In recognition of its outstanding contribution to international trade on the African continent, the Eastern and Southern African Trade and Development Bank (TDB) has been awarded “Best Trade Financier in Africa” by Trade Finance Global (TFG).
As several major international correspondent banks have retreated from African markets, TDB has doubled-down and deepened its expertise in addressing intra and extra-regional trade financing gaps. TDB has provided USD billions in this space in recent years, bridging shortages and assisting with foreign exchange challenges in the region, particularly for strategic and vital commodity imports into Member States. With total assets of $6.7bn, trade finance assets represent more than half of TDB’s total loan portfolio.
TDB honored as Best Trade Financier in Africa
Coronavirus: A pandemic, exploited by opportunists and a perfect acid test of leadership
By Miheretab Wolde
Opportunist opposition political parties are trying to put a scheming mechanism in place to use the Coronavirus pandemic as a chance to score political points in the nationwide health, social and economic crisis. The opposition parties in countries like Italy could be a good example of amplifying such an argument. There are also a number of countries flexing their political muscles and taking advantage wherever there is an opportunity regardless of the reality, good or bad. For instance, one pays attention to what the USA and Egypt have done. On the contrary, countries like Greece, Finland, Germany, and Austria united as bipartisan to protect their nations by demonstrating timely actions, skillful leadership, and transparency during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The “Lega” is a far right-wing party in Italy that came to the higher political prominence in its trademark policy of blocking refugees from crossing its borders. Soon after the party got the mandate of governing the nation along with ‘cinque stelle’ or Five Star Movement, it fulfilled what it promised to the Italian public. Thus, countless refugees who escaped the hell of the Saharan desert, just to suffer and perish in Italian coasts. However, the blockage of refugees didn’t solve the deep-rooted socio-economic problems of the Italian people, but rather led the country to a multifaceted crisis. The socio-economic impact of refugees on Italy’s economic foundation is insignificant. Italy already has been suffering from decades-long shattered economic structures. Italy’s declining economy has nothing to do with the arrival of the refugee communities. The claim made by some politicians regarding immigrants does not have any objective or empirical merit. The far right-wing politicians used refugees as scapegoats to spread their xenophobic agendas way before the onset of Coronavirus. In recent years, the refugee-related issues have been a punching bag and a talking point for many right-wing politicians across Europe. This approach helped to mobilize the general public, but it did not help to improve the economic agenda to take the country forward. Most of the far right-wing parties, who came to power using these tactics, couldn’t stay in power in their respective countries for a long time. Scapegoating immigrants is not an economic policy. The tendency to fall back to the categorization of people and ethnic groups based on their heritage is an innate human nature. This is especially magnified in times of an economic downturn. However, blame-shifting instead of examining the root cause of the issue does not solve the real problems that nations face. The “Lega” party didn’t govern longer than a few months let alone a full term. Governing a nation is not mere sentimental rhetoric to rile up the pub, it requires in-depth knowledge, wisdom, leadership skills, and vision. Nowadays, the “Lega” party, as usual, is trying to broaden its party membership via exploiting the pandemic of the Coronavirus.
Italy is one of the countries that heavily suffered from Coronavirus. In this fearful pandemic time, the ‘Lega’ populist leader, Matheo Salvin continued his negative opposition for each and every measure taken by the central government to combat the Coronavirus pandemic. Lombardia region, where his party has majority support, is the one that has a high number of infected cases and death rates. The Italian constitution guarantees autonomy for the regional states to make decisions as per their mandate to the contrary or in support of the central government. Though this decentralized government system played its part in complicating the pandemic, the situation was more exploited by populist political leaders like Salvin. These divergent political views in Italy made it challenging to tackle the pandemic. On the contrary to this oddity, there is a district in Italy called Isernia, where there is no known Coronavirus case thus far. The district of Isernia totally followed the pandemic guidelines set by the central government and performed accordingly.
