Save the children is calling on governments to mobilize at least one percent of their GDP to the ‘social protection scheme’ to protect children and end child poverty.
Save the Children stresses that now more than ever, countries need to make progress towards Universal Child Benefits.
“Investing in child benefits not only helps children and their families but also local and national economies, as families spend their money on local goods and services,” Inger Ashing, CEO of Save the Children stated.
According to the recent report of the organization, families of over 594 million children in the globe have not received any financial support from their governments to pass the dare of the pandemic.
As save the children echoed, these 594 million families are found in 68 low and middle income countries. These families have drowned in poverty ever since the start of the pandemic as they have lost their source of income. This as a results affects the children since the families have not received any governmental support. Furthermore, an additional hundreds of millions of families are looking for aid to survive the surge of the pandemic which has widened the drift in income inequality with low income families being hit the hardest.
Even before the outbreak, according to save the children, over 1 billion children in low- and middle-income countries lived in multidimensional poverty deprived of access to education, health, housing, nutrition, sanitation, and water. Since the Coronavirus outbreak, this number has increased by an additional 150 million children, bringing the total to 1.2 billion.
“The impacts of Covid-19 transgresses past health issues. We as a community need to play our part in protecting children from the impacts of this pandemic. Any support we provide to children goes a long way towards improving the economy of the country as a whole,” stated Azmeraw Belay from Save the Children: Ethiopia Country office and Head of CRG, Advocacy and Campaign.
Ekin Ogutogullari, Country Director; Save the Children for Ethiopia’s Country Office also remarked by saying, “Everyone around the globe has been affected by this pandemic; children suffered its consequences more than others. Children are at risk with each passing moment as their parents might lose their job, get sick or die due to Covid-19.”
Save the Children disclosed that before the COVID-19 outbreak only 35% of children globally received social protection benefits. This figure falls to 28% in Asia and as little as 16% in Africa.
Save the children has called on governments, donors and private creditors and the global community at large to create a financial means to improve child focused social protection schemes and universal children benefits.
Governments should mobilize at least one percent of their GDP to ‘social protection scheme’
The matrix of wheat bidders
The Public Procurement and Property Disposal Service (PPPDS) opened two separate wheat bids for the procurement of 600,000 metric tons under an international competitive bid.
The first bid that was opened on Tuesday, October 13th for the procurement of 400,000 metric tons of milling wheat for the Ethiopian Trading Business Corporation (ETBC). Six companies offered their technical and financial documents on the separate envelop scheme that was introduced recently by PPPDS. It is also noteworthy that PPPDS has also added on the bid documents stating that bidders must disclose their Free on Board (FoB) or port of loading.
The 400,000 metric ton of milling wheat bid is to be undertaken under four lots, with each lot representing 100,000 metric tons.
According to the bid process, two companies have offered their document for all the four lots, while others have offered for different lot iterations.
The six companies that were involved in the 400,000 metric ton bidding are; Green Export CA, Aston FFI (Suisse), Promising International Trading Co, Huyton Inc, A plus Importer and Rosentreter Global Food Trading.
The companies that offered different bids include; Huyton which expressed interest in LOT 3 and 4, stating that its port of loading will be Novorossiysk, Russia and Odessa, Ukraine for the respective lots. Aston FFI offered its interest to supply the fourth lot only and it stated that its port of loading was Kavkaz port, Russia. Lot 3 was attractive to both Promising International Trading Co and Green Export CA. Promising International Trading Co stated that its port of loading was at Yuzhny of Ukraine whereas Green Export CA expressed that its port of loading was Novorossiysk, Russia.
The companies that expressed their interest to all the four lots include; A plus Importer and Rosentreter Global Food Trading. Rosentreter, a German company, stated that the port of loading was Novorossiysk, Russia for all lots. On the hand, A plus Importer, an Ethiopian origin company, approached every lot with different loading ports. For Lot 1 it provided Novorossiysk, Russia, for Lot 2 it gave Constanta (Konstanza), Romania, for Lot 3 it stated Dunkirk, France and Odessa, Ukraine for the fourth lot.
According to the bid that was floated on the 6th of September, it stated that the procurement procedure will be carried out on a Free on Board scheme. Furthermore, the winner will be determined not only by their wheat price offer but also by the logistics cost from the port of loading to the country of delivery.
The logistics cost will be analyzed by the sole public vessel operator, the Ethiopian Shipping and Logistics Services Enterprise.
Since last year the bid to procure 400,000 metric tons of wheat for ETBC, which was purchasing the grain to stabilize the market faced annulment on different occasions for different reasons.
The remaining 200,000 metric tons of milling wheat bid that PPPDS was procuring on behalf of the National Disaster Risk Management Commission was opened on Thursday, October 15.The bid had been floated as of September 8 and out of 40 companies that bought the bid document, only 4 fully participated in the bid.
Promising International Trading Co, Huyton Inc, A plus Importer and Marthina Mertens Sampl were the companies that participated on the bid that is to be undertaken on two lots.
Except Promising International, all bidders have expressed their interest to the two lots that have 100,000 metric tons of milling wheat each.
HuytonInc disclosed that if it wins the bid the cargo loading port will be at Kavkaz, Russia for the first lot and Chornomorsk of Ukraine for the second.
Marthina Mertens-Sampl stated the loading port of Terminal 24 of Novorossiysk, Russia will be used.
