The Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE) has opened its first dedicated interest free banking branch around Bole Michael. The branch which is named “Bilal” was officially inaugurated by Bacha Gini, President of CBE and Sahria advisory board of CBE.
The opening of the branch is result in the recent directives of the National Bank to offer a dedicated interest free banking service in order to meet the demands of Muslim communities and broadening the base of non-banking societies.
CBE has been offering interest free banking in window based service in more than 1,330 branches throughout the country.
CBE opens interest free branch
EKOS steel partners with Korea Hospital to serve Dukem
South Korean steel manufacturing company, EKOS has is offering medical service for Dukem town Located in Oromia region 37 kilometers southeast of Addis Ababa where their factory is located to serve the community and discharge their corporate social responsibility.
The project of supporting the communities is jointly done with Korean Hospital based in Addis Ababa which provides high quality and advanced medical service and education.
The service started last Saturday afternoon in Dukem Health center with specialized medical doctors and nurses. Hundreds of patients obtained the service including those with Neurology cases. Doctors referred some serious cases to Korean Hospital in Addis for further treatment and covered all the costs.
The medical service will continue based on the assessments and needs of the communities and Korean Hospital.
EKOS Steel Mill Plc. is South Korean company built at a cost of 30 million USD and officially inaugurated on October 16, 2018.
Many people in Africa live in substandard housing
Close to 900 million people in Africa live in informal settlements where there is no safe water, decent toilet, title deeds or rental agreements, a report reveals. An estimated 60-70 percent of urban households live in slums.
The 14th Global Forum on Human Settlements (GFHS 2019), began on Thursday at the United Nations Conference Centre in Addis Ababa in the presence of over 500 participants from 52 countries across the globe.
The two-day event is taking place under the theme “Sustainable Development of Cities and Human Settlements in the Digital Era.”
The Forum explores how to harness the huge opportunities arising from the digital revolution to upgrade the planning, construction, and management of cities and human settlements, making them greener, smarter and more sustainable.
“Human settlement must be thought of in terms of quality of life and levels of satisfaction of basic needs,” said Oliver Chinganya, Director of the Africa Centre for Statistics.
“This is a large share of the population that live in overcrowded, unhealthy and risky environments,” he said.
Chinganya said discussions on smart cities and digital citizenry must be done with the understanding that only a third of Africans are on the Internet, and that the digital infrastructures are far from the world’s best in terms of speed, volume, and reliability.
The meeting is co-organized by the Global Forum on Human Settlements (GFHS), ECA, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the World Urban Campaign (WUC).
Sileshi Bekele of Ministry of Water, Irrigation, and Energy stated that Ethiopian’s effort to use modern and digital technologies offers tremendous opportunities to improve efficiency.
“We are trying to upscale the use of innovative technology to transform the quality of life in cities and in the nation at large,” he adds.
Dashen Bank to construct new building behind HQ
Dashen Bank has secured a plot from the city administration to construct a 30 +-storey building behind their current headquarters.
Dashen announced the confirmation from the Addis Ababa City Administration to obtain the 900 square meter plot of land to add another building in front of National Bank of Ethiopia.
In November 2017 the bank inaugurated its 21-story headquarters in the presence of Mulatu Teshome former President of Ethiopia.
Eyerusalem Gebrewold Architect at the Engineering Department of Dashen Bank, told Capital that the current headquarters built up area is 2,700 square meters, while the total area is 4,200 square meters. She said that the bank has a few plots in the back that will be included under the additional 900 square meters that the city administration transferred for further development.
During the inauguration ceremony of Sheik Mohammed Al Amoudi branch that was opened on the first floor at headquarters of the bank, Asfaw Alemu, President of Dashen Bank thanked the Deputy Mayor of Addis Ababa Takele Uma, who was a guest of honor at the ceremony, for accepting their request to include the land for the bank expansion project.
Asfaw told the media that as soon as the bank secures the land deed it will commence the expansion project.
The bank wants to expand its parking plot in the area, which is one of the major challenges and expand the office facilities at the headquarters. The current building has basement parking lots for 120 cars but it needs expansion, according to Asfaw.
Eyerusalem said that the bank will invite bids for design details in the near future. She said that the new upcoming building will have four floors of parking and add additional parking areas in the existing building.
The new branch, inaugurated on September 5 with the presence of the Deputy Mayor is designed to be customer centric and contains dedicated desks for people with disabilities, senior citizens, foreign investors and expats, interest free banking, corporate service, and micro, small and medium enterprises, among others. Further the branch contains modern facilities and strives to deliver fast and reliable service with its experienced staff.
