Ghosted Meta Abo employees rob factory
An unknown number of Meta Abo employees were arrested this week for allegedly stealing different equipment from the beer factory which is now acquired by BGI Ethiopia, according to sources.
BGI Ethiopia fully acquired Meta Abo two weeks ago after the approval of the Ethiopian Trade Competition and Consumer Protection Authority (ETCCPA).
The acquisition process had been ongoing for a year with the two companies negotiating, however, during the process, the management teams of Meta from Diageo left the factory before the acquisition was approved. This drove employees of the company to have a cloud of uncertainty hovering around their heads which was further fueled when the company remained silent about the transition and new administration.
As sources indicate, following BGI’s takeover of the company, several equipment from the factory was noted to be missing. According to source, suspected employees have been arrested starting early this week.
Meta Abo brewery which is based out of Sebeta, Oromia region had accrued about 3.7 billion birr in government tax debt starting from 2017.
The 500-employee-sized factory was sold to Castel with negotiations considering the effect of the seizure of the factory by the government.
Meta Abo was then sold to Diageo in 2012 after privatization at a price tag of 225 million dollars. After acquiring the factory in 2012, Diageo made 119 million dollars in investment for the expansion of the factory and has since pumped a total of 344 million dollars in investment throughout the years for its expansion with the aim of transforming the brewing industry in Ethiopia.
Initially, the production capacity of the brewery was 50,000hl per annum, however, Diageo’s investment, which was detailed back in 2015 saw the company re-launching the Meta brand at higher capacities.
On a downward spiral of events, Meta was acquired by BGI at a 60 birr per share value, which according to documents is a fizzled-out price point from the prior valuation of 1000 birr per-share value. This comes at a time when the factory was at the tip of crisis which is indicative of the nose dive devaluation of the company that has shrunk by 94 percent.
Documents indicated the factory has about 11 billion birr in registered capital. BGI Ethiopia, part of the Castel Group and four other persons, namely, Feven Mulat, Laurent Lescuyer, Julien Flecheux and Amdémichael Getahun who are employees of the Castel Group have now fully taken over from Guinness Overseas Holdings Limited (which is a company of Diageo group) in addition to other four natural persons, with a total stake of 100 percent.
NBE issues risk-based internal audit directive
Experts opine it will streamline efficiency across the sector
National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) issues a risk-based internal audit (RBIA) directive for insurers.
As per the views of the sector experts, the directive enacts similar fundamental issues to that issued for banks in mid-2020 with the aim to enhance soundness in the insurance sector much like that of the financial sector as it continues to modernize.
A few months back, senior leaders in the insurance sector had a bit of mixed reaction on the matter, with debates on the relevance of the directive being questioned since insurers by default were general risk-based run; while some opined that the directive was more relevant for banks as opposed to their sector.
Moreover, insurance presidents echoed to Capital that the insurance sector by default is vigilant to tackle risks since its major operation is facing risk-based businesses.
However, experts recommended that the directive might give a written guideline to mitigate possible challenges.
In the past few months, the regulatory body has been consulting with stakeholders to finalize the draft directive that is now issued as ‘risk based internal audit directive no. SIB/55/2022’.
The RBIA directive is more or less the same as the directive for banks that was issued as directive no. SBB/76/2020 which came to effect on August 24, 2020.
Its preamble stated that; it is supplemental to the risk based supervision, enhances soundness of an insurer, “RBIA improves the effectiveness of internal control system and enhances corporate governance of a company.”
The directive underlined that companies should establish an independent and competitive RBIA body that directly reports to the board.
“There is a need to have an internal audit function that not only independently ensures accuracy, reliability, timeliness and completeness of transactions as well as financial and operational information, but also compliance with accounting principles, directives, policies, procedures, relevant laws and efficiency and effectiveness of resources used,” the directive explained at its intro, and added that insurers ought to ensure that the new body has sufficient authority as well as structure and staffing to commensurate the size and complexity of the company.
In a related development, NBE has issued similar directives for companies that it regulates to introduce information technology (IT) to their operation.
The regulatory body enforced banks to automate their operation through IT as mandatory. Likewise, the directive that was also issued for insurance business operators, microfinance institutions (MFIs) and capital goods finance companies enforced companies to use IT systems for their operation.
The directive for insurance companies enforced insurers to automate core services within two years with similar transition periods for banks, while it has given three years as a transition period for MFIs and capital goods finance companies.
So far banks have supported the directive and experts have cited that it shall harmonize the current effort of financial instructions to automate their operations.
Experts explained that thus far, the banking industry was in part through its due diligence pushing for excellence to modernize its operations and business, though it was not a requirement by NBE.
Recently bank presidents told Capital that the new directive that became effective a month ago will boost the banking industry as it preps for stiff competition when it opens its doors to other international banks.
Bankers said that it is pivotal for banks to invest in IT, “banks have different investments on information technology to which the new directive will give the required framework for their investments and brings them to the standard on the sector.”
Ethiopia goes 5G
Ethiopia will join Kenya and South Africa as the only three countries to have deployed commercial 5G services on the continent as Ethio telecom completes its preparation for the adoption of 5G as of Monday, May 10, 2022.
The company is implementing the project using technology from the Chinese technology company, Huawei.
5G is set to be introduced to deal with the high volume of data transmission in dense urban networks in the country and will be upgraded to the existing 4G infrastructure which will help in user demand whilst solving data traffic.
The network is said to be applied to hotspot areas in Addis Ababa, including the areas around the head office of Ethio telecom and the premises of Bole International Airport.
Globally, 5G network services for commercial use were first deployed in 2018 by Verizon. In Africa, 5G networks are available in Kenya and South Africa.
As part of expanding its business and enhancing customers’ experience on Friday, May 6, 2022, the operator together with seven national organizations and institutions has signed exclusive business partnership agreements to distribute telecom products and services.
Based on the signed agreement, these national distributors would exclusively engage in business areas such as telebirr services, mobile airtime top-up, new SIM card sales, SIM card replacement services, handset and devices sales on behalf of Ethio telecom as main distributors as well as providing the company’s products and services for the customers by opening their own franchise shops.
Hidase Telecom Share Company, Ethiopian Postal Service, Nared General Trading PLC, Highlight Stationery & Manufacturing Trading, Smart Digital Technologies PLC, Teleport Technologies PLC and Alami Industrial Engineering are said to be the exclusively distribute telecom products and services nationwide.
Previously, the roles of these distributors have been limited to distributing voucher cards, EVD and Yimulu services. However, this new partnership exclusive agreement would enable them to widely engage in a number of Ethio telecom products and services sales at the national level.
Ethio telecom has 509 shops as well as 134 franchise shops operating all over the country. The company has also signed deals with 13 organizations to exclusively distribute Ethio telecom products and services at the company’s Zonal and Regional levels. In addition to this, there are other 48 enterprises that have been working with the company as distributors and this will bring the total number of Ethio telecom products and services distributors to 68 as a whole.
Furthermore, there are 9,448 sub-distributors and 350,102 retailers which increase the total number of organizations/institutions to be 359,618 operating jointly in the partnership ecosystem to which over one million jobs are said to be generated through these business partners.
