TOTAL Ethiopia SC inaugurated Yeka Total Quartz auto service (TQAS) which was built at a cost of 4 million birr around Megenagna area in Yeka district last Tuesday. Since 2017 the company has invested over 40 million birr for the construction of these service centers across the nation.
The company covered the entire cost for Yeka TQAS center and was built by Total in-house engineers under strict supervision to meet standards.
Owned by Ermiyas Yishak, dealers of Yeka TQAS, the construction took two years.
Out of the 52 TASQS centers, 32 are built in Addis Ababa and the remaining 20 were built in different parts of the country. They created 169 job opportunities.
All the centers work to follow strict ways of disposing of waste material so as to better protect the environment.
Total has come with a new concept called Total Quartz auto service(TQAS) for quick oil change centers under Total banners developed with local partners which was fully started by Total Ethiopia in 2017.
“Under the TQAS, Total offers personalized service with no appointments with a clearly displayed price and quality service including free advice,” said Thibault Lesueur, managing director of Total Ethiopia SC.
Total Ethiopia’s is engaged in Marketing of fuels, lubricants, LPG, Bitumen and other specialties. It currently operates a distribution service station network numbering 153 throughout Ethiopia.
According to the managing director, Total Ethiopia has 17 percent of the market share in Ethiopia’s oil and gas distribution and delivers high quality lubricants. However, a shortage of hard currency hit the market for the last two years which resulted in an increase in the price of the products.
Total Ethiopia is the only company that has built an independent depot in 2016 at Dukem with a storage capacity that can serve for more than a month.
Established 69 years ago, Total Ethiopia has acquired ex-Mobil facilities and business in Ethiopia and has been extensively supplying all kinds of petroleum products for the government, private and international companies.
For the next two years, Total has a plan to open additional 100 centers Lesueur told Capital.
TOTAL Ethiopia inaugurates service center
Ethiopia needs $10bln per year to achieve goals
The country might need USD 10 billion a year to achieve its ambitious programs and planned reforms.
In a discussion with international partners and the donor community at the Home Grown Economic Reform designed by the government to be implemented in the coming three years. Vera Songwe, Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa, said that the donor community should get behind a USD ten billion ask in order to support Ethiopia’s attempt to create 2 million jobs in fields like ICT, agriculture and transportation.
“Ethiopia currently has a USD 10 billion gap – 6 billion in new investment and 4 billion of debt reduction per year – that must be bridged in order to achieve its reform aspirations,” she said.
The Executive Secretary of ECA said Ethiopia’s aspiration to grow from USD 865 to 2219 in GDP per capita was “very ambitious” but that it was doable, citing the success stories of China, Laos, and Vietnam.
International partners like the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and other donor community members appreciated clearly stated past evaluation and future challenges.
“I appreciated the government’s honesty at looking at the past and challenges in the future,” Carolyn Turk, Country Director of the World Bank for Ethiopia said.
She said it was a deeply ambitious and achievable program.
“Quite ambitious program and even though it is ambitious it is a doable,” Songwe said.
“Several months in the making and spearheaded by some of Ethiopia’s finest minds, our initiative aims to propel Ethiopia into becoming the African icon of prosperity by 2030,” said Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed of Ethiopia.
He made the remarks on 9 September during an event to unveil the Reform Agenda at the United Nations Conference Centre in Addis Ababa.
The Agenda outlines macroeconomic, structural and sectoral reforms that will pave the way for job creation, poverty reduction, and inclusive growth.
Abiy stated that the private sector was crucial for the next chapter of Ethiopia’s growth and development. Consequently, he said, we have “opened up key economic activities to private investments,” adding that these measures will “surely be reflected in Ethiopia’s ease of doing business ranking.”
The PM pointed out that to ensure the success of the Agenda: “we are tightening our fiscal belts, strengthening our public sector finances, shedding our debts, and increasing domestic resource mobilization.”
The Agenda prioritizes sectors such as agriculture, manufacturing, mining, tourism, and ICT.
“If you continue to accumulate debt the way you’re doing now, you will likely fall into debt distress in the next two years and a lot of the structural reforms you have put in place will not bring in the private sector because you will not be a credit-worthy country,” Songwe said.
She recommended paving the way for independent power purchases (IPPs) in a reformed energy sector as a quick-win that can demonstrate the country’s credibility. 
The homegrown economic reform has three major pillars; macroeconomic, structural and sectoral reforms. “The economic reform should have holistic and comprehensive approaches that the macroeconomic reform will see foreign exchange imbalance, inflation, access to finance and debt stress, and structural reform will also solve the bureaucratic challenges, doing business and sectoral reform looks at specific problems in every sector,” Eyob said.
Recently Eyob Tekalign, State Minister of Finance, said that the National Bank of Ethiopia under its reform program is working to improve the financial sector regulation. He said all banks including the two public financial firms would be seen equally by the NBE based on the experience of international banks.
Bidders unhappy with solar project rates
The lowest rates were offered for the first public private partnership (PPP) independent power purchase (IPP) of two Scaling Solar schemes, but bidders are complaining.
On Friday, September 6 bid opening, only one company produced a financial proposal for the two solar power projects, while four other companies were involved in the bid process and offered their proposal.
However, the evaluation of the technical document suspended the opening of a financial offer from the companies including: Enel Green Power/Orchid, EDF/Masdar Consortium, FRV/ Globeleq/ Belayab Consortium, and Al-Nowais/ Aldwych/ Alten Consortium.
