Dashen Bank, in partnership with EagleLion System Technology, has reinvented Ethiopia’s traditional deferred payment purchase scheme by infusing local wisdom with cutting edge technology. The duo have come together to give birth to Ethiopia’s first “Buy-Now Pay Later” scheme by the name Dube Ale, an antidote to the infamous stopper, ‘dube yelem’.
Dube Ale is a short-term financing that the Bank renders in collaboration with merchants and traders. It enables the society to purchase goods and services and pay later in three months, six months or a year with or without interest.
The bank, which is a pioneer in introducing technology backed products and services to the Ethiopian banking industry, indicated that Dube Ale is expected to boost customer base of trading partners as it enables them to render a more affordable buy now, pay later scheme and fuel economic activities that would otherwise be constrained by consumers’ limited ability to pay upfront to buy products and services the moment they need them.
“With the deferred payment option brought about by Dube Ale, consumption and usage will be encouraged that in turn add a boost to merchants’ turnover,” it added.
Dube Ale application will easily be made available for download in addition to its simple registration metric in order to start the service. “To start using the service, one needs to go to the nearby branch of Dashen Bank to get a spending limit to commence using the scheme,” the financial firm disclosed.
Dashen Bank’s digital innovation extends from its strong backend infrastructure. The Bank has also launched recently a Tier-III ready data centre, the first of its kind in the country’s private banking industry, with accompanying security and network centers.
The Bank previously has introduced a payment platform called Amole, which now is being used by millions of subscribers. Dashen Bank has also pioneered micro saving and credit products in collaboration with Ethio-Telecom in August, 2022.
Dashen Bank reinvents credit service with ‘Dube’
Mining for Ethiopia’s success
As Ethiopia continues on its trajectory of growth catalyzed by reform, the mining sector more than ever is becoming pivotal to the economy as a diversification from agriculture. The country has deposits of coal, opal, gemstones, kaolin, iron ore, soda ash, and tantalum, and gold, which is mined in significant quantities.
Since 18 August 2020, the Ministry of Mines has been led by Eng. Takele Uma, who prior to his appointment as minister, served as the 31st Mayor of Addis Ababa. During his time as mayor, Takele came to prominence for his transformational way of doing business and his visionary leadership roles after Ethiopia’s reform government rejuvenated the country from 2018.
As the Minister looks to revitalize the mining sector, Capital’s Muluken Yewondwossen reached out to Takele for in depth insights on his ministry’s activities amongst other pertinent topics of import substitution and domestic production of cement and fertilizer. Excerpts;
Capital: How would you best describe the overall alignment of the mining sector to the ten year development plan?
Takele Uma: The mining sector is one of the main pillars of the ten year development plan. Import substitutions of mining items are very much integral to the manufacturing industries and agricultural sector. It is one of the five pillars in the plan. To unlock our sector’s full potential we have been and still are preparing clear policies and regulations. The Home Grown Economic Reform (HGER) plan emphasizes two things, one of which is using local resources whilst the other is strongly considering these local resources as sources of capital to increase local productivity. Additionally, this ten year plan focuses on job creation specially in connecting both skilled human resource with industries and also in expansion of digital economy and technology. The mining sector is a baseline for agriculture, manufacturing and other sector development. That is why mining is stated as one of the pillars for the in demand growth for the coming years.
Capital: What are you doing in terms of planning to increase productivity and value addition of local production?
Takele Uma: Some of the main issues in increasing production and productivity are technology, capital and skilled human resource. We have been trying to export mining products especially gold, lithium, tantalum and gemstones in limited levels even at a time when we didn’t have a clear mining policy and regulation.
The main goal in the economic reform is building a strong value chain in the sector to increase local productivity. Here for example if we take coal, government used to spend more than 750 million dollars to import coal. However, after the revision of the plan it dropped to 300 million dollar and now we are almost fully covering the demand with local production. We can find coal in every region of the country and this coal is a source of energy for several industries including cement, steel and textile too.
For quite a while it was considered that despite the country’s colossal resource of coal, its quality was lesser than the heating quality of the import.
We have changed this rational.
