Tuesday, May 12, 2026
Home Blog Page 3388

New documentary film sheds light on Ethiopia’s elephant crisis

Staff Reporter
-
0
New documentary film sheds light on Ethiopia’s elephant crisis

Ethiopia has already lost its black rhino, now it is losing its elephants

A new documentary film “Ethiopia’s Elephant Crisis,” by award-winning American journalist and filmmaker Antoine Lindley, brings to the forefront the challenges that Ethiopia faces in wildlife conservation, especially its efforts to save its endangered elephants.
Commissioned by Ethiopian Wildlife Conservation Authority with support of UNDP and GEF , the ground breaking 40-minute documentary film follows filmmaker/journalist Antoine Lindley to some of the most remote parks of Ethiopia to tell the story of the challenges and conservation efforts to save what could be Ethiopia’s last elephants.
Since the 1980’s Ethiopia has lost 90% of its elephants. Today, Ethiopia’s elephant population is estimated to be less than 1,900; that number is rapidly dropping due to poaching for ivory, habitat loss, and human-elephant conflicts.
“I made this film to give a voice for Ethiopia’s endangered elephants,” said filmmaker Antoine Lindley. It is one thing to read or hear about the challenges facing elephant conservation in Ethiopia, but to actually document it through film is a powerful visual tool that I hope will bring more awareness and solutions.”
The film not only weaves together an engaging storyline of wildlife survival and conservation efforts, it also displays captivating sweeping beautiful landscapes while taking viewers on an adventurous visual safari through Ethiopia’s dense riverine forests, woodlands, and lush green savannahs.
“Apart from storytelling, it was also important for me to take a cinematically sophisticated approach so that the viewers can feel like they were along on the journey,” added Antoine.
“The documentary provides a glimpse into the magnificent landscapes of our country, the devastating threats facing elephants across Ethiopia, and the front line heroes and community members living alongside them, protecting them and risking their lives every day. Said Greta F. Iori, Regional Lead Horn of Africa, Elephant Protection Initiative. Will we be able to save our continents’ vital landscape engineers and put an end to the brutal looting of these natural treasures for generations to come?”
“Ethiopia’s Elephant Crisis” is set to be released on October 2, 2020 for domestic and international distribution.
Antoine Lindley is an award-winning American journalist and documentary filmmaker; he has more than 20 years in the media industry and produced over 24 documentary films on Ethiopia.

EEA’s analysis and advice to government on demonetization

Metasebia Teshome
-
0
EEA’s analysis and advice to government on demonetization

Ethiopian Economic Association /EEA/ has urged government to strengthen its directives and regulations to limit cash holding and withdrawal to the success of the demonetization.
Last week, the government announced the replacement of old birr notes with new notes which have enhanced security features and other distinctive elements. The new currency notes replace the 10, 50 and 100 notes while an additional 200 birr note was also unveiled.
According to EEA, the introduction of the new birr notes has both financial and real economic implications. Demonetization can become a stronghold if it is accompanied by effective regulations and a keen follow-through of the recent directives presented by the National bank of Ethiopia to limit cash amount of holding and withdrawal.
In promoting use of non-cash payment instruments and ensuring safety and efficiency of the payment system on May 2020, Ethiopian Central Bank issued a directive limiting cash withdrawal for individuals to businesses. The move was aimed at tackling tax evasion and encouraging a more efficient use of cash. Under the directive, individuals cannot withdraw more than 200,000 birr per day the ceiling for total withdrawal in a month has also been set at one million birr, also for juridical persons the directive allows 300,000 birr per day withdrawal and 2.5 million birr per month.
“Demonetization could contribute to accelerating digitalization since Fintech is the future and it could also reduce transaction costs,” states EEA’s press statement.
As the association articulate the enforcement of these directives is crucial to the success of the demonetization.
The government disclosed that 2.9 billion birr notes with the value of 262 billion birr have been printed. For printing the money the government has paid 3.7 billion birr which on average means 1.275 birr per note. The government has said that replacement exercise should be completed within three months and anyone who has more than 100,000 birr should make the change within the period of a months’ time.
However, according to the association the replacement needs to be sped up. “Currency in circulation may decline due to slow replacement of notes which requires speedy implementation of demonetization within a short period of time,” Reads the press statement of the association. Apart from the association banks have also been raised the issue of timing and both agree that the time should be sped up. According to Abie Sano, president of Commercial Bank of Ethiopia and current head of Bankers Association, the period should be reduced to one month from three months of currency changing time. He added that the time frame that is given for those who hold more than 100,000 birr should reduce to 15 days and the amount to drop to 50,000 birr.
According to the association the decision to change the notes could have both short term and long term impact, including a surge in deposit and saving and population with bank accounts increases, which could increase financial inclusion.
As the association states the newly introduced 200 birr note could have economic consequences as it could result in a shift of preference towards holding currency, “The optimal mix of the currency denomination has macroeconomic consequences. The introduction of higher denomination (200-birr notes) may result in a shift of preferences towards holding currency instead of deposits. The accumulated money, in cash form, if channeled in the banking system will be more productive. It could contribute to curbing liquidity shortages, and become a source of investment finance,” the press statement states.
According to the plan those who come up with 10,000 birr should save their money in banks, while banks still insist that cash could go as low as 5000 birr for saving.
In the medium term impact according to the association the decision could increase governmental revenues and taxable money and bring more money to the business in the tax net. Improve the effectiveness of monetary policy instruments (as more money moves to the banking sector) .
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has claimed the step will help to combat hording, counterfeiting, corruption and other economic problems necessary to salvage the country’s fractured economy.

