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The Raxio Group, a premier pan-African data centre developer and Portfolio Company of US-based investment firm, Roha Group Inc., kicks off the construction of the first private certified Tier III carrier neutral colocation data center at the ICT Park in Addis Ababa.
With its investment and project plans completed in late 2019 and initial design underway, Raxio signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Ethiopian Investment Commission (EIC) in December 2019 to develop a data center with a 15.5 million dollar investment. To build and operate the tier III standard data center facility which is equipped with a high security physical infrastructure which has 7 layers of security, the Industrial Park Development Commission had secured land to Raxio Group. The first of a kind of tier III data center will be a fully-owned subsidiary in Ethiopia under the name, Raxio Data Centre PLC at the ICT Park.

In his opening remarks, Robert Mullins, President of Raxio Group, gave his vision of the facility as a cornerstone to Ethiopia’s digital economy by providing a critical and missing part of digital infrastructure in the country. “Nationwide data center aid in giving cloud services to governmental and nongovernmental organizations including website and any other internet based services,” he highlighted.
To complement its internal team, Raxio has assembled experienced technical partners specialized in design, engineering, and construction. Future-tech (UK) has been appointed as the lead consultant, and Yema Architecture (ET) has been appointed as the local architect to manage design localization, permitting, and construction supervision.
The company is planning to deploy its units to accommodate an IT capacity of 1.5MW supplying approximately 400 IT ranks which will be increased up to 3.0MW when the need grows. Furthermore, the center will offer an optimized environment with IT equipment in a state of the art facility where customers can house their computing, network, storage and critical IT infrastructure. It will also entail a modular facility, fully equipped with industry best in technology, security, AC/DC power compatibility and redundancy. Once commissioned, this will make Raxio Ethiopia an integral backbone to the country’s digital economy

“The data center is designed to a truly “metro-edge” international standard, using the latest in technology and in keeping with Raxio’s core sustainability principles to minimize the environmental footprint,” stated Robert Mullins.
With the liberalization of the broader telecommunications sector, and improved connectivity, the facility will meet the requirements of the most demanding customer segments allowing them to run their critical IT systems optimally, in a built-for-purpose environment.

Cooperative marketing for sustainable peace

Local News

March 15, 2021

Cooperative marketing for sustainable peace

The Federal Cooperative Agency will host the 8th National Cooperatives’ Exhibition, Bazaar, and Symposium-2021 from March 18th till 22 of 2021 under the banner of “Cooperative Marketing for Sustainable Peace!”
This event is an annual opportunity to highlight how cooperatives can and have contributed to social and economic development, building resilience and sustainable peace in the country. “The culture of sustaining peace in cooperative needs to be entrenched at every level of community,” the agency sensitized.
Peace has been on the agenda of the cooperative movement since its inception and it has been expressed in a variety of ways throughout that time. It is a significant strand in the weave of cooperative thought and practice.
‘As a people-centered business model, Cooperatives play an important part in social, economic, and political stabilization in conflict and post-conflict settings,” said Usman Surur, the director-general of the Federal Cooperative Agency. “Peace is not something you take for granted. It needs to be nurtured. Once you have it, it needs to be cultivated. Cooperatives are the very good fertile grounds for sustainable peace,” declared Usman.
The exhibition and Bazaar will be held at Oromo Cultural Center in Addis Ababa from March 19 to 22, 2021. In the event, more than 80 cooperatives, drawn from all over the country will exhibit and sell their traceable and quality agricultural products like Teff, wheat, maize, coffee, butter, honey and others in reasonable prices with accurate measurement. On March 18th, 2021, a symposium will be conducted at Sheraton Addis Hotel and a number of papers will be presented on various cooperative-related topics emanated domestically and internationally. “Sustainable development and as well as sustainable peace are interdependent. Cooperation goes hand in hand with promoting peace and peace goes hand in hand with equality,” emphasized Usman.
Cooperatives are one of the most effective ways to transcend differences at the local, regional, and even the international level and build the kinds of collaborative networks and practices that will contribute to building a more peaceful world.

