By Eyasu Zekarias

Purpose Black Ethiopia makes big money moves to take BGI Ethiopia’s long-standing headquarters at the heart of downtown Mexico Square.

BGI is set to bid farewell to what it has called a home ground for decades with the new paradigm shift that has transpired in the company owing to the purchase of the former Meta Abo Brewery in Sebeta town, a move that was made last April. Furthermore, the move comes at the back of the city’s improved master plan, which prohibits factories in the city center. This has thus led to the auction of the expansive 30,000sqm hot property that includes an eight-storey building, a factory unit warehouse, and a spacious ample parking area.

In hot pursuit of the property, is none other than Purpose Black Ethiopia, which has its aspirations set for the future of the property.

According to Fisseha Eshetu (PHD), Chief Executive Officer of Purpose Black Ethiopia, “There are 3rd party processes that need to be completed through BGI. We have already paid 1 billion birr for the first process. We hope the rest will be completed within 9 months.”

To get the financial backing for the mega project, Purpose Black has resorted to offering shares to the public, with each share being worth 1.5 million birr, and as the company revealed it has garnered about 1.5 billion birr in share sales in the week that the sale took effect. This has resulted the company to capitalize on the demand by upping the price per share for the second round to 3.5 million ETB which will be offered to a select elite few.

According to Purpose Black the ambitious construction project will have a timeline period of 4 years. The company’s head cited huge aspirations for the property including construction of a corn plant, and mixed-use building. Furthermore, Fisseha disclosed that the 5,000sqm property will also accommodate five additional structures, each standing up to 60 storeys tall.

The Purpose Black Ethiopia initiative hit the ground only two years ago across the country with a multi-billion birr task that consists of the construction and release of a mega agro-processing complex, an e-commerce marketplace, five hypermarkets, ten huge supermarkets, and a network of over a thousand retail and distribution stores throughout Ethiopia.

By our staff reporter

Lion International Bank S.C. reveals it has earned 747.1 million birr before tax in the recently concluded fiscal year, which is up 140 percent in contrast to the previous financial year.

The year under review saw the financial powerhouse collect 54.5 million dollars in foreign currency and 4.7 birr in total income.

The bank stated in its annual report that the gross profit has increased significantly compared to the previous year. The figure is more than 747 million.

The bank’s 2022/23 total cost was recorded at 3.9 billion birr, and as per Alem Asfaw, Chair of the Bank’s Board of Directors, 50 percent was paid for interest expense while rest was paid to employees.

According to the bank’s annual report regarding the capital, the deposits have reached 27.3 billion birr while the amount of loan stock capped at 28.27 billion birr.

The bank also disclosed that its total wealth has reached 35.58 billion birr, with a customer base of 1.66 million, and a paid-up capital of 2.63 billion birr.

The firm’s total assets are now at 35.6 billion birr, of which loans given to customers accounted for 75 percent of the total assets; while purchase of National Bank documents, cash and cash-added assets accounted for 7.9 and 11.0 percent of the total assets.

According to the bank’s annual report, at the end of the financial year, the total amount of deposits of the bank reached 27.3 billion birr; which when compared to the same period last year, showed an increase of 1.3 billion (5.3 percent).

According to the bank it was able to collect 4.7 billion in total revenue, a 35 percent increase in comparison to the previous year’s financial performance.

The bank whilst reporting on its agent banking service called “Lion Hello Cash”, has revealed that it has recruited 3,408 agents throughout the country to provide access to such services.

According to the report, more than 285,322 thousand customers have benefited from the service. In addition, they were able to make various payments using the “Lion Hello Cash” application. In the statement sent to Capital, the total number of branches of the bank now stand at 288.

Climate-induced catastrophic events have led to severe humanitarian crises in Africa. Between 2000 and 2022, a total of 407.5 million people in Africa were affected by natural disasters. During this time, 4.2 million people became homeless, 53,610 people died and 52,205 were injured.

This is according to the Economic Report on Africa 2023 (ERA2023) which will be launched on December 18, 2023, in Abuja, Nigeria.

