Browsing: Ethiopia

Ethiopia hosted the first of a kind annual banking forum aimed at providing a platform for the financial services industry professionals and leaders.

The event held on May 21, 2022, at the Economic Commission for Africa conference centre was organized by Kehali Strategic Advisory Services PLC following the announcement that the Ethiopian banking sector opening up to foreign banks is imminent.

In addition, the National Bank of Ethiopia has also recently mandated that all banks, insurance companies, and microfinance institutions fully digitize their operations.

Bank executives, industry experts along with other stakeholders discussed the future of the banking sector, business fundamentals, regulatory framework and competitive environment, the strategic implications/options for foreign banks seeking to enter the Ethiopian market, the partnership/competitive opportunities possible between local and foreign banks as well as the benefits to the full range of consumers of banking products/services among others.

The financial sector liberalization is expected to …

• Ethiopia is one of the largest countries in Africa
• The US has a long diplomatic relation with Ethiopia dating 1903
• Ethiopia is building a hydroelectric dam that will generate 5,000 megawatts of electricity

Ethiopia economy is one of Africa’s fastest-growing economies with a GDP projected to trend around US$ 112 billion, representing at least 0.10 per cent of the world economy.   Thus, US-Ethiopia relations have presented rather effective diplomatic potential for one of the populous nation in the region.   

The East African nation has made noteworthy and tremendous economic improvements which have seen the nation’s GDP per capita rise from US$162 in 2005 to US$790 in 2018, an average annual growth rate of more than 14 per cent, according to information from the US Department of State.  

Ethiopia with its rich history has recorded substantial economic strides over the past decade, and the United States of America (USA) is one …

Ethiopia is the biggest Wheat producer in Africa, producing about 5.1 million tonnes in the 2020/2021 financial year. Russia’s restriction on the importation of Wheat has created a business gap in the African market and all over the globe.

Russia and Ukraine account for more than 70 per cent of Egypt’s imported wheat demand. In 2019, wheat imports from Russia to Egypt were worth US$2.55 billion, and Nigeria’s imports amounted to US$394 million. Other countries that import Russian Wheat include Sudan, Senegal, Tunisia and Morocco. Ethiopia will hold talks with Egypt and Sudan in March 2022 over the Nile waters’ use. Both countries are importers of Wheat, and production in Ethiopia could fulfil the demand from these two countries without exerting pressure on their production.…

UNCTAD World Investment Report 2021 specifically states that “Greenfield investments in industry and new infrastructure investment projects in developing countries were hit especially hard.”

These financial flows of investment dollars have deep-rooted implications for Africa in the sense that they are vital for sustainable development in less developed and poorer countries.

The decline in investment flows was disproportionately skewed towards developed countries where FDI fell by 58 per cent according to UNCTAD. Investment flows in developing economies fell by a moderate 8 per cent mainly because of resilient flows in Asia.…

• Traders holding the Cardano token will obtain loans of up to 70 per cent of the ADA tokens they hold.
• The concept of decentralization and blockchain technology can replace traditional financial services such as commercial banks. Cryptocurrencies can also be used as an investment tool, and so can Cardano (ADA). 
• The government of Ethiopia and Cardano Development had sealed an agreement to introduce 5 million secondary school students and 700,000 teachers on the Cardano blockchain app.
• The downside of taking loans on Cardano is that the borrowers will have to self-manage the risk of the fluctuating Cardano price.

Cardano (ADA) is proof to take blockchain led by Ethereum co-founder Charles Hoskinson. Charles initial purpose in designing the token Cardano was to create competition for the Ethereum token. Cardano launched on September 29, 2017, after two years of development.

Cardano combines pioneer technologies to provide unparalleled security and sustainability to decentralized …

• The hydropower project is worth an estimated US$1.3 billion that will see Ethiopia import 400 Megawatts of power annually.
• The World Bank approved US$684 million for the power line in 2012- Kenya got US$441 million of the share, and Ethiopia got US$243 million- raising eyebrows why the project has not been completed ten years later.
• The project started in 2012, but Ethiopia has blamed Kenya for the delays even after several lenders allocated funds for the project.

Kenya Ethiopia Electricity Trade

President Uhuru Kenyatta’s administration has reached a new agreement with Ethiopia to gear up further the purchase of cheap hydropower from Addis Ababa.

The two countries agreed with an Ethiopian delegation, led by Ethiopia’s Minister for Finance, Eyob Tekalign, visiting Nairobi from February 2nd to 4th this year.

The new arrangement was revised on previously signed power trade agreements. The two countries finalised the operational guidelines and procedures and …

Safaricom has a network of partners whose collaboration allows subscribers to send and receive money from more than 200 countries and territories.

The launching of the M-Pesa supper app has also enabled its users to operate mobile money transfer easily and securely making it rise faster in the African continent.

For instance, access to financial services and products in Kenya grew by an astonishing 56 per cent between 2006-2019 due to the availability of the mobile money services . M-Pesa has been credited with lifting at least two per cent of Kenyan households out of extreme poverty.…

The programme will facilitate access to the Royal Academy’s global network of experienced, high-profile and business experts, in addition to access to the alumni network upon completion of the programme.

Moreover, 2022 is the programme’s second consecutive year to render a digital experience, with rigorous support provided through person-to-person and group discussions.

Four finalists will pitch their revised and improved innovations and business plans to the judges in the presence of a live audience.…

As usual, it is the scramble for Africa. This continues with the AU not condemning the anarchy by financiers of the chaos who are mostly not African.
Africa’s underground riches have for decades been driving a cabal of selfish dictators, in collaboration with their Western masters, to doing the unthinkable. Mali is the latest casualty.

Mali is rich in every sense.

The West African nation is the continent’s fourth-largest gold producer after Ghana, South Africa, and Sudan with the country’s natural resources industry dominated by gold. The country’s primary export is gold which accounted for more than 80 per cent of Mali’s total exports in 2020. …

Justice Makau’s ruling was as follows, “I find as decided in the Court of Appeal decision, the petitioner has a right to mechanise and adopt technology in its operations. The matter in dispute is therefore effectively concluded and settled in terms stated.”

If the cry of the workers’ Union is true, then this ruling threatens more than 50,000 workers’ jobs and allegedly, already over 10,000 tea pickers have lost their jobs to the machines.

However, the odds are pinned against the peasants, the Kenya Tea Growers Association says the loss of jobs has nothing to do with the machines but rather ‘…tea companies reducing their workforce through natural attrition.…