Dashen Bank, one of the topflight financial firms, amasses huge profits in the 2021/22 financial year as assets hit over the 100 billion birr mark for the first time.
During the bank’s general assembly held at Sheraton Addis, leaders of the bank disclosed that in the recently concluded financial year which came to a close on June 30, Dashen secured a profit of 3.8 billion birr before tax. According to Dulla Mekonnen, Board of Directors Chairperson, the gross profit has an increment of 1.4 billion birr when compared to the 2020/21 financial year, registering a 57 percent growth in a single year alone.
In the reporting period, the bank bagged 12.9 billion birr in revenue from 10.25 billion birr a year earlier which is an increment of 26 percent.
The bank, during the course of the year was able to open 128 additional branches and according to Asfaw Alemu, President of Dashen, the profit after tax sat at over 2.9 billion birr with 68.3 percent growth from the preceding year.
A year ago the bank secured 1.7 billion birr profit after tax.
“Branch expansion has given us the opportunity to reach more customers and expand our services,” Asfaw told shareholders.
Regarding total assets, the board chairperson declared that the bank surpassed a 100 billion birr to reach 117.1 billion birr as of June 30.
He said that the asset accumulation had registered almost a quarter percent growth compared with the financial year that ended June 30, 2021.
A year ago the total asset of bank was almost 95 billion birr.
Loans and advances, took the lion’s share of the asset, growing by 21 percent towering at 77.3 billion birr.
Over the same period last year, loans and advances and interest free banking (IFB) financing had stood at 63.9 billion birr.
According to Asfaw, on the liability side, the total positional deposits balance both from conventional and IFB customers grew by 26 percent reaching 91 billion birr by the end of the period.
The deposit mobilization from IFB, which is one of the successful sectors for the bank in comparison with competitors, registered a growth of 37 percent on customers alone and reached 5.9 billion birr.
The total equity grew by 35 percent and reached birr 14.3 billion.
In the period under review, the owners’ equity also climbed by 42 percent to reach 14.4 billion birr.
According to the statement from Dashen Bank, with additional injection of 2.5 billion birr following the decision of the shareholders, the paid up capital of the bank has now reached 6.9 billion birr with 57 percent increment compared with the same period of last year.
Despite the bank increasing it’s paid up capital by 57 percent in a single year the earnings per share (EPS) did not show reduction.
In the 2021/22 financial year, the bank was able to achieve EPS of 532 birr per 1000 birr share value which is a growth of 13 percent when compared with 471 birr of the 2020/21 financial year.
Dashen reaches newer heights in profits, assets
Tele takes “LEAD” in cloud support
As part of realizing digital Ethiopia along with introducing new services and products, and ignited by its “LEAD grow strategy”, Ethio telecom has introduced a system called “Tele Cloud”. The system is said to offer a digital solution for institutions seeking an efficient off-site data back-up solution and individuals who need larger storage spaces to store, compile and access various services in secure data centers built by digital solution providers without the need to build their own data center or acquire additional infrastructure.
On an event held at the newly launched science museum on Thursday October 27, 2022, Ethio telecom unveiled “Tele Cloud” to its enterprise customers.
The telecommunication’s cloud will provide three types of services: Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) – a cloud service that allows users to save their personal information from wherever they are, Platform as a Service (PaaS) – a platform that allows software developers to use a complete database management system, and Software as a Service (SaaS) – a service where customers can get software, paying their license fees using Tele Cloud.
Additionally, Tele Cloud offers three services; Oneoffice solution, Video Management System (VMS) and Smart Education productivity /U-learning.
As stated during the launch, using Tele Cloud, organizations and institutions can avoid the time spent on technology selection, infrastructure construction, training and maintenance, as well as foreign exchange payments, aiding them to focus only on their business activities and service quality whilst avoiding unnecessary expenses.
Customers can now access the service by using the firm’s website and paying the necessary fees through telebirr.
Furthermore on Monday October 24, 2022 Ethio telecom signed a partnership agreement with the Ministry of Trade and Regional Integration (MoTRI) to enable customers of the Ministry to settle commercial registration, trade license and trade name related service fee payments using the telebirr.
As indicated, customers of MoTRI can now easily settle service payments of new commercial registration, amendment replacement and cancellation as well as new trade license, trade license renewal, replacement and cancellation and new trade name, trade name amendment, renewal, replacement and trade name cancellation.
So far, the telebirr digital payment platform has over 25 million subscribers having more than 101 master agents, 87 thousand agents and 23 thousand merchants. More than 101.1 billion birr has been transacted through telebirr.
As part of digitalization, Ethio telecom has been aggressively working in expanding digital payment system throughout the country.
“Furthermore, our company has already integrated a number of services with telebirr digital payment system by signing agreements with several service rendering organizations and institutions so as to ease their customers’ service related hustles,” said Frehiwot Tamiru, CEO of the company, adding, “In the time ahead, our company is keeping on diligently committing to integrate with a number of services with telebirr digital payment system in collaboration with other similar institutions.”