Even though studies show that Ethiopian coal has high moisture, sulfur content and changes to ash firmly rather than steaming which has impact on its worth of giving energy; now as part of the plan of changing resources to capital, we are conducting beneficiation to comb impurities out of local coal to improve its heat value. This in turn makes it more effective and enables the substitution of the imported coal.
Beside coal, the steel industry is also one of our focus areas. On this, the country spends billions of dollars annually to import billets for the sector despite there being a huge number of scraps stored in back yards of both government and non-government premises. Currently, in our short run plan, we have decided to collect scraps from all government, regional and private premises including the old railroad steel which will fill the demand of steel industries for two or three years.
For the long run, we have prepared research that proves that Ethiopia has huge potential with regards to the iron ore. As we all know, the northern part around Sekota and in the west part of Gimbi, the country has an ore reserve, which has a content of 40 percent.
However, the latest exploration result at Guji area shows a huge potential of iron ore with content of 85 percent of the ore. Recently, we have found out through a series of activities carried out by a Turkish company that Gambella has been identified with enormous potential which is about 99.5 percent of iron ore from hematite resource.
From these positives, I can confidently say that the future prosperity of our country will be propelled by our mining sector. Currently, our factories are steel smelting plants and in the near future we are planning to build industries that can produce inputs for the existing factories using local resources.
The other focus area is fertilizers which has high impact to our country since 85 percent of the population depends on the agricultural sector. Similar to the other sectors, we spend in billions of dollars to import fertilizer yet we have the resource to produce locally.
(Photo: Anteneh Aklilu)
Ammonia, a feedstock for fertilizer, which is produced from natural gas to which we have a huge potential of natural gas in Ogaden basin, in Gambella, in the Abay basin and the Rift Valley. For Ogaden basin alone, we have a certified potential of 7trillion cubic feet of natural gas in two fields. Now we are in talks with different companies that have shown interest including the Russian company GAZProm, Turkish company Çalik Energy, UAE Company ADNOC and a few American companies. We expect the coming company to do more researches and feasibility studies. Of course we as government will work with them in partnership with the Ethiopian Investment Holding. Without fertilizer production, we will not reap the full benefits of modern agriculture, so we have to produce fertilizer to revolutionize the agricultural sector.
The other focus is the construction sector. In this sector, besides the demand of the steel industry, cement is also the other focus area. Ethiopia has 100 percent of inputs or resource to cement production; and based on our GDP per capita, Ethiopia is expected to produce a minimum of 52 million tons per annum. However, our factories are producing only 8 million tons. Now that is a far stretch in gap, plus if we want to be sat at equilibrium, we have to produce 100 million metric tons of cement per annum.
By 2050 there are predictions that the Ethiopian population will be more than 200 million. So with this statistic, there are two home works needed to fill the expected demand; the first one is sustaining food security and job to combat possible challenges in the future to which we have to make sure to accelerate production and productivity.
So regarding cement, we are observing shortage in the market even when the northern and western parts of the country are excluded from economic activities.
One of the reasons for low production of cement is instability in different parts of the country. Now things are improving especially in the northern part and we expect current shortage of cement to be solved following the peace agreement.
There are 3 major challenges related with cement and its production. One is that cement factories have their own operational issues. If we compare Dangote with Derba they both have similar technologies and similar production capacity. The difference comes in the skilled human resource and management issue at factories. When look at Dangote, the management team from top management to the single packing employee, a seamless coordination system is in place. The other issue which the government is also working to solve is security and forex to spare parts. Even after solving these issues of the factories, the production capacity comes to about 14 million tons.
Likewise, if we take a look at the Mugher Cement Factory which is one of the governmental enterprises, it is not running as per its full capacity. It has 3 production lines with the first producing 2, 000 tons while the rest two production lines are working with only 1, 000 tons each. To this regard, we are planning first to solve challenges that the factory has based on our own plan or to privatize it. There is maximum possibility of privatization. As per our proposal, the government shall decide what we shall do in the coming few days.