Titled: “Building Africa’s Resilience to Global Economic Shocks”, the report shows that climate shocks generally are highly correlated with the cyclical component of GDP growth and not with the long-term trend in Africa, which suggests that part of the volatility observed in growth emanates from climate-induced shocks. A temperature increases beyond a threshold of 0.7 degree centigrade results in reduced real GDP growth. At 1.8-degree centigrade change in temperature, which is expected to prevail by 2030, if current trends persist, we could expect a 2-percentage point decline in real GDP growth, eroding the benefits from positive shocks, such as commodity price booms, and amplifying the impact of negative shocks. In addition, preliminary results of the report show that the frequency of natural disasters increases public debt levels directly. A unit increase in natural disasters could lead to a 0.25 percentage point increase in the ratio of net public debt to GDP.

More significantly, climate change in Africa tends to derail poverty reduction and, in some cases, destroy the livelihoods of millions of people that mainly rely on agriculture and small businesses. Droughts, floods, frosts, and other natural events that lead to crop failure affect the welfare of households that live in rural areas and small towns. A one unit increase in natural disaster frequency would increase the percentage of households living in extreme poverty by 4.4 percentage, says the report.

The report carries important lessons regarding how African countries must incorporate climate change in the design and implementation of their long-term growth strategies. The report calls among other for a development strategy for countries that “leverage their natural resource endowments in a manner that stimulates economic growth while gradually reducing the intensity of carbonization associated with economic activity, especially production, transport and consumption”. This requires embracing green industrial policy at the core of the design and implementation of national development strategy.

To finance this sustainability transitions, the report recommends the issuance of green and blue bonds which can exclusively direct financing to projects with climate and environmental outcomes aligned with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The debt-for-nature swaps envisage climate and nature transactions with positive environmental impacts and can also contribute to Africa’s debt sustainability and provide countries with additional fiscal space to invest in climate resilience and adaptation actions. The development of a mechanism which would facilitate debt buybacks and re-issuance at cheaper rates would be a key factor in allowing countries to sustainably restructure expensive existing debts and enable investment of savings in climate resilience.

Currently, ECA supports the operationalization of the Sustainable Debt Coalition initiative, which upholds these financing mechanisms to assist in addressing Africa’s debt management challenges.

By our staff reporter

Dashen Bank and the Ethiopian Airlines Group jointly launch an innovative service package dubbed ‘Fly Now Pay Later’.

According to the innovators, this new technological innovation offers unprecedented flexibility and convenience for travelers allowing them to experience the unique opportunity to fly first and make payment at a later date.

“This pioneering move will redefine the travel experience,” both Dashen and Ethiopian asserted.

As data shows, the impact of technology in the travel industry is not only limited to registering business growth and profitability, but more importantly, it enhances the travel experience by reducing unnecessary steps that have traditionally contributed to travel ordeals.

Expressing his delight about the newly introduced service, Yohannes Million, Chief Digital Banking Officer of Dashen Bank said, “Fly Now Pay Later (FNPL) is an innovative way to purchase flights that allows travelers to book their trips without paying the full price upfront. The service will be available based on the customers’ choice of a 12- or 6-month payment period. Additionally, customers must open a bank account at Dashen Bank and remain as customers for at least three months in order to enjoy this service.”

Yohannes also emphasized that when customers go to the nearby Dashen Bank branch to apply, they are expected to present the necessary documents along with a guarantee.

At the joint launch, Lemma Yadecha, Group Chief Commercial Officer of Ethiopian Airlines, said, “At Ethiopian, we place great value on system and technology modernization. System is one of our strategic growth pillars, and we continue to invest heavily in introducing cutting-edge technologies as part of our customer-centric endeavors. The new payment service we are launching today, ‘Fly Now, Pay Later,’ will offer customers additional payment flexibility and enhance the customer experience. We have integrated our mobile app with the new payment strategy provided by Dashen Bank. We will further strive to make our system compatible with the best practices of other domestic banks as well.”

The credit period for this service is set for six to twelve months, and the credit limit can be renewed at the end of the credit tenure. As Dashen Bank confirmed, its IT department has developed a desktop application that is integrated with the Ethiopian Airlines’ FlyGate application. Ethiopian Airlines, through its booking system, will then provide confirmed passenger flight bookings and services upon successful payment confirmation received from Dashen Bank through FlyGate.

To use this service, customers will receive a spending limit from the Dashen Bank branch and an SMS confirmation that should be entered into Ethiopian Mobile app to purchase flight tickets. Passenger flight tickets can be purchased once or multiple times, up to the facility limit.

As noted during the launch, the credit limit is determined based on the customers’ borrowing capacity, up to a maximum of 600 thousand birr.

The Fly Now Pay Later payment strategy has increasingly been gaining popularity in the travel industry in recent years.