Similarly, where there is an educated and wise opposition political leader in countries such as Austria, Finland, Germany and Greece, the pandemic has been losing its devastating power. These countries have shown to the world how collaboration, coordination, solidarity, preparedness, and swift response is the best way to stop the pandemic. The Austria opposition party leader, for instance, used to be a health minister, has worked very closely with the governing bodies to formulate wise and feasible strategies to control the Coronavirus. Likewise, the Greece and Finland crisis management performance, particularly its bipartisan and timely action singled out as a model for many other countries. As of April 20, 2020, Finland Coronavirus cases are 3,783 and deaths tolls related to COVID-19 are 94 while Italy Coronavirus cases are 178,972 and death tolls are 23,660. On the contrary, to Greece or Finland, the USA pandemic management task force has demonstrated how poor and superficial the leadership of the President is! The USA response is sluggish and it is based on denial and unscientific hypothesis. The President’s actions in the month of February and in the first two weeks of March 2020 were simply campaigning for his reelection. He expressed his gratitude and appreciation to the Chinese President. He spread false information such as the Coronavirus will vanish after April 2020 and etcetera. Soon after engulfed in crisis, President Trump started pointing fingers at the World Health Organization (WHO) and China. The president was not only saying the wrong things, but he also did the foolish and horrific things to the entire citizens of the world by suspending the fund of WHO at the time of this pandemic. The USA administration under Trump isn’t only thrashing its world leadership role, but it also damaged the country’s image in relation to its longstanding generous humanitarian efforts that founded on the American forefathers’ values and principles.
All in all, this pandemic has shown in a practical sense of how crisis management is the acid test of leadership. In the coming few weeks, the African leaders, including the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Dr. Abiy Ahmed leadership capability will go through the acid test in relation to the Coronavirus pandemic management. Could he and other African leaders have a competency to pass the test like the leader of Greece, Finland, Germany or Austria? Or are they going to fail like President Donald Trump? Are African leaders ready to learn from the success and failure of these countries? If not, are they confirmed into their old ways of denial, false propaganda, corruption, incompetency, manipulation and lack of transparency or are they going to try to take advantage even in the time of this crisis like that of Egypt?
Even though Egypt is one of the highly affected Arab nations, it still tried to exploit the Coronavirus pandemic. A large number of medical professionals, including doctors in Egypt, have been exposed to the Coronavirus. The shortage of protective kits in the country exposed the medical staff to the virus. In the presence of this severe shortage and fatality, the Arab Republic of Egypt has provided two rounds of medical protective equipment, and medicines to Italy in the name of Coronavirus Pandemic Assistance. This is a noble gesture, but its hidden motive is so palpable. If this country is willing to sacrifice its own citizens and medical professionals in order to help other nations with pure humanitarian motive, why is it hard for them to assist Muslim nations like Iran, which highly affected by the embargo and suffered from lack of medical supplies during this pandemic? The country leaders think this is a good opportunity to score ‘Coronavirus Diplomacy’ and influence the government of Italy to boycott Salini Impregilo, Italian Company, which has been engaged in the construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. In the past, Egypt tried many times to influence the government of Italy and Salini Impregilo to withdraw from the construction of the dam but it failed. This is another attempt of knocking at the door of the Italian government in the time when there is a need for genuine solidarity and support. Egypt’s superficial, mischievous, and opportunistic foreign policy might serve in authoritarian Arab nations and war-prone African countries, but it doesn’t have much weight in developed and democratic nations.
The writer can be reached at miheretab1@yahoo.com
Steel together
Habesha Steel Mills PLC, a company established in 2007, manufactures different sizes of ribbed bars.
Habesha has elevated the strength and mechanical property standards of the Ethiopian ribbed bars by being the first and only manufacturer to use German patented technology to produce high quality reinforcement bars. It produce full range of reinforcement bars meeting international standards which are used in mega projects such as hydro-power dams, large infrastructure projects, airports, railway, road works, bridges, high-rise buildings, heavy industries, universities and many more.
The company believes in supporting the country’s development through creating a large number of employment opportunities, substituting rebar imported into the country, saving millions of dollars in foreign currency, increasing rebar supply of the country by providing the best quality with competitive price.
Kishen Raval Managing Director of Habesha Steel says that his company takes constant pursuit to make life better for the community where they live and work with various initiatives in health, safety and education. Excerpts;
Capital: Can you tell us about your company in brief?
Kishen Raval: Our factory is located in Oromia region Dukem town. Habesha Steel has more than 1,500 employees and we have built the modern customer oriented company and have shown a steady growth due to its focus on quality and modern system of production, this is because of our strong, committed and loyal employees from the community.
We started production in 2010 and over the years we have been doing various expansions and growing up our capacity right now we are one of the largest steel producers in Ethiopia.