Besides increasing capacity of the existing companies, we are also working to increase the number of factories. We have three ongoing projects; National Cement, which is efficient in its plant at Dire Dawa, (project in North Shewa Zone), Berenta Cement in West Gojam and Global Investment in Oromia region. These new in coming factories will help to fill the gap. The other note here is that we are also working to revise our cement policy in order to include several cement industries in the country.
The fourth one is our focus on the chemical industry. Ethiopia has a huge potential on chemical industry inputs and we are pooling effective efforts in Afar region, Dallol and East Shewa. For instance, we are producing and exporting sodium bromide in Afar.
Generally, we are working on both revising our policies and proclamations and also in building strong a institution in our ministry. As you may well know, building an institution is a process, but, here under our ministry there are three main institutions which mainly emphasize on; promotion and regulation, development of minerals and petroleum resources in our country.
From our USD 18 billion import, USD 14 billion dollars is directly or indirectly aligned with the mining sector that includes steel, fertilizer, chemical and fuel.
So if we are to produce some of the basic inputs locally, we can adjust our balance of payment and keep the economy healthy.
Capital: After the Prime Minister’s latest visit to the US, there are rumors that the government has decided to give the Ogaden Basin project to US companies. How much of this is true?
(Photo: Anteneh Aklilu)
Takele Uma: As you may recall, we had terminated our contract with the Chinese firm Poly GCL. The company was incapable so we are directly approaching trustworthy and reputable huge companies in different countries to change the history of the sector.
As I said earlier, we are talking with Russian, UAE, Turkey and US companies including Baker Hughes and Chevron and Chinese companies who have shown their interest. All of the companies including big Chinese companies like Sinopec and China Petro have expressed their keen interest to work with the Ethiopian government. We are waiting for a company with a strong track record to table a proposal for our country. Since I wasn’t there with the team which paid a visit to the US, I am not sure about their discussion. But one thing I can assure you is that we are still waiting for the best company so as to take on the project.
Capital: Production of Gold came to an abrupt stop due to the war in the northern part; now that peace talks are on-going with the situation showing improvements, what are the plans being set to improve the mining sector in the area?
Takele Uma: The first target is building the region which was damaged due to the conflict. I am part of the ministerial committee established to work on rebuilding the Tigray region and the northern part overall. We are working on reoperation of big industries in the region including Messebo Cement Factory and other marble and gold manufacturing industries. We have given an order to mining companies, who were on force majeure to start their operation. We sent a team to evaluate the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia’s Shire branch, which buys gold from artisanal, to restart the operation.
Regarding gold production in our country, there are two main ways of gold production. The first one is from big companies which are authorized by the federal government to engage on gold production including MIDROC and three other upcoming companies in Benishangul-Gumuz, Gambella and Oromia regions which will start operation. This will make Ethiopia’s gold production to reach 30 tons per year in the coming three years. And the other is the artisanal which we are working to change to a modern production. Since it is subsistence, this traditional gold mining is hugely affected by contraband. On the modern production lines, both the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) and our ministry work closely with companies and thus there are no such instances of contraband.
Previously gold suppliers to the national bank used to get premium of 29 percent from international rate which was fruitful. However following the increase of the parallel market, it was revised to 35 percent. The 35 percent premium does not bring in any positive result as a previous study recommended 57 percent. As a result, the parallel market is dominating.
To solve the challenge, a team from both our ministry and NBE has conducted a study that will consider the premium increment between 85-95 percent. The team has already finalized its assessment and submitted it to the micro economic team. We expect the decision to be applied in the coming few weeks.
Capital: One of the main concerns in the mining industry is that companies usually don’t start their operation as they are expected to. What is your ministry doing to cope up with this?
(Photo: Anteneh Aklilu)
Takele Uma: The main reason for this is lack of proper assessment and due diligence of foreign companies and their capital, technology; knowledge and credibility before giving them the license and land. Foreign companies especially engaging in gold and petroleum production usually take a longer time before starting their operation as the government expects them to operate for example Poly-GCL which has been working on the Ogaden basin on energy extraction. But as we have seen, it is not a company which has enough capital, technology and knowledge on the sector that’s why we have now terminated its license.
