The Federal Attorney General (FAG) announces that it is working with different countries for mutual legal assistance (MLA) to repatriate illicit asset of the country.
FAG has also repossessed close to 2.2 billion birr worth of asset to the public. Additional 1.4 billion birr worth of asset is under investigation or in different stages to be restored to the public.
Alemante Agidew, Director General of Asset Recovery Directorate General said that FAG is working with countries and international organization to repossess illegally smuggled property of the country.
The FAG report that was issued on Friday stated that it has formed a new directorate to look into the cross border organized crimes against the country and its economic security.
Alemante told Capital that under MLA Ethiopia is working with various countries and international organization, “it includes the request for joint investigation and cooperation.”
He said that besides that capacity building is part of one of the major moves to identify and repossess Ethiopia’s assets.
“Under Stolen Asset Recovery (StAR) Initiative that was formed by the World Bank and UNODC capacity building is provided for the Directorate General Asset investigators and asset recovery prosecutors,” Alemante explained.
He said that the StAR capacity building is very intensive training that is gone parallel with MLA to identify and reposes the country properties that illegal fled from the country.
“Various cooperation is taken from global partners to identify illegal acts,” the recently formed division Director General explained.
“Formal and informal approaches are the schemes for MLA. The formal one is information sharing platforms with mutual institutions, agencies and individuals in foreign countries. While the informal approach is taking the diplomatic channel that we are using both schemes for MLA,” he elaborated.
It said that in the past budget year it has been engaged in massive investigation of fraudulent assets and criminals and has been able to repossess huge amounts of illegally generated assets to the government.
Alemante said that recovery and repositioning of fraudulent asset, which is public property, is a crucial part besides penalizing illegal actors.
He said that in the 2020/21 budget year that ended early July, 2.16 billion birr worth of fraudulent assets were repositioned to the public and the directorate in different stages of clearing to which led to recovery of close to 1.4 billion birr worth fraud assets.
At the same time, 5.8 billion birr worth of assets that was suspected on illegal accumulation has been frozen by the courts.
He said that different amount of money, several buildings and other properties have been transferred to the third party to be administered on the aim to prevent possible crimes by using these resources.
FAG forges alliances to recover illegal assets
Ethio-Telecom announces competitive strategic plan
Ethio telecom plans to generate about 70 billion Birr income in the newly started budget year 2021/22, yet the number could decrease to 66.2 billion birr if certain sensitive issues including the northern region crises are not solved in a short period of time. Moreover, if the telecom service interruption continues due to the security issues, this could make Ethio telecom lose up to 5.1 billion birr annual in revenue.
Briefing the media on August 19, 2021, Ethio telecom CEO Firehiwot Tamiru said that new technologies and additional features will be implemented to enhance customer experience, quality and accessibility of services to achieve the set strategic plan.
“By expanding its local and international telecom service packages, Ethio telecom will work to intensively meet its plan by strengthening telecom infrastructure, service quality, flexibility and accessibility,” said the CEO. Through the last three years with regards to the implementation of its three year BRIDGE growth strategy, Ethio telecom has commenced to realize its aspiration to become a preferred telecom operator among customers and partners.
Ethio telecom has also planned to increase its total subscribers by 14% to 64 million customers. A further breakdown of their target includes: Mobile Voice subscribers by 13% to 61.37 M, Data and Internet users by 16.2% to 28.5M, Fixed broadband subscribers by 48% to 554K. This is expected to bring telecom’s penetration to 61%.
By engaging in new business streams and shifting revenue source from traditional to value-added services and by offering more than 100 new and revamped local and international products & services, Ethio Telecom targets to generate 70 billion birr in revenue in the 2021/22 budget year. The target is 24 percent greater than the revenue Ethio telecom had generated in 2020/21 budget year which was 56.5 billion. It also targets to generate 178 million dollars in foreign currency which is 11.6 million dollars or 7 percent greater than the foreign currency generated in the 2020/21 budget year, which was 166.5 million USD.
