The Association of Ethiopian Insurers hold interactive discussions with the Addis Ababa Police Commission on ways to curb traffic accidents, in addition to strengthening integration between the two parties on information sharing after accidents occur.
With motor vehicle accidents becoming one of the ever increasing public health problem in Ethiopia, discussions on the matter with all actors concerned is proving to be vital.
Insurers often have a motor insurance which is a contract between the insured and the insurance company that protects against financial loss, but as the discussions show, such contracts play a bigger role.
Since insurance and road safety are natural, motor insurance is a necessity but it is often a difficult class of business to manage. Thus the appropriate strategies and options must be emplaced.
The motor insurance industry plays an important role in road safety. Not only do most motor insurance companies assist in the creation of awareness through advertisements and circulars to clients, but they also provide the platform and solution to repair damaged vehicles.
“Insurance is about more than just compensating for loss as it is a highly effective mechanism for assessing, managing and reducing risk. By helping customers face up to and manage risk effectively, insurance is an invaluable part of modern society and the motoring experience,” as indicated on the meeting.
Different participants from both the insurance and police commission attended the fruitful discussion, and agreed to work in partnership.
Insurers, traffic police hold discussion on curbing accidents
Pink Lotus organizes recognition, fundraiser for breast cancer
Pink Lotus Ethiopia under the Meron Foundation organizes a recognition and fundraising dinner to support its cause of breast cancer awareness creation, mainly promoting early detection. Held on Thursday, September 15 at Inter luxury Hotel, different guests of the community attended the event.
“It has been 2 and half years since this foundation was established. We believe that early detected breast cancer can be cured, and we have achieved a lot including preparing different campaigns to create awareness on breast cancer including preventive measures, signs and also treatments,” said Meron Kebede founder of Meron foundation, and breast cancer survivor.
“There are different people in different sectors, who support our cause, and this program is to thank those who have been supporting us and at the same time we want to use the platform to raise funds,” said the founder.
Pink Lotus Ethiopia Breast Cancer Support Group is a self-help group who gather to share common problems and experience associated with breast cancer. It is under Meron cancer foundation, working in the area of breast cancer awareness creation, mainly promoting early detection.
“So far, we are reaching more than 10,000 women through awareness training and free screening campaigns with the help of more than 100 medical doctors,” Meron highlights.
In Ethiopia, breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer-morbidity among adult women, accounting for one-third of all cancer cases among women and one in five of all cancer cases.
According to Meron, the impact of the illness has been incited by 70% of affected individuals presenting late in the disease when medical interventions have a slim chance of succeeding.
“It’s just the beginning. We have a long way to go, and it’s our goal to reverse 70 percent of late-stage clinical presentations to 0 percent. And we believe we can do it,” said Meron with conviction.
In a country like Ethiopia, majority of breast cancer in women is presented at an advanced clinical stage, resulting in limited and difficult therapeutic options contributing to the poor survival rate.
Women living in rural areas often seek treatment from traditional healers before seeking help within the formal health system. Patients who have direct access to local and regional hospitals have the fewest number of encounters for treatment elsewhere. In the past two and half years, Pink Lotus has been working in Addis Ababa and its surrounding. “We have plans to go outside of Addis,” said Meron indicating that achieving this goal without the local community is impossible.
“We have come this far because of our local people who have a golden heart to help people. And we still need this support to happen on a continual basis to change the demography of breast cancer in our time,” emphasized Meron.
NBE revises credit directive, agriculture sector to reap benefits
The National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) revises the external loan and supplier’s credit directive for the third time in less than 15 months. The agricultural development sector in line to benefit from the credit based import.
In June last year, the regulatory body had reviewed the 2017 directive on the aim to include the manufacturing industry in gaining access to credit for their import. However as per the 2017 directive, foreign investors were included on the scheme to which the preceding similar directive was only exploited by businesses which were engaged on export earnings sector.
The newly amended directive that became effective on September 7, ‘external loan and supplier’s credit directive no FXD/82/2022’ has included the agriculture sector to be part of the scheme.
The newly included article 4.4 indicated that agricultural machines/inputs imports shall benefit from the credit import that will be settled by local banks in the future.
Besides the agriculture sector, the LGP gas import has also been backed by the new directive to access supplier’s credit scheme.
Unlike FDI and manufacturing sectors which were included on the directive, the newly added sectors only need pro-forma invoice with a minimum one year credit period.
While to access the scheme for the manufacturing sector it required a pro-forma invoice with a minimum one year credit and a minimum of one year for external loan repayment. However, the pro-forma invoice for the FDI was 180 days, which angered the manufacturing sector who claimed that the central bank just revised and included the manufacturing industry in order to say it has benefited from the scheme.