It has been two and half years since I came to this office and we still haven’t given a new license for gold and oil exploration companies. What we are doing now is as I said earlier, revising our policies and proclamations which can enable us to manage the sector properly. Similarly, in the past couple of years, we have been aggressively supporting companies which exist in the country in upping their production.
As far as my knowledge, one thing I can surely tell you is that the only credible foreign companies in Ethiopia are the Newmont of American gold mining company, which operates in Tigray region and Dangote Cement Factory. Most of the companies which we are now in talks with are credible and well known for their operation in their registered countries. One of the criticisms we get from parliament is in relation to the number of license we give which is always less than our plan. This is because we want credible companies which have enough capital, skill, technology that the country needs.
We have directly approached the big companies that I mentioned so as to invest on the natural gas sector. This is the real way to get reputable companies, while most of the mining companies that are knocking at our door or already in the country may not mostly be at the level of those who we approach.
If we see Tulu Kapi, which was expected to start producing gold in the western part of the country, it for the last 13 years has gone without any concrete produce. As per the assessment carried out by Koreans, 1.8 million ounces of gold has been declared but Tulu Kapi, which secured a production license from the Council of Minister valid for 25 years, could not develop the site because it does not have money, technology and knowhow, but it still exists in the area without activity.
We are working with credible companies that are not necessarily very big companies but are much more effective. For instance, we are working with credible companies to develop chlorine, bromine and lithium.
Capital: The second HGER is on the pipeline, what would be your stake this time around?
Takele Uma: We have a major stake on the HGER 2.0 since the plan is focus on the mining and agriculture sector. Export is the major one with regards to earnings and volume in the coming new economic plan. Even though there are challenges in the mining sector, it is the second hard currency earning source after agricultural commodity export. We have five pillars in the mining sector for the coming three years; import substitution, decent job creation, domestic production like cement, ceramic, granite and other is part of it. The first HGER was successful and we will work on the coming one.
The plan is expected to be given a go by the Council of Ministers in the coming few weeks.
Capital: Even though the government stated that fertilizer production is its priority, there are no tangible results to back the claim. What is your stance on the matter?
Takele Uma: The fertilizer sector is directly aligned with the development of natural gas. So if any company comes to produce the fertilizer it should need ammonia, an input which comes from natural gas, which is a critical feedstock for fertilizer production.
As per a previous study, a fertilizer factory was to be installed in Dire Dawa, but now that has changed. As per the plan, a long distance pipeline was to be constructed to transport the natural gas from Ogaden basin to Dire Dawa. The fertilizer production process also seriously requires water and energy. The proposal highlighted that water would be made available from drilled well.
However, if we install the factory at Gode, Ogaden, Somali region, we don’t need a pipeline since the new site will be located at a natural gas area with the water being available from Wabi Shebele River, while the energy will be produced from the natural gas itself. The industry demands 120 MW and to produce 2.5 million tons of fertilizer we need 10 million gallons of water which is enormous but can be got from the river.
Regarding the natural gas development, we have targeted to commence development, which is at the second stage after exploration, in the second HGER plan. Natural gas development includes the construction and installation that will be followed by production of methane gas that is transformed to ammonia which means we shall produce the fertilizer at the site.
AGE OF CONSEQUENCES
Homo sapiens and its technology have become inseparable. At the beginning, the animal depended on very rudimentary means to withstand the vagaries of nature. Gradually, its discovery, creation and usage of technology secured its continuous survival, at least till now. The species’ cunny manipulation of the natural world, via technology, allowed it to dominate all and sundry. As it stands, the unison, i.e., between the never (almost) changing animal and the ever compounding tech, seems to have gone beyond manageable. In fact, role reversal between the two might well be in our future. AI (artificial intelligence) is one potentially realizable trajectory that might seal the arrival of the looming role reversal. The unwieldy tech regime or the technosphere, operating over all aspects of collective existence, is causing incalculable damage, not only to us, but also to the wider bio/ecosphere. Something has to give!
