State owned vessels operator, Ethiopian Shipping and Logistics (ESL), designs a strategic plan to go head and shoulders above the rest in the coming few years.
The logistics mammoth plans to boost its foreign currency generation by six folds from cross trade, expand its carrying capacity by 3.6 folds and containers ownership by 7.7 folds.
The enterprise which successfully swapped its vessel tankers with huge Ultramax disclosed that its vessel ownership will be increased in the coming five years.
As Wondwossen Kassa (Cap), Deputy CEO for the Shipping Sector at ESL, opines, the upgrade to huge vessels will accelerate the fleet of ESL, the sole cross continent vessel operator in Africa.
As the captain expressed, in line with the forecasts and sector dynamics, ESL has designed a plan that has beefed its lane from five to seven years, “In order to deal with the ever changing shipping dynamics and achieve our vision and mission, ESL has launched its revised 7 year strategic plan.”
After five years, since new players may join the sector in Ethiopia, the multimodal logistics monopoly is now aggressively working round the clock to be ready for the upcoming competition.
Cognizant of the reduction of commodities transported on FOB as a result of increase in commodities loaded from Djibouti, the success of cross trade which has been the backbone of ESL’s revenue is at the center of the logistics firm’s agenda to which it is positioning itself strategically to ensure it is on top of its revenue stream.
Feeders’ service is also expected to be boosted in the coming year, while regional and international circumstances are also included to the designed strategic plan.
“For instance, the peace process in Yemen is expected to be a good market for ESL. Moreover, wind energy has become a new segment in the global arena, such is the case for Saudi Arabia which has new projects in addition to the establishment of new cities in the Kingdom,” the Deputy CEO explained.
Regarding the wind project, he explained that there are several countries undertaking wind project all over the world, however, most of the equipment are manufactured in China that needs transportation.
“To meet the demand, we need to have big vessels that accommodate the latest type of wind turbines,” Wondwossen (Cap) elaborates, adding, “This is the reason which has led us to revise and come up with a new strategic plan to achieve great results in the coming years.”
“ESL, as one of the major players in the Ethiopian economy, always strives to fulfill its ambition for growth and in meeting stake holders’ expectations. Ships fleet expansion and diversification is one big part of the business,” the Deputy CEO said.
According to the Deputy CEO, in this plan, there are three main shipping segments under which ESL is working to engage with and expand its operations.
The first one is the multipurpose vessel operator segment. ESL is one of the known handy size multipurpose (MPP) operator in the shipping market and has a plan to acquire four 62,000metric tons MPP vessels in the coming 5 years. Such acquisitions will further consolidate ESL’s position as MPP operator in the international market.
The second one is the container shipping segment, “Considering the fast changing local, regional and international realities, ESL believes its container carrying capacity and connectivity should be enhanced.”
“Likewise we plan to increase our container inventory from 13,000 TEU to 100,000 TEU and the container deadweight capacity to 237,000 metric tons in the coming 5 years,” the Captain explained ESL’s ambitions, adding, “Such an expansion will help us to target annual container carrying capacity of 400,000 TEU.”
Last but not least was the bulk segment. On this segment ESL plans to acquire 8 Ultramax bulk carries with a total carrying capacity of 500,000 DWT. The main target of this segment is to support Ethiopian bulk import trade and generate enough revenue from the regional and international cross trade market.
At the end of full implementation of the plan, ESL will increase its revenue from cross trade alone by six folds from the current USD 30 million to USD 180 million and its DWT capacity from the current 305,000 metric tons to 1.1 million metric tons after five years.
“We are confident that we will hit our targets,” Wondwossen (Cap), assertively concluded.

The Federal Auditor General claims parliament didn’t act as expected regarding ‘huge audit gaps’.
On a press conference held on Friday, June 30, 2023, Meseret Damte, head of the office, indicated that even though the number of complaints about audit reports was decreasing from time to time, the audit gap was equally increasing in parallel.
As Meseret highlights, “The country continues to experience significant financial losses in the form of uncollected revenues, cash deficits, unaccounted and illicit expenses, financial irregularities, and illegal purchases without following rules.”
As indicated in the press conference, the Auditor General said that the amount overdue by the federal government offices that have not been collected in the 2021/22 fiscal year from the financial audit carried out in 131 federal offices reached 15.12 billion birr and was categorized in the “uncollected” account. The auditor-general mentioned that this amount was nine billion birr in the 2020–21 fiscal year.
As cited, in the 2021/22 fiscal year, 1.56 billion birr of expenditure beyond the allocated budget and a 1.3 billion birr cash deficit have been registered.
“This amount is huge when it comes to our economy and has to be collected. This revelation has raised serious concerns about financial management and the accountability in the country,” alarmed the Auditor General.
As she indicated, her office has conducted an investigation to ensure that action has been taken on the deficiencies found in the audit reports conducted in the 2020–21 fiscal year and before. As indicated in her report to parliament on June 27, 2023, only 0.65 percent of the 6.88 billion birr that was recommended for refunds in the 2020/21 fiscal year and before was refunded.
“The reports issued by the auditor general serve as a testament to the alarming extent of the budget gap. I don’t think that members of parliament understand that they are obliged to follow up on the financial performances and take the appropriate measurement,” Meseret alerted.
The Auditor General called on members of parliament as well as the standing committees to understand their responsibilities, see audit reports of government institutions, and follow up on their performance.
“The power and function of our office are to audit all the institutions that it has planned and to report the findings to the House of Representatives,” she emphasized on the pivotal role of her office.
As she explains, the office follows the “Westminster” audit system model, which is implemented by countries that follow a parliamentary system, and its authority and responsibility is to submit reports to the House of Representatives based on the findings of the various audits it has conducted on various institutions.
Also, as Meseret indicated in the year 2021/22, her office was not unable to do six institutional audit reports, including security organizations limited by the establishment regulation of the organizations, “We believe that these security organizations should also be audited as they are using tax payer’s money and it can be kept in secret if need be. If we see other countries experiences; they acknowledge being audited but it will only be presented to the respective stakeholder.”
Additionally, 19 institutions were found to have significant problems and were given objectionable comments.
The Auditor General by way of role management is required by law to examine and report annually to parliament on the accounts of Ministries, Departments, Regional Health Authorities, Regional Corporations and such State Controlled Enterprises and Statutory Boards for which the Auditor General is the statutory auditor.

