Zamzam Bank, Ethiopia’s first interest free financial provider announces it has surpassed its record profit highs for the previous financial year.

In its annual general meeting of shareholders held on October 18, the bank stated that the amount of deposits in the 2022/23 fiscal year reached 5 billion ETB.

In the report, the bank registered an outstanding growth of 4.34 billion birr with its assets peaking at 7.49 billion birr.

According to the bank, since its operation, it has put 72 percent back into the economy in the form of financing.

Venture Meda, a platform for the facilitation of job creation through incubation and acceleration support in Ethiopia, ushers Venture Field 2023 Showcase Day.

The project which is said to last for the next five years, will qualify 100 electrical business startups.

From May 2022, in partnership with the MasterCard Foundation and the Ministry of Innovation and Technology, “Venture Meda” informed Capital that it aims to provide support to new and start-up companies in the field of e-commerce and to grow the existing e-commerce platforms.

According to the platform, with the support of incubation as well as digital business creation, 50 projects may stand a chance to flourish in the real world.

Through this program, 20 enterprises will present their innovative results to government partners (Ministry of Jobs and Skills and Ministry of Innovation and Technology) and experts engaged in various sectors as well as showcase it to investors and other pertinent stakeholders.

Venture Meda Demo Day 2023 is a program that supports businesses participating in the world’s fastest growing e-commerce industry.

Ervin Massinga, U.S. Ambassador to Ethiopia, and Ambassador Asfaw Dingamo, State Minister for Water Supply and Sanitation from the Ministry of Water and Energy, launched two new Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) projects.  These projects are funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and are called Urban WASH and Climate Resilient WASH. 

Urban WASH is a five-year, $45 million project that will provide construction and technical support to accelerate access to WASH services in ten secondary cities in Ethiopia.  Urban WASH will focus on professionalizing municipal utilities and building up markets for WASH services like safe toilet pans and handwashing stations that anyone can afford.  The program will also help local authorities plan and budget for infrastructure in their areas, and more.

Climate Resilient WASH is also a five year, $45 million project that will focus on providing similar services to underserved rural populations in Afar, Oromia, Somali, and South and Central Ethiopia Regional States.  The program will expand climate-resilient water services for pastoral communities. It will also make sure families in these lowland areas have access to affordable sanitation and hygiene products and services, and more. 

With the programs announced, USAID expects to reach over 900,000 Ethiopians by 2028 with access to safe water and an additional 800,000 people with access to basic sanitation across Ethiopia. The project will also spur tens of thousands of jobs for Ethiopians building water, hygiene and sanitation infrastructure.

By Eyasu Zekarias

A new directive is in the pipeline to bring all public enterprises under one legal framework.

The move is said to come after a push from the World Bank and the African Development Bank who provide credit services in Ethiopia, in addition to all development organizations having the same legal framework.

Gebyaw Yetayew, government’s procurement and property authority executive director of reform and capacity building, explained to Capital that the new guidelines are yet to be approved and are under debate, “All government development institutions are required to have three types of guidelines.”

“Other institutions involved in the service and financial sector, including Ethio-telecom have complained about the directive, but an agreement has been reached and now the final decision is in wait to implement the new decree,” Gebyaw explained.

The Government Procurement and Property Authority, which has the authority to build capacity and supervise the implementation of procurement and property management in the federal government, announced that the new legal framework has been discussed and sent to the House of Representatives.

Meanwhile, the Government Procurement and Assets Authority has informed Capital that in 2023/24, all purchases will be made entirely electronically.

The official stated that 169 federal institutions entered the electronic system in 2022/23, and as Gebyaw cites, more than 56 billion birr has been purchased.

As data highlights, 63 percent of government purchases are made through digital services, with a new system that has a legal framework.

As the official told Capital, “The purchasing system will be implemented in all institutions within one month. He announced that more than eleven thousand applicants have benefited and that up to thirty thousand purchasing systems will be included in the system.”