In particular, Ethio-Telecom has been working hard to become a competent and preferred telecom service provider in the fast and dynamic telecom market to meet the growing demand for telecom services. By building a people oriented company with a competitive strategy, Ethio telecom will work to increase its capacity in the sector and will have a capacity to handle 3.8 million new customers. Moreover, 984 sites will be beneficiaries of 4G network while 490 new mobile stations will be built, with further 2500 2G sites being upgraded to 3G in the process.
“On the other hand, infrastructure sharing, interconnections, wholesale roaming and collocations will make up the foregone revenue due to competition. Conflicts in some parts of the country, telecom fraud, inflation and gaps in foreign currency are the main challenges the company faces” highlighted the CEO.
With regards to the Northern region crisis, the telecommunication firm hopes that the issue will be resolved within a short period of time. In case of persistence, the targeted subscribers and revenue will be affected and this has been taken into account in the strategy.
Also infrastructure vandalism as earlier stated is one of the biggest challenges, and as the CEO explained even if Ethio telecom has started to talk with the new operators on infrastructure, unless all the stakeholders make major interventions to minimize infrastructure vandalism, Ethio telecom will not be obliged to share its infrastructure since it will cost the firm the fulfillment of its agreement to provide 99.99 percent availability on infrastructure.
The CEO stated that about 71 new 4G LTE advanced network infrastructures would be introduced to improve network availability as the data traffic growth and demand from customers for the 4G/LTE have been increasing.
In the budget year, the company will work to prioritize digitalization and simplification on its services whilst also empowering customers to use Ethio Telecom as the first choice. Furthermore the telecommunication’s firm aims to enhance its after sales services loyalty program in accordance with its three-year growth plan.
Regarding its loan repayment, “Finance and loan repayment is vital for the success of any business, to this end, in the last three years 936.2 million dollar or 32.47 billion birr has been repaid,” said the CEO. The Total Issued Promissory Notes (NGN + TEP) accounted for 2.34 billion USD. Of this, USD 1.56 billion accounted for the total paid loan which was 67% of the total while the remainder of 781 million USD was the remaining amount which is to be settled until 2029.
NEBE extends election-day
The National Electoral Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) is vying to extend the election in areas where the first round of the 6th national elections was not held.
Due to ballot paper defects, security concerns, voter registration, and disputes, a total of 64 constituencies were expected to hold elections on September 6. However, according to sources Capital has learnt that the board is planning to hold the polls on September 27, 2021, citing continued security issues, lack of time for preparation and other existing situations of the country as hurdles that have caused the delay.
The board had extended the election in areas of Amhara, Oromia and Benishangul-Gumuz where there were no conditions conducive to hold elections due to security concerns. Similar postponements were faced in Harari, Dire Dawa and SNNPR where the elections were unlikely to take place. Likewise, it is to be recalled that polling did not taken place as scheduled in all constituencies in the Somali region as well as in the South West Referendum, and these areas are set to cast the ballot before a new parliamentary session begins in early October. The case of Tigray however is totally dependent on the improvement of the security situation.
The 6th general election polls were originally scheduled for August 2020 but were delayed because of the coronavirus pandemic and were slated for June 5, 2020. The NEBE later announced that due to administrative and logistical problems it postponed it to June 21.
During the period of the slated election, the board revealed that 15 percent of the constituencies were unable to participate in the election but overall the 6th general election was held at all of the constituencies in Addis Ababa, Dire Dawa, Gambela and Sidama region with the board now having already announced election results for both regional councils and federal house of people representatives.
The September 6 election was decided in early June primarily, owing to security concerns, voter registration, irregularities in ballot papers, and disputes with the Board over the election.
For instance, parts of western and southern Oromia were not safe, and were racked by armed insurgency. Fierce fighting in these places, as well as in the neighboring region of Benishangul-Gumuz, and Amhara Region had stopped the voting process scheduled. The delays were faced in the Somali and Harari regions, which had been beset by legal disputes as well as mishaps such as misprinted ballot papers. The referendum in Southwest Ethiopia was also scheduled to take place on June 21 with the general election, but due to security concerns, some constituencies were not able to cast their ballots so the election were transformed to be held on September 6, 2021.