During the financial opening, a proposal from Acwa Power, a Saudi firm, was the only contender.
As per its financial offer the company gave USD 0.252/kWh for the Gaad scheme in the Somali region and USD 0.0598/kWh on the Dicheto scheme in the Afar region.
The amount was the lowest tariff compared with similar projects on the continent and one of the lowest globally.
On Wednesday September 11 the PPP board in its extraordinary meeting held at the Ministry of Finance approved the winner of project that will generate 125MW each at both sites.
Teshome Tafesse, State Minister of Finance, told Capital that the bid process has shifted to the next stage.
There are companies complaining about the bidding process, while the State Minister said that the claim shall be submitted in the seven days since the board disclosed the bid result.
He added that so far complaints have not been submitted. If is there are any, they will be evaluated based on the process, according to Teshome.
Experts said that the company might manage the project for twenty years with an optional five year extension. Teshome said that the details will be discussed after they speak with the client, Ethiopian Electric Power. He said that the project might take 18 months from start to finish.
The International Finance Corporation (IFC), the World Bank’s private sector wing, which promised to finance the projects, excluded itself on the day before the opening of the bid due to the government refused to give convertibility guarantee for the debt that IFC provides for investors.
Sources stated that initially the project was backed by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), which attracted several prominent firms.
Experts said Scaling Solar is the IFC scheme implemented in other African countries. Based on the agreement with MoF, the Ethiopian scaling program was also developed via the concept, procedure and support of IFC. IFC also agreed to provide the finance at an attractive interest rate to realize the project, which made bidders more confident.
“Based on National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) foreign currency guideline it has stated that the government would not give convertibility guarantee and based on the country law there is not convertibility guarantee for the private sector investment,” Teshome explained.
He added that it shall be bound by the agreement with the client from the government side and the private sector. “This does not mean that the private sector will not access the finance and change it to foreign currency to service its debt as per the PPP guideline,” he argued saying that the under PPP the private sector will get the finance in foreign currency to settle the debt and other services.
“In the past the private sector wing of the World Bank has provided finance to the private sector in the country without a convertibility guarantee from the government. The current demand is not acceptable. It seems like leverage to change the country’s policy. We led the technical support and knowledge transfer as much as possible on wise manners, and now we stand at the level to handle international level PPP without their support,” he said.
He said that the implication that the offer of a lower tariff is the result of our effort to expand the PPP in the country and the current government’s initiative to improve the economic sector in different directions. The fair and transparent competition and bidding process is the crucial point for the lowest tariff that shall compare with the previous similar trend in the sector.
From the compliant side sources said that some of the companies sent a delegation or are managing the issue via their country’s embassy here. Bidders said that the withdrawal of IFC happened a few days before the opening of the bid so it is difficult for bidders to come up with alternative financers in that short period. Bidders also claimed that the process is not transparent; meanwhile the government argued that process was clear.
“Acwa Power, which came up with finance from Chinese sources, said at the financial offer that it will discuss with the government on the convertibility guarantee that means it should be disqualified from the process,” sources said.
In June 2019 the 49 percent share of Acwa secured by Silk Road Fund that was given to exports that the company will come with the finance from China.
Experts in the area assured that the offer of the company is very fair. “The risk in other country and Ethiopia is different. The political and financial risk from one to other is different. Regarding financial risk of our case it is convertibility. This raises the question of realistic issue on the project in relation with the offered tariff,” experts said.
Kidney, Mung beans exclusively traded on ECX
The Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX) announced that the decision for exclusive right to trade read kidney beans and green mung beans at the electronic trading floor will reduce contraband and money laundry.
Previously the government decided to trade mung beans on the modern commodity trading facility a year ago, although it was postponed for a year in response to suppliers’ request. At the same time even though suppliers who traded the beans on the floor had been conducting illegal activity which harmed the market the government allowed suppliers to optionally trade their product at ECX.
Netsanet Tesfaye, Public Relations Head at ECX, told Capital that the trading floor now has finalized every required preparation to receive the product in the coming harvest season starting next month. 
He said that in addition to preparing a center point to receive the product the ECX has also improved its contract for both products. “One of the claims of the stakeholders was the contract issue that we have now improved,” he explained.
Last week, Misganu Arega, State Minister of MoTI, cautioned those who involved in the illegal trade of the products that the government will take severe action.
Netsanet said that to tackle the challenges the collaboration of stake holders like the Ministry of Revenue and National Bank of Ethiopia and the ECX is crucial and they are working strongly to smash the illegal trading of the country’s hard currency sources. The green mung bean had been traded for five years on the electronic trading floor optionally before last year when the government allowed it to trade products like coffee and sesame.
Red kidney beans will also be fully traded on the floor this coming harvest season.
On Friday the commodity trading facility announced that the exclusive trading of the two products under ECX will control the contraband activity, illegal money transaction and even improve hard currency earning, which has declined due to the expansion of contraband.
Besides that, in this harvest season niger seeds will be included as 10th commodity for optional trading at ECX. Recently ECX has announced that it will start to trade cotton in the current budget year. Including cotton is the beginning of trading industrial products onthe floor.
In August ECX has traded 25,386 tonnes of coffee, the major hard currency source of the country, more than 5,000 tones sesame seeds, 1,386 white pea bean, 7, 498 tones of the recently included soybean, 1,955 green mung bean, worth 2.42 billion birr.
The trading value of coffee takes 80 percent of the total amount.
