50 percent.
