Ambassador Henok Tefera, hands in a letter of resignation to Safaricom Ethiopia after seven months of work with the new telecommunications entrant.

According to Safaricom Ethiopia, it’s now former Chief External Affairs and Regulatory Officer, resigned voluntarily due to personal and family reasons.

Henok Tefera, who was the former Ethiopian Ambassador to France, Spain, Portugal and Monaco, came to the Safaricom role after his predecessor Matthew Harrison Harvey left the firm back in December 2022.

Following Henok’s resignation from Safaricom, Sisay Zerihun has been appointed as the acting Chief External Affairs and Regulatory Officer. Zerihun is attributed to have served for two years at Safaricom in different positions whilst also bringing local and international expertise form different sectors.

On related news, Safaricom Ethiopia has announced that it has extended its service to 280 cities. The telecommunications firm stated that the total number of customers has now reached more than four million. Furthermore, the company also stated that it will build 12,000 network transmission towers in the coming years.

By our staff reporter

The Ethiopian Shipping and Logistics (ESL) discloses that in less than two weeks, 67,000 metric tons of fertilizer has been conveyed to the country through various inland modes of transportation.

As the government continues to strategize to ensure timely supply of the commodity during the 2023/24 farming seasons, it was revealed that the administration had made an early purchase during the current budget year.

In less than two weeks, fertilizer cargo from two ships has already reached the country, according to information Capital acquired from ESL.

According to Siraj Abdulahi, ESL’s Deputy CEO for Service Enterprise, 67,345 metric tons of fertilizer was carried to Ethiopia in the past 14 days window.

He went on to say that of the claimed tonnage carried by two vessels, 10,360 metric tons were transferred by rail.

Sofia Kassa, State Minister of the Ministry of Agriculture, stated that two vessels carrying about 51,000 and 31,000 metric tonnes of fertilizer each have arrived in Djibouti port, and that “the majority of the consignment has already been transported to the country.”

She told Capital that during the fiscal year, the government took the initiative to acquire fertilizer early in order to feed farmers for the next three farming seasons.

“We are supplying the fertilizer for the current dry season farming that is carried on irrigation scheme, and the upcoming farming seasons, Belge and Meher, which the latter is the major rainy season,” she continued.

She said that some of the other vessels carrying fertilizer consignments are at the loading port, while others are en route to a port in Djibouti.

Six vessels will arrive in Djibouti ports between the end of November and the beginning of December, according to Siraj.

“At this point, two ports in Djibouti City and its surroundings can handle six vessels at a time, so the consignment will be discharged  and transported without any breaks,” he said Capital.

Ethiopian fertilizer gets shipped to port destinations such as SDTV, the oldest port facility in the center of Djibouti, and DMP, the largest port facility, which is situated in Doraleh, on the outskirts of the city.

The government has set a goal to import 23 million tons of various types of fertilizer throughout the current crop seasons.

In an exclusive interview with Capital, Berisso Amallo, CEO of ESL, applauded the efforts of all parties in the collaboration and consignment procurement procedure.

“The government’s commitment is necessary to expedite fertilizer purchases,” Berisso stated, adding, “This has allowed us to transport the cargo and distribute it to farmers on time.”

By Eyasu Zekarias

EthSwitch, a share company fully owned by financial institutions in Ethiopia inks a memorandum of understanding with the National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI), to streamline a national payment system, which is backed by domestic transaction systems.

According to the share company’s CEO, Yilebes Addis, the payment gateway is a modern digital payment strategy which aims to encourage digital adoption among merchants and financial institutions.

“EthSwitch is serving as an online interoperable payment system, and will collaborate with financial institutions to establish a digital domestic payment system whilst enhancing transactions and enabling secure online payments,” the CEO pointed out, further explaining that since the two countries do have similar systems they can seamlessly pay through Unified Payment Interface (UPI) and Instant Payment Platform systems.

Through the card called EthSwitch Ethiopia, transactions can be made from financial institutions in India through an instant payment platform. Similarly, an Indian with a NPCI Rupee card can trade or withdraw money in Ethiopia through the UPI.

As Yilebes indicates, EthSwitch has already launched a national payment gateway and has completed the trial process of the same.

The National Payment Gateway is said to link customers’ bank accounts and enable third-party payments through credit cards, debit cards and mobile money.

EthSwitch, which announced the completion of the trial process, stated that payment gateway financial institutions and digital financial service providers can perform various payment options over the Internet, and that this had been implemented in certain financial institutions in the last three months.

EthSwitch, which is owned by private and public banks and digital financial institutions in Ethiopia, including the National Bank, aims to expand digital payments in Ethiopia and enable businesses and consumers to make e-commerce payments.

According to the company’s statements, the trial process of the National Payment Gateway has been ongoing since July 2023, after receiving approval from the National Bank.

Ethio Telecom in partnership with the Ministry of Trade and Regional Integration, the Petroleum and Energy Authority and Ethiopian Petroleum Supply Enterprise launches digital solutions to streamline the fuel supply management system by replacing the paper based traditional system of fuel coupon distribution.

According to the telecommunications firm, it has developed and launched the state-of-the-art fuel supply chain management system to empower the operation of fuel supply chain management digitally.

“This digital solution would play a tremendous role in modernizing the traditional and paper-based operational process in the fuel supply chain, to get accurate data, control fuel stock, automate processes, and reduce foreign exchange strain as well as for real-time monitoring and efficient fuel distribution,” revealed Tele in its statement.

The company has also made an agreement with the Ministry of Transport and Logistics and the Road Safety and Insurance to digitalize the third-party insurance services provisioning.