The Document Registration and Authentication Agency (DARA), which introduced strong transaction confirmation in its operation has demanded integration from the relevant government bodies for accuracy on the authentication process especially that of non-moveable assets.
The agency disclosed that it has been conducting a study that will come up with targets for the government to expand the currency circulation via banking systems. This comes after the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) introduced the maximum cash withdrawal directive in May 2020.
Muluken Amare, Director General of DARA, said that for the past couple of months his agency has been conducting ways on how to better link its operation with the banking system.
The NBE directive limits the daily withdrawal to 200,000 birr for individuals and 300,000 birr for companies and one million birr and 2.5 million birr per month respectively.
“The directive aims to accelerate the banking system and therefore we have to stand by it,” Muluken told Capital.
He said that based on the study the agency has decided to get confirmation of the transfer of money from the buyer’s account to the seller’s account from banks for authentication of any transaction including movable assets, which is mostly of vehicles and non-movable assets. The transaction confirmation similarly applies to the latest government move to change the banknotes with new currency.
As a result, for any authentication process clients should come up with bank transfer slips that show the transaction from September 17.
“This also applies to borrowers, that is, individuals or companies that borrow from one another and demand endorsement from DARA,” Muluken added.
However, in the past the agency was not confirming such transactions.
Muluken said that on movable assets the relevant government office, that is, mostly the transport bureau, gives transaction estimation for the settlement of two percent sales fee settlement.
“For purposes of accuracy in transaction of matters non-movable property, phony identification transaction and transfer slips the public office is normally involved,” the Director General said.
Some sector experts told Capital that with regards to non-movable property that mostly includes a house, plot, or a lease the right transaction of the actual trading might be higher than the transfer that is reflected on the bank statement.
“For instance an individual may agree to buy a house worth 10 million birr from a seller but he may transfer the 2 million birr from account to account and pay the remainder in hard cash. In this scheme the agency might not get the real transaction estimate and is left at a disadvantage to meet its targets,” the sector experts told Capital.
Muluken agreed with this argument and said that it is supposed to be supported by relevant government offices and that a good example would be that of transaction of vehicles.
“Most probably city administrations or the municipality shall estimate the price of properties in this case,” he added.
The Director General said that the scheme is relatively new and gaps are spotted along the way and as the challenges sprout solutions will be provided on the move.
“We considered unforeseen situations in our operations, for instance on the real estate transaction, clients may pay in phases for many years yet they may not receive their home. In this case we shall consider the bank transactions and the payments that were settled on cash to real estate companies,” he explained.
In the new scheme DARA has also suspended the authentication of gifts for an undisclosed period.
“We suspended this operation because it is vulnerable to illegal actors who may launder their money on this currency change period,” Muluken said.
According to Muluken, authenticating gifts, mostly houses, is insignificant operation to DARA however because of its responsibility to serve the public on all fronts, these operations will be started in the near future with the new scheme.
Power of attorney is the major operation of the agency which managed 826,000 cases in the past budget year. In the stated period DARA has provided service for 1.5 million clients. Its current daily service covers 6,100 clients.
DARA has continually led in introducing modern services to its authentication and documentation process. In the last budget year it introduced QR Codes for its processes.
Similarly, the new security features are an additional proof of maximizing the recording of documents unlike the traditional authentication scheme that is mainly based on stamps.
“In the past someone who had a fake ID would try to get the power of attorney and may use the forged documents to abuse this right by taking other peoples’ property without their knowledge. Now that the QR Code has been introduced it has been of great aid in the verification procedure. Furthermore, in the past, banks used to send their staff to DARA to authenticate the documents, which took time, effort and money, but the new system has got rid of this,” he added.
The digital transformation at DARA was launched at the beginning of this budget year and almost all documents in this year’s record are in softcopy. DARA, which is the federal agency, has 14 branches including one in Dire Dawa.
DARA at the heart of transaction confirmation
Goalkeepers report shows COVID-19 stalled 20 years of progress
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation launched its fourth annual Goalkeepers Report, featuring new data showing how the ripple effects of COVID-19 have stopped 20 years of progress toward the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (Global Goals).
The report provides the most current global dataset for how the pandemic is affecting progress toward the Global Goals. It shows that by nearly every indicator, the world has regressed. Because of COVID-19, extreme poverty has increased by 7%. Vaccine coverage, a good proxy measure for how health systems are functioning, is dropping to levels last seen in the 1990s, setting the world back about 25 years in 25 weeks.
Economic damage from COVID-19 is reinforcing inequalities. The pandemic has had a disproportionate impact on women, racial and ethnic minority communities, and people living in extreme poverty. Around the world, women are facing an increased burden from rising demands in total unpaid care work and experiencing the majority of job losses. In the United States, the percentage of Black and Latinx people who say they cannot pay their rent is twice the percentage of white people.
Despite the bleak projections, Bill and Melinda Gates describe a path to ending the pandemic and resuming progress toward the Global Goals. In the report, which they co-author every year, they call on the world to collaborate on the development of diagnostics, vaccines, and treatment; manufacture tests and doses as quickly as possible; and deliver these tools equitably based on need rather than the ability to pay. There are currently several viable strategies to help achieve an equitable outcome, including the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator, the most serious collaborative effort to end the pandemic, which brings together proven organizations like Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
“The response to the COVID-19 pandemic has shown us some of the best of humanity: pathbreaking innovation, heroic acts by frontline workers, and ordinary people doing the best they can for their families, neighbors, and communities,” Bill and Melinda Gates write. “This is a shared global crisis that demands a shared global response.”