A plus Importer disclosed that the loading port would be Novorossiysk, Russia and Dunkirk, France respectively for the first and second lot.
Promising International expressed its interest in lot two and that the port of loading would be Odessa, Ukraine.
PPPDS will disclose the result for both bids (400,000 and 200,000 metric tons) after technical and financial evaluation.
Two weeks ago PPPDS opened a wheat bid for the procurement of 80,000 metric tons on behalf of the Food Security Coordination Directorate of the Ministry of Agriculture for the Safety Net Program that is supported by the World Bank.
The companies that expressed their interest for that bid include; Nuhizy Alrfay Mohamed, which offered the lowest price, Promising International Trading Co, Ameropa AG and Falconbridge.
Dashen’s digital retail payment platform
Dashen Bank known for its pioneering stance of introduction of ATMs and Card banking system has now introduced a new digital platform that will link Queens Supermarket and Addis Home Depot.
The digital platform will enable smooth trading by settling any sales services done through the bank by the stated two retail companies that are under the Midroc Investment Group.
At the ceremony held at Amudi Plaza, around Tor Hayloch, Adbulfetah Yusuf, head of Addis Ababa Trade Bureau, said that digital payment systems are crucial in making trade a major player in the country’s economy. “The city administration is supportive in the encouragement of cashless payment systems and is constantly seeking to expand technology-based digital operation,” he added. 
Assfaw Alemu, President of Dashen Bank, said that digital banking has consistently become the best option for the finance industry and that the future will be directly correlated with this technology. Similarly, the government has already introduced a strategy to boost the sector development through the same.
“The future of the banking industry and its pillars stand firmly on technology. The National Bank Strategy highlights that as the sector leader it wants to use technology as a pioneering step to financial inclusion,” the president explained.
Assfaw Alemu, expressed that currently customers that visit Queens’s outlets are paying in cash. “For instance when purchasing items with price tags of 20,000 birr and over from Home Depot, one has to have chunks of cash in their pockets. This new payment plan gets rid of this step and makes the payment process cashless and easy.”
He recalled that the bank also introduced the use of the debit cards way before the country had such laws. He also emphasized that the bank has continuously anchored its operations towards technological advancements.
The new initiative is a money powered card that will allow financial transactions at the stated facilities of the two outlets. The sector experts also pointed out that there will be provision for gift cards which will make the new initiative unique.
Assfaw explained that though it is preferable to be a Dashen account holder, it is not necessary when using this scheme.
“The card is equipped with contact less features that also works on the internet and other formats. It is also reloadable,” he explained.
He expressed his appreciation for Midric Investment Group which accepted to work with the bank under their facilities.
Jemal Ahmed, CEO of Midroc Investment Group, said that the retail outlets are expanding their businesses with international standards. “Since Midroc Investment Group restructured its operation, Queens Supermarket has been beneficial to its operations. We are working to add five more shops including expansion on two existing centers in the coming three months at different locations in Addis Ababa,” he added.
Currently Queens is operating five outlets and before the end of this year more centers are expected to be opened in Addis Ababa and more in major cities in the coming budget year.
Jemal said that the group has targeted to make the retail market competitive in every corner of the country, with international and modern standards like others global retailers. “The digital payment system is one of the modernization processes that the retail company aims to achieve in the near future,” he explained.
Bekele Bulado, Deputy CEO of Midroc Investment Group, who leads the trade and service sector at the group, said that the number of outlets including Home Depot is currently 11. “We are improving the capacity and service of seven outlets and additional four new centers will be opened in the budget year,” Bekele said. He also expressed that in the coming two years modern facilities will be opened.
Jemal said that in the future the group in collaboration with Dashen Bank will introduce credit card services without interest for the transaction at the given outlets. This credit card collaboration is yet to be given a green light by the regulatory body.
Bekele said that the group has reorganized its leadership to supply agricultural and industrial products with shorter supply chains directly from its partners to production centers for the general public. This has resulted in cheaper rates thus stabilizing the market.
Bekele, former Minister of Trade followed up the new payment scheme remarks from the Dashen’s Bank President, by stating that said that the number of customers visiting the supermarket outlets have significantly increased following the new restructure.
“For instance the number of clients that had visited the outlets in September were 270,000 up from 53, 000 in June,” he explained.
He said the gift card payment system that was officially introduced a week ago is part of the strategy that the group targets to achieve to satisfy its customers.
Those who will use the card, they will receive three percent discounts at the retail outlets for the coming three months.
ZamZam Bank officially becomes the first IFB
The highly anticipated interest free banking (IFB) business has officially come to effect on Monday 12th of October 2020. This finally became official when ZamZam Bank received its license from the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) in a ceremony held on the stated date, in the presence of Yinager Dessie, Governor of NBE.
On the same day, the bank officially introduced its first president, Melika Bedri. Melika, who was the vice president of Commercial Bank of Ethiopia, is exceptionally known for her work in the finance industry that spans three decades. Currently, she is now the only female president in the banking industry scene.
The bank was formed with over 1.7 billion birr of subscribed capital with 11,200 shareholders to its name. The bank is set to give attention to technology based businesses and is projected to start operations in the near future. The first president, Melika Bedri, has informed capital that more details about the bank’s operation will be disclosed soon in due time.