Rotary Ethiopia commemorates World Polio Day
World Polio Day (WPD) was commemorated around the world on October 24 under the theme “World Polio Day 2022 and Beyond: A healthier future for mothers and children.”
In Ethiopia, Rotarians, Rotaractors and National Polio Plus Committee (NPPC) members came together to celebrate the day, raise funds, take stoke of achievement so far, note the progress made and challenges ahead to free the world from polio for good, at Sheraton Addis hotel.
“We were about to announce a Polio Free World in 2020 when we faced new outbreaks in severa
l parts of the world, putting children everywhere at risk,” said Teguest Yilma, NPPC Ethiopia Chair, at the event, whilst sharing the message of Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), as ‘the resurgence of polio is not speculation’; we have already seen how quickly it can spread. ‘Polio is not a problem that can wait while we hope for a better time to act. Our message is clear: Any form of polio anywhere in the world is a threat to children everywhere!’
Cognizant of this, the Federal Ministry of Health in conjunction with GPEI partners are gearing to launch a massive integrated preventive Polio campaign, scheduled for the end of November.
Similarly, on August 31, Dr. Lia Tadesse, Minister of Health, met with Rotary National Polio Plus Committee chair, Teguest Yilma, Senior program officers at Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Andrew Stein and Dr. Kimberly Porter 
and GPEI Coordinator, Chris Kamugisha, in view of the recent outbreaks of polio around the world and the importance of good outbreak preparedness and response in Ethiopia.
In the last two years, Ethiopia has made progress in controlling the polio outbreak and has conducted successful national and sub-national polio campaigns. Moreover, great strides have been achieved to strengthen routine immunization with enhanced surveillance activities and social mobilization strategies, in addition to awareness creation within the population.
These steps of progress have safeguarded millions of children and their families from this crippling virus. However, according to W.H.O, detections of new outbreaks, including in areas where polio was believed to have been eradicated, is a stark reminder that children’s safety is at jeopardy until all forms of polio are eradicated everywhere.
In light of this, at the global WPD kick off, discussions in Geneva between WHO, Rotary International and polio experts, was held to consider future efforts to continue the decades-long collaboration against polio.
Recently, the GPEI’s 2022-2026 strategy which lays out the pathway to finish Polio in its last mile garnered significant global commitment in funds, at the 2022 World Health Summit polio pledging event.
Annually on October 24, World Polio Day is marked to provide an opportunity to highlight global efforts toward a polio-free world, and to honour the unwavering commitment of those on the frontlines of the fight to eradicate Polio.
Ethiopia, Djibouti bolster ties as joint ministerial meeting resumes
Djibouti’s port authorities underscore that harsh weather conditions catalyzed by heavy rains was the main reason for the disruption of road network access within its borders. The Djiboutian delegation who were in attendance for the 16th Ethio-Djibouti Joint Ministerial Commission meeting also made it clear that marine charge adjustments were not applicable to Ethiopia’s vessels.
The high profile joint Ministerial meeting which resumed after a three year pause following the global pandemic was held at the Inter Luxury Hotel, Addis Ababa from 24 to 28 October.
According to the information Capital obtained from the delegation led by Demeke Mekonnen, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ethiopia, and Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of Djibouti; both countries have reaffirmed the enhancement of an inclusive cooperation.
Members of the delegation from Djibouti’s side have likewise told Capital that the latest meeting is a sign of strong relations between the two bordering countries.
At the meeting, cooperation on regional, multilateral and economic integration between the two countries was discussed. Subsequently, during the other three days, major joint ministerial meetings on political matters, transport, logistics, trade and commerce, port related issues, agriculture, border security, and infrastructure matters were looked into.
During the meeting, one of the issues raised was hurdles faced in road disruption on the Djibouti side which posed a challenge to Ethiopian truck drivers, who use one of the three border links, the Djibouti-Galafi route.
The Djiboutian delegation cleared up the issue citing that relevant bodies in Djibouti had made frequent maintenance on the Galafi route; however natural harsh rainy conditions at the time made it a challenge.
“We frequently conducted maintenance activities on the road but the heavy Djibouti rains were washing away the infrastructure which made the revamping process hard,” elaborates Aboubaker Omar Hadi, chairman of Djibouti Ports and Free Zones Authority to Capital whilst highlighting the major challenge for the road damage.
With regards to the twenty percent price adjustments made a few months back on the Djibouti ports marine service charge, the Djiboutian delegation confirmed that it was not applicable to Ethiopia’s vessels. “We reaffirm that such increments do not apply to Ethiopian vessels,” one of the delegates explained.
The marine industry in recent years has faced unprecedented price hikes in connection to the global COVID pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war. Recently the global sea transport fee has seen a rise of almost three folds in pricing.