Africa set for growth with rising poverty, debt in 2021

Local News

March 15, 2021

Africa set for growth with rising poverty, debt in 2021

Africa’s economy should return to growth in aggregate across the continent in 2021 after a coronavirus recession, the African Development Bank said Friday, while warning that poverty and public debt would continue to rise.
The 2.1-percent contraction of the pan-African economy in 2020 was the first recession in half a century but should give way to the expansion of 3.4 percent this year, the AfDB said in the 2021 edition of its African Economic Outlook report.
At 3.1 percent, the International Monetary Fund’s forecast was less optimistic than the AfDB, whose mission is to fund investment in African countries and offer advice and technical assistance to development.
The development bank predicted the strongest rebound for economies like Morocco, Tunisia and Mauritius that depend on tourism, at 6.2 percent – although their GDP fell the furthest last year.
Meanwhile, oil and raw materials exporters like Algeria, Nigeria, Angola and South Africa should enjoy the growth of around three percent, and the continent’s most diversified economies like Ethiopia and Ivory Coast rise by 4.1 percent, having already suffered a softer 2020 blow.
The AfDB report also highlighted that 39 million more people could slip below the extreme poverty threshold of $1.90 per day this year, up from an estimated 30 million last year.
A total of 465 million people in Africa could be affected by extreme poverty, one-third of the continent’s population, in a setback after two decades of steady reductions.
Meanwhile “the pandemic shock and ensuing economic crisis have had direct implications for budgetary balances and debt burdens,” the AfDB warned.
Deficits roughly doubled last year, to around 8.4 percent of GDP, while the average debt-to-GDP ratio on the continent is expected to surge by between 10 and 15 percentage points, to around 70 percent.
By December, 14 of 38 countries analyzed for debt sustainability were judged “in high risk of debt distress”, with 16 seen as moderate risk and just two at low risk.
“Serious debt challenges might be looming, and disorderly defaults and lengthy resolutions could become a major obstacle to Africa’s progress toward prosperity,” AfDB President Akinwumi Adesina wrote in the report.
“We need to address Africa’s debt and development finance challenges, in partnership with the international community” and with private creditors, he added.
But Adesina also urged leaders to enact “bold governance reforms to eliminate all forms of leakages in public resources, improve domestic resource mobilization, and enhance transparency”.
The 2021 edition of the African Economic Outlook focuses on debt resolution, governance, and growth in Africa.

Nyala introduces insurance for smart phones

Local News

Metasebia Teshome

March 15, 2021

Nyala introduces insurance for smart phones

Nyala Insurance introduces a new insurance line called ‘Le-mobile’ which is the first mobile insurance in Ethiopia.
In collaboration with Ethio telecom and SZM Engineering PLC, Nyala Insurance has launched the first of its kind insurance product in Ethiopia.
The new insurance product is designed to protect hand held mobile phones and the product will be sold digitally in partnership with Ethio telecom and SZM Engineering. By effecting a premium payment of one birr to one birr and fifty cents based on package selected per day, any smart phone user can enter in to a contract with Nyala Insurance just by sending an ‘ok’ text message via 813. Direct premium payment will be from Ethio telecom airtime.
Nyala mobile insurance is said to provide cover for screen damages, mobile phones lost because of theft or any other related reasons.

Tegene Masresha, executive officer of marketing and business development of Nyala Insurance said after conducting a rigorous feasibility study towards the applicability and viability of the product, the company delved into the product to become the pioneer to launch such kind of an insurance product in the Ethiopian market.
As he stated the policy is systematically designed to effectively meet the growing needs and demands of customers.
The policy is therefore expected to give the much needed relief for a number of smart phone users across the nation with an insignificant daily premium payment.
In order to give the insurance cover to all the smart phone apparatuses, Nyala Insurance has collaborated with Ethio telecom’s data base through media platforms.
The service is fully self-serviced by Nyala, in which users can purchase insurance by downloading Nyala mobile insurance application and when accident ensues one can claim via three options; one directly through the Nyala mobile insurance website, the second through the Nyala partners mobile vending and repair up store and lastly through direct calling the Nyala call centers.

According to Nyala insurance, customers can also get similar replacement for the stolen or damaged smartphone model device.
As Tegene claimed, the new product will be a strategy to stay competitive and in order to outreach their customers enhancing insurance service through continuous product development efforts.
It is to be recalled that the 25 years old Nyala was the pioneer to introduce Micro insurance and political violence insurance.
According to Ethio Telecom, the sole telecom service provider, there are currently 64 million connected devices on its network of which 32 percent of it is smart phones.
Android has by far the largest share of the mobile operating system market in Ethiopia, being used in over 90 percent of the smartphones in the country while the share of Apple’s iOS in the Ethiopian market only amounts to 5.73 percent.