In light of our current as well as very probable Frankenstein future, why is the dominant animal so complacent about the whole thing? Allowing the non-biological self-perpetuating entity to dominate over the primacy of biological existence, not only of our species’ but also that of other life forms cannot be a benign phenomenon altogether. Worryingly and given the continuous development of the technosphere, what will the future hold? These and other issues must be debated and deliberated upon, if human survival is still desired. Admittedly, free and open discussions on such matters have not been encouraged by TPTB (The Power That Be), for the obvious reasons. But this discouragement by dominant interests should not be taken as an excuse for not engaging in this critical matter. Humanity’s infatuation about many of the temporal miracles of the technosphere must be deconstructed and interrogated because of serious consequences that have been impacting the very life support systems of our planet. Very dysfunctional social configuration that might boil over and overwhelm harmonious existence between peoples of the planet is another of the consequences of the technosphere!
Inherently unstable and lopsided irrational schemes of the modern world system, like the global economy, have been facilitated and encouraged by the technosphere. In these realms, collapse is also threatening. The underlying narrative of the economistic world system goes like this. Economic growth can go on forever across the breadth and width of the planet. ‘Limit to growth’, due to, amongst other things, shortage of resources, is not crucial in world of the technosphere. To a large extent, capitalist modernity, which is the prevailing socio-economic construct, is the byproduct of the increasingly unwieldy and cumulative technosphere. Today, growth in the technosphere is construed as growth in the economy, at least according to the usual simplistic analysis of the establishment. The concept of ‘limit to growth’ is anathema to the thinking of the prevailing modern world system, buttressed by the celebrated interstate system of rigid political arrangement. Therefore, efforts by the status quo to thwart off alternative socio-economic formations are only expected to increase in time. Here again consequences are already visible. Polarization on world scale leading to mass exodus, to presumed greener pastures, massive pauperization within the confines of the nation-states, crimes and instability, etc. are all indicatives of consequences. As former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen observed; ‘It is no secret that the past few decades of widening inequality can be summed up as significant income and wealth gains for those at the very top and stagnant living standards for the majority.’
Trying to deconstruct the cumulative impact of the technosphere on the human animal, particularly in the realm of the psychology, culture, religion, relations, etc., has not been a welcomed thread of enquiry, even in academia. This subject has been generally slanted, even by most independent and capable critics of the world system, save the few Avant guards like Herbert Marcuse, et al. Classical psychoanalysis as well as modern psychiatry tend to blame the flimsy and weak individual who hardly has any say in the scheme of things, while condoning the insanity of modern society. For the most part, the implied verdict of modern psychiatry is: it is the individual that is sick and not the larger society! Such intentionally biased conclusions also have consequences. Intensely subjected to the logic of the technosphere, increasing numbers of victims are resorting to all sorts of drugs/opioids (legal or otherwise), alcohol, etc., to find relative solace.
This editorial was first published in 2020
Letesenbet, Berihu triumph at Jan-Meda Cross Country Championship
World 10,000m champion Letesenbet Gidey and 2021 Diamond League champion Berihu Aregawi won the hotly contested senior races at the Jan Meda Cross Country in Sululta.
With this event doubling as Ethiopia’s trial race for the World Athletics Cross Country Championships Bathurst 23, Gidey’s and Aregawi’s victories secured their places on the team for the global event on 18 February.
As has been the case for the past two editions, this year’s event was held in Sululta – about an hour away from Addis Ababa – instead of at the Jan Meda Race Course in the Ethiopian capital.
Letesenbet moved up into second place after passing through the third of five two-kilometer laps, but Gebreselama continued to lead as the pack started to get strung out. As they embarked on the final lap, the leading six women had made a break from the rest of the pack, but Gidey still appeared to be biding her time behind long-time leader Gebreselama.
With just under one kilometre remaining, Gidey – the world 5000m and 10,000m record-holder – edged into the lead and moved up a gear, opening up a significant gap on her opponents within a short space of time. The two-time world U20 cross-country champion continued to pull away from her pursuers in the closing stages to cross the finish line in 35:22.
Gete Alemayehu, the defending champion, was a distant runner-up in 35:41. Mekides Abebe produced a last-ditch sprint to finish third place in 35:47.
Aregawi, no stranger to long sustained solo efforts on the track cruised through the final lap and crossed the finish line in 30:45, winning by nine seconds from third place Worku.