Ethiopian Shipping and Logistics (ESL) officially welcomes its new upgrade and biggest ever vessel on its berth at Ethiopia’s home port, Djibouti port.
MV Abbay II, Ultramax bulk carriers which has close to 64,000 DWT, was commemorated on a ceremony held on Sunday June 25 on its first arrival at Djibouti Doraleh Multipurpose Port, one of ESL’s home ports in Djibouti, with the presence of senior government, port and logistics officials from Djibouti and Ethiopia.
Wondwossen Kassa (Cap), Deputy CEO for Shipping Sector at ESL, expressed that it was not all smooth sailing as multiple ups and downs were weathered for the past year for the realization of this success.
During the welcoming event, he recalled that one of the major milestones in the company’s history was acquisition of 9 Ships in 2012/13 out of which two were product tankers with a carrying capacity of 42,150 DWT each.

“These two product tankers were purchased with the intention to transport import petroleum products for our country. However, these tanker vessels could not be deployed to their intended purposes for various reasons and posed a challenge to the company,” he highlighted on his speech.
As a mitigation measure to avoid financial losses, the company had to look for options to keep them in business. For the past eleven years vessels were engaged mostly on time charter.
“This has somehow assisted in reducing the financial burden but could not alleviate the loss in total,” the Deputy CEO explained.
Studies conducted on various occasions that started five years ago revealed that continual operation of these tankers vessels for the rest of their accounting life to be a loss and suggested for other options. Among the recommended options were to sell the tankers, convert them to bulk or swap them with bulk carrier vessel.
As Wondwossen (Cap) pointed out, “However, implementation of the recommended measures could not be executed due to various reasons.”

At the same time, an additional in house feasibility study was conducted in October 2021 which concluded similar findings. Following this, ESL’s management board after scrutinizing the study and recommended options, gave direction on four alternatives so as to avoid further financial loss to the company.
The recommendation put forth included; swapping tankers with one new Ultramax bulker, swapping tankers with one second hand Ultramax bulker, swapping tankers for one second hand Supramax bulker, which was tabled as a third option while the fourth proposal was swapping tankers for two second hand Supramax bulkers, which had lesser carrying capacity compared with Ultramax type of vessels.
Accordingly, a technical team comprising three company staff was formed in February 2022 and efforts to realize the plan commenced immediately.
“After working tirelessly for almost a year and half, the process has been successfully concluded courtesy of acquiring the biggest ever vessel under the second option that was proposed in the recommendation,” Wondwossen (Cap) told Capital.
MV ABBAY II with DWT capacity of 63,229 and overall length of 200 meter is the first of its kind to ESL’s fleet and was built back in 2016 by Yangzhou Dayang Shipbuilding Co. Ltd., China.
It used was previously registered in Majuro under the flag of Marshal Islands and was operated by Bernhard Schulte Ship management, a vessel management company based in Hamburg, Germany.
“On 25th of April 2023, after finalizing all the preparations and conducting underwater inspection, the delivery procedure was concluded and the document was exchanged. The vessel was then immediately registered under the Ethiopian flag and was given the name ABBAY II. After a long journey of 59 years in the shipping business ESL has now entered in to a new chapter and phase of growth and opportunity,” the Deputy CEO said.
He further underlined that the commemoration of MV Abbay II is a new dawn, chapter and beginning to the company’s history, “It is the first of its kind and much more will follow.”
The Deputy CEO applauded the role of ESL’s former and current CEOs, technical team, board chairman and members, for making all the right decisions and timely support.
He also appreciated MV ABBAY II’s Master, Wubeshet Mekonnen (Cap) and his crew for the smooth taking over of the vessel.
Wondwossen (Cap), told Capital that the new bulk carrier vessel was in high demand in the market and would easily magnetize business for the coming several years at good efficiency.

“These segments of vessels are new generation type of vessels that have less than ten years of history and technically such kind of vessels perform at high fuel efficiency, shallow graft, and carrying capacity and complement the environmental conservation front,” he elaborated.
Wubeshet (Cap), a Master who now leads Abbay II from the former management, told Capital that on its voyage under the Ethiopian flag, the vessel arrived at Pyeongtaek-Dangjin, a port in South Korea, and Dung Quat and Phu My Ports in Vietnam to load steel cargos that will be discharged at Spain ports of Huelva and Bilbao, and Port of Antwerp in Belgium.
Apart from the new coming vessel, ESL currently has nine multipurpose vessels with Handysize segment with a carrying capacity of about 28,000 each.
Abby II is expected to serve the company on its dry bulk shipments front including fertilizer and other cargos that Ethiopia may import besides its activity of cross trade and charter fleets.
Hassan Houmed Ibrahim, Minister of Infrastructure and Equipment of Djibouti, Birhanu Tsegaye, Ethiopian Ambassador to Djibouti, Djama Ibrahim Dara, Managing Director of PDSA/DMP, and other logistics leaders from the two countries attended the event.