Our main market segment is directly for the contractors of big projects. We focus on them because of our quality. We produce good quality of steel, which is the main marketing strategy.
That’s why we don’t have any advertisements or anything because the quality speaks for itself and once we got our customers that customer will be working with us for long time because they are happy by our service.
One of the largest steel factories in Ethiopia Habesha Steel produce full range of reinforcement bars for construction of residential and commercial structures, flyovers, bridges, and power plants.
Capital: You have been in Ethiopia for more than ten years how do you see investing in Ethiopia, what are the challenges and opportunities?
Kishen Raval: Ethiopia has a very good opportunity at the same time there are lots of hard and difficult things that you will encounter. As a growing economy most countries face the same challenge, such as low infrastructure, power and telecom services, this are some of the major problems we are facing on operating a modern business. Over the time we have built our business to be patient to understand how things work in the country, now we are confident that we know on what to invest and how to invest in Ethiopia. 
Capital: Do you have other plans or new investments?
Kishen Raval: In fact we have many projects in the pipeline for more investments in to Ethiopia. We have different projects related with expansion of the steel industry hence we have to develop our capacity with the demand of our quality products. We are looking at the health care industry and fewer other projects. We have finished our project study and it is on an implementation stage. We are diverting to other business which can sourced locally with raw materials, large employees to create large opportunities to the local community. We are aggressively looking for opportunities to invest in Ethiopia. We know what should be done and we believe in Ethiopia’s potential.
You have to set clear strategy accordingly and identify opportunities. It is very difficult to run an import dependent business. In Ethiopia raw materials and resources are largely found and there is a huge human resource. We are focusing on local raw materials and import substitutions.
One of the problems in Ethiopia is related with power, however the thing is that Ethiopia doesn’t have a power shortage but the main bottle neck is distribution, the government is heavily investing to resolve the power problem.
As a big investment we are leaning to invest on substitution to resolve the problem of power to our industry. Of course it increase the total investment cost but, and the other main challenge is related with cash flow. As an investor we face all the problems that are happening in Ethiopia as all other investments.
Capital: You are familiar with Kenya and India, how do you compare investment in Ethiopia and these two countries?
Kishen Raval: Kenya and Ethiopia are very different because both countries have different economic structure, culture and different strategy.
I think Kenya is much integrated with the global economy and has better linkage but Ethiopia has better resources and man power. Ethiopia has sized better GDP than Kenya however the per capita income of the country is low because the population is almost double.
And India and Ethiopia has many similarities to the culture of the people, the political structure of the countries, however Ethiopia has much to learn from India on economic policy & reforms and how to manage differences. What is important in Ethiopia is everybody should stand as they all are Ethiopian and work for mutual benefit to bright the future.
Capital: How was your operation in the past years as the region was rocked with violence?
Kishen Raval: There is one saying “time always changes, in good times think about the bad days and in bad days expect the good,” we have been participating in different social issues and the community knows what we are doing so the community by itself protected us. Because we are good for them and we work for mutual benefit I believe this is the lesson every industries should learn. As we are participating and supporting on certain community works they will also protect us in bad days.
Capital: How do you see the problem that comes with covid 19, how are you facing it? Although many industries are laying off their employees what are you going to do?
Kishen Raval: As a country over the past year Ethiopia has passed through tough times, there is a big reform going on. However covid 19 is becoming another challenge. The westerns have all the advantage they still have saving and the government can also give them necessities.
But for African countries and specifically for Ethiopia it is very difficult.
We have not taken any measures on our employees and we will not lay off any single workers. We believe that this is a very serious issue and it is an obligation to companies to protect their workers. We are trying to reduce our production to protect our employees.
We want to be a role model for other industries, our collective and concerted efforts to help one another in times of great need will be the only way that we overcome these difficult times.
We have donated 15 million birr worth of medical supplies including oxygen to health facilities to help the fight against the pandemic. We will produce the products in our own factory. Besides giving the medical supplies; the factory is planning to support around 500 people that are living around its factory at a time of a lock down. We are planning to give them fully prepared hot meal because if we give them the materials there will be a lot of people who don’t have the other ingredients to prepare the food.
Time to Rethink Corona virus can bring opportunity for Ethiopia
By Dawit Tadesse
As a good citizen and professional I have been thinking how our country Ethiopia could be out of poverty. I have been thinking about so many economic, finance and development models to solve these problems such as poverty, backwardness etc….