“In real terms, it is difficult to come up with potential suppliers on pro-forma invoice with a minimum of one year,” manufacturers expressed their anger towards NBE.
Some experts stated that the current move of the government to include the agricultural machines /inputs import on the credit import is part of the initiative that was embarked by the government to improve production and productivity.
It had been stated that the agriculture sector was neglected from access to finance, tax incentive and hard currency, despite being the major source for the economy and hard currency earnings.
About three years ago, the government changed its course and allowed every toll starting from small pumps and relevant agricultural inputs to be imported on a duty free scheme.
It has also fully supported the agricultural mechanization to expand the agricultural output with modern farming that is showing change.
Tele knits strategy to set pace as digital solutions provider
75 billion birr in revenue projected in 2022/23
Ethio Telecom rolls out a new three year development strategy called LEAD, which is said to enable a thriving competitive market as the firm seeks to be a leader in digital solutions.
The development strategy, LEAD, is divided in three fiscal years from 2022-25. The first fiscal year 2022/23 has already seen implementations begin as from last month.
The development strategy dubbed “LEAD” is believed to transform the state-owned telecom company into a competitive company.
“LEAD provides reliable communication and digital financial services to simplify life and accelerate digital transformation of Ethiopia,” read the Company’s new mission.
“Strategies are made to ensure competitiveness and sustainable growth of the company, the strategy has been developed by considering and reviewing new business streams and shifting revenue source from traditional to value which is expected by the company,” said sources that Capital spoke to.
“The company has been using the BRIDGE strategy for the last three years which has been successful in transforming the company. However, it has now needed to change its strategy to LEAD, so as to continue its developments as a leading telecoms provider,” read the document sent to Capital, adding, ”The company has restructured its mission vision, values and strategic themes to go with the current telecom market.”
The three-year development strategy focuses on; being a leading brand, increasing it customers, excellence in operation, increasing accessibility and ensuring customer experience, deploying innovative and new products and services, and insuring the company’s successful operation.
In the first fiscal year 2022/23, Ethio Telecom plans to generate 75.05 billion birr in revenue which is 13.7 billion birr or 22.4 percent greater than 2021/22. The company plans to increase the total number of subscribers from 66.59 million to 73.47 million in 2022/23.
Consequently, the company aims to boost mobile penetration from 61.3 percent to 65.9 percent and the company hopes to increase its revenue from international business from 146.58 million dollars to 151.3 million dollars.
In addition to the telecom service, Ethio telecom has planned to strengthen its telebirr share in the market by targeting to reach a customer base of 32 .6 million in 2022/23 from 20.9million and also plans to gain 180.8 million birr in revenue from telebirr.
Ethio telecom has been implementing its BRIDGE strategy for the last three years starting from 2019-2022. At the time, Ethio telecom had around 43 million subscribers.
In July 2018, the board of directors of Ethiopia’s lone telecom company, Ethio Telecom, appointed, Frehiwot Tamru as CEO replacing Andualem Admassie (PhD). At the time, the company replaced 40 individuals who were working in different positions of the company. “Since then the company has been making certain changes continuously, yet this one is the biggest,” sources explained.
In the already ended 2021/22 fiscal year, Ethio telecom has garnered 61.3 billion birr in revenue, which is 87.6 percent of the target and 8.5 percent increment from the previous budget year.
“Given the current challenging environment in our country, this achievement can be considered as remarkable,” said the CEO. The main factor for Ethio Telecom’s under-performance is the continuing civil war in the Tigray region. Out of 3,473 base stations, 45 percent from the total were out of operation and 1,144 of those sites are still out of operation.
Currently, the total subscribers of Ethio telecom have reached 66.59 million, achieving 104% of the subscriber base target and an increase of 18.4% from the previous budget year similar period. Mobile voice subscribers reached 64.5 million, Data and Internet users 26.1 million, Fixed Services 885.3K and Fixed Broadband subscribers reached 506.8K. The telecom density has also peaked at 63.3%.
Ethio Telecom is currently engaged in various network expansion and telecom infrastructure capacity enhancement projects. The rollout of 4G/LTE has been completed in 136 cities and pre-commercial 5G services have been launched in Addis Ababa.
Government has recently also liberalized Ethiopia’s telecommunications sector as part of the country’s ongoing reforms to promote social, political and economic development and on May, 2021 a new telecommunications license had been awarded to the Global Partnership for Ethiopia. The company Safaricom Ethiopia Telecomnication PLC has roped out its service two weeks ago on August 29, 2022 after serious delay of its operation. The company has now started its operation in three towns. Regardless of its current initiation and notable performance in expanding digital service for various sectors and high achievement in revenue earning, Ethio telecom is working to increase its capacity to every corner of the country and serve the people in good quality.