Introducing Hossana, the soon-to-be newcomers

Metasebia Teshome
-
0
Introducing Hossana, the soon-to-be newcomers

Hossana Bank S.C is a new bank under formation set to join the evergrowing banking sector. By organizing all of its capital, financial, technological, and human resources, the bank has reached the final stages of “under-formation” status and is awaiting finalization from the national bank.
Hossana is trying to come up with the most known elites of the political, social-economic, and diplomatic spheres of the country. A list that includes Professor Beyene Petros, a renowned politician (who is now an appointed chairperson of the organizing committee) and diplomats such as Ambassador Tesfaye Habisso.
Erssido Lendebo /MD/ and project manager of Hosanna bank has further stated that the bank, apart from organizing capital, is keen to focus on the knowledge that will make it a success.
“We are an Ethiopian Bank with vast diaspora involvement coming from South Africa, America, Europe, and the Gulf states,” he adds.
The bank aims to collect 2 billion birr as capital with 25 percent of its initial paid up capital; the lowest capital to the formation of the bank based on the national bank regulation. The bank is planning to get the capital from both the Ethiopian and Diaspora communities.
Hossana Bank is one of the 17 banks joining the banking industry. According to Erssido, the bank will start operations after one year; most likely in September 2021. “We are working to finalize the whole process as we prepare to become operational within one year,” said Erssido.
Hosanna has officially started selling shares in September 2020 in four banks including the Commercial bank of Ethiopia, the Bank of Abyssinia, and Awash Bank after getting pre-formation licenses from the NBE.
With a per-value of 1,000 Birr to one share, the under-formation bank has limited buyers to a minimum of 20 shares at a cost of 20,000 Birr and amaximum of 100,000 shares at the price of 100,000,000 Birr Shares wil be sold till the coming February.
“We are planning to be unique in three ways,” says Erssido “that is, to be technology-driven, to be involved in small and medium agribusinesses, and to provide a bank training institute to expand job opportunities for young graduates.”
As he stated, besides forming the bank, Hossana is also planning to launch its own banking and financial training institute, “All of the above give us a competitive edge and market opportunities” said Erssido.
Currently, there are 18 operational banks in the country with over 6000 branches. 16 of these being private banks and 2 public. There are also close to a dozen different banks that are in the process of formation and are currently availing shares for public subscription. These include Goh Mortgage, Selam, Sheger, Ahadu, and Zemzem.

4G Advancement in Ethiopia: a milestone in the country’s telecom landscape

admin
-
0
4G Advancement in Ethiopia: a milestone in the country’s telecom landscape

By Abiye Yeshitila: Account Manager at Ericsson Ethiopia

Ethiopia is on the verge of massive digital transformation, as one of the fastest growing economies in Africa, which is being led by consumers who, today, have access to more devices and are more connected than ever. The ICT market in Ethiopia is constantly evolving, and telecommunication providers have to offer products and services that meet their customers’  demand for high speed data connectivity.

The first months of 2020 saw the spread of a novel coronavirus around the globe. Subsequent behavioral changes due to lockdown restrictions caused measurable changes in the usage of both fixed and mobile networks.

In Ethiopia, access to mobile communication has expanded rapidly. Proliferation of smartphones and tablets have increased data traffic exponentially, driven by the rise of video content. Explosion of mobile broadband is set to create new demand and an upsurge in household consumption of mobile internet is expected to provide continued impetus to the sector.

