By Pawlos Belete and Amanyehun Redda | ADDIS FORTUNE
Duguma Hunde, a prominent Ethiopian businessman who founded DH Geda Industrial Business Group, passed away of sudden natural causes, around midnight last Friday, January 09, 2008. Duguma was immediately taken to Tezena, a hospital near his house around Old Airport area, after he collapsed of stroke; he did not survive the incident, according to family members.
Duguma was born in a small village Kesht, Sedin Sodo Wereda, in Shewa, Oromia Regional State, in 1948. He came to Addis Abeba in 1964, and began his business career selling secondhand clothes while attending night school at Lideta Catholic Cathedral School. Over the years he grew into prominence in the Ethiopian business community.
DH GEDA is one of the fastest growing business enterprises in Ethiopia, involved in manufacturing, trading, real estate and import-export. Duguma established about nine companies active in various sectors. These include manufacturing plants for the production of paints, adhesives and printing inks, dry cell batteries, personal and household care products, blankets, wheat flour, corrugated iron sheets and profiles, acrylic dyeing and cotton bleaching. His companies have, in aggregate, created more than 750 permanent jobs.
Duguma was known among his friends as a sociable person. Getu Gelete, major shareholder and general manager of Get-As International, who knew him since childhood, described Duguma as “a hard working man who was resourceful to other businesspeople.”
Duguma was also a shareholder in about seven private banks and insurance companies, including the latest entrant to the industry, Oromia International Bank (OIB).
“He was a very humble person who could easily establish good relations with people around him” Worku Lema, chief executive officer of the OIB, told Fortune.
Married to Meselech Obisie in 1966, Duguma survived by his 10 children and 11 grandchildren. Funeral service is to be held at the Trinity Cathedral Chruch on January 11, 2009, at 12:00 noon.