Many have said and done to eliminate poverty in Ethiopia. But one of the big causes of our problem has been our government and the political system. So many years have passed since we were poor because of the serious problem that emanates from political and government structure. As a result, we have turned out to be a beggar nation.
Therefore, it is evident that the economy is still weak. It cannot absorb a big shock. Ethiopia is ranked 30th among 47 countries in the Sub-Saharan Africa region, and its overall score is just below the regional average and well below the world average. The country is one of the poorest, with a per capita income of $790. Income inequality and unemployment are one of the biggest problems in this country.
Accumulated researches, speculations and observations have been indicating that the source of all this problem is not our people or nature rather it is our political and government structure. It has been shown that most of our politician are semi elite- without strong educational background and income. Most of them once they have acquired power and resources, they have been utilizing them for personal needs in the name of ethnic politics. Due to this the Ethiopian people have been strangled in extreme poverty for centuries.
The current global, novel virus could make our economy down to its knees and prolong our people economic pain to the worst. From the start our economy is starting to get affected very seriously by this virus. However, it can be pointed out here that crisis moments also present opportunity to rethink about our country and its economic problem and to take out our people from a grave poverty and poorness.
As it can be seen from the long travelled bumpy, miserable life road, the three most serious problems of this country are economy, economy, and economy. So to solve these epidemic economic problems, the best way forward is to gear direction toward economic development first and foremost instead of bringing conflict by ethnic politics. How?
This being our country’s situation, you may be surprised and consider me like mad man when you read what follows here is what I am thinking and suggesting to do to free our country from impoverishment. Let us forget the coming election for the time being.
Frist, our country must be led by a committee, like China Central committee, at least for the next 10 to 15 years. This is because we have a tradition as a nation to work by being organized in a committee. If we have to think in detail as to how this committee will organize it can be suggested that this committee must be organized by having members of politicians, elders, elites, business people and religious leaders and artists. So, politician who are working for the better of the society but not for their want will be a part of this committee with limited power and tasks. In this regard, everyone will represented with equal power so there will not be power struggle. Everyone will have equal say and vote. The only objective of this committee is to plan, restructure and manage the economy of the country. In the meantime, the committee will be responsible for operating the environment underpinning entrepreneurship and innovation, promoting the effective use of our endemic knowledge, securing the functioning of the labour market and workers’ employability, as well as for regional development. The committee will have technical advisory who will prepare the country’s master or marshal economic plan by fully considering the situation on the ground. This committee will be reelected every 4 years. Second, the country’s ethnical regional structure must be restructured as economy regions. We can reorganized all the regions into four economic regions. Then we have to stop talking about that ethnic region or this ethnic region rather we will talk about economy regions. We can call these economy regions north, south, west and east economy regions.
Globally, successful economies are organized on economy regional basis. This should be true to Ethiopia too. Regional economies offer the best environment for idea experimentation in terms of economic development. Whether you are talking about talent development strategies, major infrastructure projects, quality of place investments, or other initiatives, communities in a region can come together to establish priorities and successfully implement initiatives.
In this regard, the committee will organize the regions by taking into consideration their economic comparative advantages and proximity. This arrangement will help create strong economic network, supply chain and fast labor mobility that support each other.
Besides, this committee will be organized into four subcommittee to lead each four economy regions. The committee will call for the national and regional people council which will organize. Each four regional economy committee will have its own clear economic objectives and technical advisories that know the economy potentials of each economy regions.
In general, the main aim of these committees will be to boost inter- regional economic development and in turn boost the national economy.
As to my personal reflection, I believe this form of structure or other similar form is the only way to break the chain of poverty and poorness this country. Once the availability of bread and clean water for our people is secured, ethnic and other political issues can come to the foreground. Let us measure our performance by the reduction of income inequality, unemployment, corruption and improvement of education, health and infrastructure. To put the details of my idea in this short article is very difficult. But at least I just proposed the general framework of my idea for further discussion.
Presently, Corona is not only challenging our economy muscle but also urging us to shift our focus from all other areas and focus on it. Thus, let’s not fail to consider what has come as a blessing in disguise.
After this our politics must be our economy and our economy will be our politics .No more no less! I pray all the political leaders of this country would open their eyes to see the bright side of the opportunity.