The report makes clear that no single country will be able to meet this challenge alone. Any attempts by one country to protect itself while neglecting others will only prolong the hardships caused by the pandemic. Developing and manufacturing vaccines will not end the pandemic quickly unless they are delivered equitably.
According to modeling from Northeastern University, if rich countries buy up the first 2 billion doses of vaccine instead of making sure they are distributed equitably, then almost twice as many people could die from COVID-19.
The International Monetary Fund projects that, despite the US$18 trillion already spent to stimulate economies around the world, the global economy will lose US$12 trillion or more by the end of 2021-the biggest global GDP loss since the end of World War II. In some countries, spending on emergency stimulus and social protection has prevented worse outcomes. But there are inherent limits to what low- and middle-income countries can do to safeguard their economies, regardless of how effectively those economies have been managed.
Despite these constraints, countries are innovating to meet the challenges. More candidates for vaccines and therapeutics are being developed faster than ever. Pandemic-focused innovations include contact tracing in Vietnam and pooled testing in Ghana, while new or improved digital cash transfer programs are reaching 1.1 billion people in 138 countries. The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and dozens of partners launched the African Medical Supplies Platform in June to ensure that countries on the continent have access to affordable, high-quality, lifesaving equipment and supplies, many of which are manufactured in Africa.
Djibouti launches the Djibouti Sovereign Fund
The activities of the Djibouti Sovereign Fund (Fonds Souverain de Djibouti – FSD) were officially launched on Monday, September 14, following the implementation decrees promulgated on June 24, 2020, a special inter-ministerial committee was held under President Ismaël Omar Guelleh, in the presence of the Prime Minister, members of the government and the Fund’s administrators.
The Sovereign Fund is said to be an ambitious and innovative financial instrument aimed at turbocharging the country’s development.
“It will strive to modernize the country’s economy, to boost the growth of a competitive private sector and to enhance the development of the public productive sector, one of the essential instruments of this transformation,” reads a statement sent to Capital.
The creation of the FSD is a flagship measure of the “Vision 2035”, a long-term development strategy of Djibouti which aims to position the country as a leading commercial, logistics, port and digital hub.
Established in the form of a private limited company whose sole shareholder is and will remain the State of Djibouti, the Fund aims to “collect” national wealth to leverage Djibouti’s ability to invest quickly. The FSD will allow better control of projects while focusing on the national and strategic interests of the country.
“The FSD will play the role of a strong and committed partner sought by external and domestic investors. The Fund acts both for growth and for today’s employment while working on creating a diversified economy and building reserves for new generations. It is an intergenerational instrument that brings together the requirements of the short term with those of the long term,” the statement further reads.
The launching ceremony was attended by co-chairmen of SouthBridge, Donald Kaberuka and Lionel Zinsou, as well as William Ediko, partner, who advised Djibouti in setting up the Fund. Also present, Amir Jahanguiri, partner at law firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher, who advised the government for this project.
The holding of the inter-ministerial committee also formalize the appointment of the Managing Director of the FSD, the Senegalese Mamadou Mbaye. A seasoned professional, Mbaye is a graduate of École Polytechnique and École nationale de la statistique et de l’administration économique (ENSAE) in France. He was previously Vice-President of the Sovereign Fund for Strategic Investments of Senegal (Fonsis).
EFDA’s new and sturdy regulatory strategy
Ethiopia launches new regulatory preparedness and mitigation strategy as a result of past experience, the current COVID 19 threat and other emerging public health threats which affect the stability of the global medical products supply. Following these threats, the Ethiopian Food and Drug Authority (EFDA) has set up a regulatory strategy to help with the preparedness and mitigation strategies for emerging threats.
According to the authority, the strategy will help to protect and improve access to quality-assured medical products and protect the safety of patients and the public during health threats. Furthermore, it seeks to protect patients from falsified and substandard medical products.
The strategy aims to facilitate and accelerate priority research and innovations Including clinical trials, enhancement of Pharmacovigilance aspects, development of legal and guidance documents through working with the Ministry of Health to rapidly identify where flexibility in the regulation of medical products can prevent and respond to substandard and falsified medical products circulating in the market.
According to the authority during the pandemic situation, lack of medical products including medical supplies and personal protective equipment might have led to an increasing rate of infections and poor control of the pandemic. In addition illegal manufacturing, importation, and distribution of medical products are a challenge. Similarly, various actors have been taking the opportunity of gaps in product availability and repeated shortage to proliferate illegal practices that could endanger public safety. Public health emergencies might also exacerbate the ongoing problems of substandard and falsified medical products.
The regulation focuses on dealing with emerging health threats that could happen by biological, chemical, and other unknown elicit ways. It curbs this by ensuring sustained access to innovation, safe quality assured and effective medical products through mitigating medical products shortages during a public health emergency situation by building networks with academic research institutions and relevant stakeholders and partners.
Regular discussion held with local manufacturers and suppliers of medical products as well as interaction with Ethiopian Public Health Institute (EPHI) provides early warnings and response systems. Furthermore, regular interaction and information sharing with international organizations and regional organizations presents wider scope of understanding.
As stated on the regulatory strategy, at a time of health threats the authority should launch an Emergency steering committee, standing committee and an enforcement task force to mitigate the shortage of medical products and for containment of substandard and falsified medical products. The authority will intervene by setting up a system that enables the availability of medical products by considering a forecasted shortage and reviewing the risk of supply chain distribution for critically needed medical products.
The authority is mandated to lead regulatory services which contribute to the success of critical public health decisions made by the government. The Ethiopian public health institute is then responsible for the overall management and coordination of public health emergencies under the leadership of the Ministry of Health.