Enabling broadband connectivity for all is a basic human right and we know that for every 1000 new broadband connections, 80 new jobs are created (Ericsson and Arthur D. Little). A 10% increase in mobile broadband adoption secures 0.6-2.8% GDP growth (Ericsson and Imperial College) and a doubling of average achieved broadband speed generates an additional 0.3% GDP growth (Ericsson, Arthur D. Little, Chalmers University).

To keep up with increasing demand for data capacity, service providers need a fast solution. They are playing a key role in enhancing networks and paving the way for next generation of mobile connectivity.

Faced with limited spectrum assets and a need to provide the best user-quality network, many service providers have launched 4G LTE networks. LTE simplified the network and increased spectral efficiency significantly while driving down costs. It is the first mobile system that is designed for mobile broadband from the start. Some of the use cases it has enabled include:

  • Enhanced local-area access through network densification
  • Machine-type communications, providing efficient connections for non-human centric such as burglar alarms, power meters etc.
  • Device-to-device communications, where direct communication between wireless devices is enabled in a peer-to-peer mode

Consumer devices dominate for 4G. Despite strong initial hope for laptops as a driving device, it was the app-enabled smart phone that became the killer device. Mobile phones have moved from a communication-centric device to a multi-purpose smart personal companion. Smartphones will continue to see growth and more data-centric offerings are forecast to enter the market.

The latest mobility data shows that LTE accounted for around 11% of subscriptions in 2019 in Sub-Saharan Africa. Mobile broadband subscriptions are predicted to increase, reaching 72% percent of mobile subscriptions by 2025. LTE share will reach around 30% by the end of the forecast period, and LTE subscriptions are set to triple, increasing from 90 million in 2019 to 270 million in 2025.

Championing current demand, 4G brings major improvements in terms of coverage and capacity, offering download and upload speeds many times greater than those achievable with earlier technologies. In addition, support for Machine-Type Communications (MTC) and Internet of Things (IoT) in cellular networks is being drastically improved with the launch of 4G LTE.

Ericsson’s services, software and infrastructure – especially in mobility, broadband and the cloud – are enabling the telecom industry and other sectors to do better business, increase efficiency, improve the user experience and capture new opportunities. We have done business in Ethiopia for a long time – since the sales of telephone receivers commenced in 1894.

Ericsson is devoted to support the development of Ethiopia’s telecom industry, leveraging our global expertise and technology leadership. We are working together with service providers in Ethiopia to ensure rewarding new user experiences for Ethiopian consumers in the new connectivity era as part of our mission to empower Africa’s technology-enabled economies and keep #AfricaInMotion.

What consumers want

Consumers have gone through a massive digital evolution in a short span of time and people today are staying online longer than ever before.

Our go-to technology devices have progressed from PCs to smartphones and communication has grown from voice to video and social networking services. Today, people are prone to behavior that involves reduced human interaction, with the advent of technological options such as e-shopping, e-selfcare and e-billing, to name a few.

The new consumer of today demands a seamless online experience across all the fronts whether it is a smartphone, a tablet, or other devices.

The 4G network in Ethiopia’s capital offers mobile users with faster data speeds, high-quality video conferencing and faster response times when using mobile applications or accessing the internet. It also helped service providers meet demand for mobile data, which is rising every year as customers move to adopt data-hungry smartphones, mobile modems and tablets. Hence, there are plans to expand LTE across the country.

A steady upsurge in numbers for smartphone subscriptions and mobile traffic is the norm in the mobile sector. LTE for mobile and fiber optics for fixed connections are becoming widespread and this has led to the introduction of innovative connectivity bundles for voice and data. Demand and usage of digital services like OTT video, smart home, financial services, e-health, e-education is also on the rise.

It has been stated that the mobile industry in Ethiopia is a key contributor to the country’s economy and enables new economic activity in other sectors. As wireless connectivity enables business to be done on the go, it allows information and services to be access anywhere, and will create new services and industries.

 

 

1...3,3873,3883,389...4,449Page 3,388 of 4,449

EDITOR PICKS

POPULAR POSTS

POPULAR CATEGORY

ABOUT US

 

Capital is the longest-established private English newspaper in Ethiopia

Contact us: info@capitalethiopia.com

+251911637862 | +251944732300 | +251116183253
 

FOLLOW US

© Newspaper WordPress Theme by TagDiv