Gov’t prepares protocol to harmonize border trade
The small scale business community in Moyale, Ethio-Kenya border urges the government to come up with an initiative to back their activity from both sides.
The Ethiopian side said that it is in the final stages to introduce a protocol that will allow the community in the two border countries’ area to trade and move goods easily.
Ethiopian Customs Commission disclosed that it is getting a lesson from Nairobi, which has more experience on One-Stop Border Post (OSBP) with its East African Community peers like Tanzania and Uganda, in order to make effective the Moyale OSBP.
On the discussion held between small scale traders at the two Moyales and the customs officers of Kenya and Ethiopia, traders appreciated the improvement of activities at the boarder since Moyale OSBP became operational starting from the first week of June.
While on the discussion held at the Ethiopian side of OSBP, traders expressed their desire to see improvements on the border trade particularly on the Ethiopian side to ease the transportation of commodities to the Kenyan Moyale border.
One of the traders said that the situation from the Kenyan side is good and requested the Ethiopian side to smoothen the border trade similar to Kenya.
Abebe Ersumo, Deputy Head for Operation at Moyale Customs Branch of Ethiopian Customs Commission (ECC), said that the OSBP, which was inaugurated on December 9, 2020 by the head of governments of the two countries had become operational as of June 9, and has since then been successfully changing the previous very lengthy processes of clearing.
He said that the OSBP would create conducive environment in different aspects including boosting the small scale border trade and even smashing contraband from both sides.
“The major objective of the meeting with traders in the area is mainly targeting to create awareness about OSBP and its benefit for the community,” Abebe told Capital.
“We are working in different preparations to expand the operation of OSBP for the benefit of the two countries and the community in the area. Similarly, we are looking into small scale traders demand which is supposed to be responded by the higher and required body, which is now being worked on,” he added.
Abraham Gudeta, Process Coordinator for International Cooperation at ECC, said that continued community sensitization is made in collaboration with Trade Mark East Africa (TMEA), which provided technical support on the realization of OSBP from inception.
Abraham said that in terms of preparing border trade protocol for small scale traders, the Ethiopian government is developing the legal framework. “The framework is in consultation with the Kenyan Ministry of Trade in July and the action plan is being prepared to conclude the bilateral agreement between the two countries,” he said.
“The Ministry of Trade and Industry is working on it and it will come with a better solution and legal framework to amplify the small scale trade,” Abraham added.
The document that TMEA issued indicated that OSBP contributes to enhancing greater inclusion of women in trade, especially for the small-scale cross border traders, majority of who are women.
“In the past the customs clearing was conducted by both posts, while since OSBP become operational the clearing is taken jointly and at once, which reduced the process time significantly,” Abebe explained.
Abraham said that the public is now beginning to enjoy the OSBP and that it shall brew fruit with time when the community fully becomes aware of it.
Joel Ndege, Kenya Revenue Authority Station Manager Moyale OSBP and the Chairman of the Border Management Committee expressed that the acceptance of the community around is very high although there is need for continued community engagement of get a full coverage in the community.
The scheme customs and other relevant government bodies are working on both sides of the post. When the cargo fleet is on transit to Kenya it is only cleared by the post at the Kenyan side and similar for the import of Ethiopia.
Ethiopia imports chemicals, shoe creams, stationary, textile and garment, and seasonally carrot; and Ethiopia exports agricultural products like Khat, tomato, onion, livestock, and industrial product including bottle and leather and leather products.
Abebe said that the OSBP is the first for Ethiopia, while Kenya has five before, due to that they are well experienced than the Ethiopian side, “we may take lesson from them to improve our service and we are doing that at the moment.”
OSBP aims to see seamless flow of cargo traffic through the OSBP in both directions, without any hindrance, where it had taken days for clearing in the past.
Traders do not have to undergo the same procedures multiple times with different border agencies, by making border crossing clearance processes easier and faster.
