By Muluken Yewondwossen

Ethiopian Shipping and Logistics (ESL), a state-owned logistics conglomerate, plans to build one of the largest terminals in Hawassa as part of its plan to leveraging the alternate port in Kenya. Another dry port in Moyale is also in the works.

The CEO of the logistics firm, Berisso Amallo, recently said that the establishment of dry ports in the southern region of the nation is one of the priorities for this budget year.

He stated that making use of Kenya’s prospective new port facility, Lamu, is the main goal of the logistics terminals construction. The Head of ESL’s Corporate Communication Department, Demssew Benti, said that work on building the dry ports at Hawassa and Moyale will start in the current fiscal year.

Currently, the only matter that remains is owning land in Hawassa. “As soon as we get the land in the Sidama region’s capital, we will start the project,” he told Capital. Demssew stated that the facility in Hawassa, which is 275km south of Addis Ababa, will rank among the largest dry ports for ESL according to the plan.

“We will build the dry port on a new expansion plot that we will receive, while we have long-established property in Moyale, the Ethio-Kenyan border town that is approximately 780 km south of Addis,” the Communications Department head elaborated.

He added that the facilities will be suitable for the use of Lamu port, which is about 530km from Moyale.

In addition to operating eight dry ports, including the massive one that just opened in Dire Dawa, ESL plans to build a dry port in Jimma, 350 kilometers west of Addis Ababa, during the budget year.

Hawassa, which is home to a number of export-oriented textile and garment factories at the largest industrial park in the nation, will have a suitable substitute when Lamu, which is situated on Kenya’s northeastern coast near the Indian Ocean, is able to serve the nation.

It can be recalled that President Uhuru Kenyatta and Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed opened the One Stop Border Posts at Moyale in late 2020, of which both countries’ now fully utilize the post.

The government of Ethiopia, the most populous country in the world without a sea outlet, is now searching for a number of port options in addition to those located in Djibouti, which is Ethiopia’s main port hub.

For example, the administration hopes to grow by utilizing Somaliland’s Berbera Port, which is well situated on the country’s southeast.

With the intention of serving Ethiopian and South Sudanese logistics, the Kenyan government established Lamu Port, and the port is situated at a beneficial spot for the upcoming works in southern Ethiopia.  

By our staff reporter

EthSwitch, the National Switch of Ethiopia, announces a 172 percentage increase in performance in its 10th Annual Shareholders Meeting held on November 21, 2023 at Hilton Addis Hotel.

The share company which is fully owned by all banks in Ethiopia, through its Board Chairperson, Solomon Desta revealed that it had achieved excellent results in terms of operations, revenue generation and project execution.

In his speech, Solomon cited that, “As per the agreement of the shareholders on March 16, 2023, EthSwitch increased the capital by 2.2 billion and offered 2.2 million new shares to the shareholders. On June 30, 2023, the total paid-up capital reached Birr 941,552,000. While on the ended budget year, the financial performance indicated that the company’s net profit before tax was birr 534,534,327, which showed a 172 percent increase compared to the previous year’s performance.”  

As showcased in the meeting, in the 2022/23 fiscal year, the banking industry made a total of 71,433,041 interoperable ATM transactions which amount to Birr close to 9 billion birr. Compared to the previous year, this showed an increase of 79 percent. In regards to POS, a total of 970,434 interoperable POS transactions worth 2.6 billion birr were made, an increase of 169 percent from last year. In addition, P2P transfer service from one bank account to another bank account amounted to 14.1million birr, showing a growth of 584 percent compared to last year.

In regards to project performance, as the board chair stated, “The National Payment Gateway received a pilot authorization from the National Bank of Ethiopia, and the pilot phase has commenced. The Instant Payment System and Shared Wallet system are on the final stages whilst the Shared Reconciliation project, a multi-tenant platform that creates operational excellence in the day-to-day reconciliation process, has launched and moved to a production environment for EthSwitch’s use.”

At the assembly, it was pointed out that the threat of cyber security was increasing at an alarming rate at the international level as well as in the country, and so in the last financial year, EthSwitch had increased its position in protecting the security of the information of the institution and financial institutions by obtaining the universal payment card industry security standard for the fourth time in a row.

In the same fiscal year, MasterCard ATM service was implemented to enable receiving cross-border money, and that the trial process of POS service is now being carried out by member banks. In addition to this, project initiation works with Discovery Global Network are also expected to be completed in the coming year.

In the next fiscal year, EthSwitch will focus on providing quality services, improving existing infrastructure and replacing it with new ones, completing started projects and strengthening international and regional (cross-border) payment collaborations.