Confusion is being created among staff of the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs (MoLSA) and banks after over 490 Domestic worker agencies presented USD 100,000 that was blocked from private companies to open offices and send Ethiopian workers to the Middle East.
A source close to the issue told Capital that the agencies presented blocked account letters totaling 1.4 billion birr to MoLSA, which allowed them to have open offices in Addis Ababa and other parts of the county.
“We talked to some of the agencies and they told us that banks are giving blocked account letters. However, the agencies don’t have the amount of money that is mentioned in the letter. The reason the banks are writing an over account letter is to allow domestic workers from the agencies to send their money by using the bank account when they start work abroad. But this is a crime and the government must look at it’’ the source said.
“The reason why the blocked account is needed is to give compensation to the domestic workers if a bad thing happens due to negligence by the agencies. If the agencies bring a false account figure, it is very hard to give compensation to the workers at a bad time. So getting the right blocked account is mandatory,” the source added.
Capital asked the license office at MoLSA about the problem. The office explained that so far they have not received any tangible evidence about fraudulent activity. They also said that Awash Bank asked MoLSA to get all the block account letters submitted to them to verify whether they are fake or not.
Currently over 100,000 job orders come from Saudi Arabia to hire Ethiopians as domestic workers, mainly housekeeping and caregiving. However, because the software in Ethiopia is incompatible with Saudi’s software to register and control domestic workers travel to Saudi still has not started.
According to proclamation 923/2016 direct domestic worker employment is only for staff where the employers is an Ethiopian mission or an international organization and where the job seeker acquires a job opportunity on their own accord in job positions other than house maid service.
Receiving countries should protect the life and the disability insurance coverage rights of domestic workers.
The proclamation requires domestic workers to have certificates proving that they have at least three months of training in their respective fields.
Domestic worker agencies blocked accounts under suspicion
Asset’s of government officials to be posted online in three months
The Federal Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission is in the final stages of revealing the top government officials assets through an online system that can be accessible to the public through an inquiry.
The commission will post the assets in three months.
The asset information includes the wealth of the Prime Minister, the ministers of different institutions, state ministers, directors, procurement staff and other selected officials.
The information will tell the requester the movable and fixed asset of the officials.
The system which has been developed by the Indian company, CSM for the last five years consumed USD 198,000.
Currently the commission has shown the wealth of the official in the manual requiring system which the requester must be physically present at the Commission Office to get the information.
So far more than 1,000 people have looked at publicized wealth information through the manual system. So far more than 160,000 government officials have registered their wealth in the commission data.
But the new system will cut the manual system and anyone in remote areas of the country can access the wealth of the officials online.
Mesfin Belyahne, Asset Registration and Disclosure Director at the Commission told Capital that some of the staff went to India to learn the system.
“The new system is not like Wikipedia that can get you quick access to a given information but rather it is platform that you get the information after you fill out forms.’’
“The reason we made an enquiry system is that some people may use the information for unnecessary things that can damage the privacy of the officials so to protect the officials we have asked people to confirm the reason they need the information, and where they work.”
According to Mesfin the system will not allow to copy and duplicate the files so as to protect the officials’ privacy.
The aim behind assets registration of high-ranking officials was to prevent corruption, embezzlement of public funds, and to establish a monitoring mechanism for public and the media. According to the law, the asset registration process of high ranking officials takes place in three stages; registration, publication and verification.
Moreover, it will integrate a system where a public can inform concerned bodies if a property owned by the officials is not registered in the system.
If the information obtained through whistleblowing leads to the confiscation of assets under article 419(2) of the Criminal Code, the whistle-blower shall be entitled to 25 percent of the proceeds of the confiscated asset.
Wegagen sees remittance increase, links with WorldRemit
Wegagen, one of Ethiopia’s oldest banks, announced it is taking in impressive remittance earnings and expanding money transfer partners. This comes at a time when transferring money from Diaspora has seen challenges.
Simret Tesfay, Remittance Division Manager at Wegagen, said that remittance revenue is more sustainable now.
“Like other financial firms, illegal actions have hindered remittance earnings, however we have been able to maintain high performance,” she said at a press conference held at Hilton Hotel on May 15 in relation to the Bank’s signing ceremony with World Remit, an emerging global digital money transfer company.
Simret says the black market has affected legal money transfer. “To be winner and continue to increase our revenue we have developed innovative approaches like using digital money transfer services with partnering companies including World Remit,” the Remittance Division Manager added.
Abay Mehari, President of Wegagen, who signed the partnership agreement on behalf of the Bank with World Remit, said that using digital money transfer is easier and more preferable than traditional methods because it can improve accessibility.
“Expanding branches and accessibility is crucial, in my opinion improving exports is vital to smash the parallel market which is flourishing and in growing demand,” the president explained.
The service of World Remit introduced eight years ago has become popular since one can transfer money from anywhere to a receiver in different ways. The receiver can get the money by bank account transfer, cash pickup and mobile money.
The options of World Remit such as being able to transfer to an account or mobile can keep receivers from unnecessary expenses or encourage saving money, according to Fikru Woldetensie, Marketing and Corporate Communication Manager of Wegagen.
He said that his company’s presence in some growing regions is significant and reaches every corner including refugees’ centers like South Sudanese in Gambella Region with a money transfer from their facility.
The digital platform that the global remittance actor introduced has several differences from the traditional transferring approach, according to Sharon Kinyanjui, Head of East and Central Africa of World Remit.
“In the traditional approach the Diaspora would have to go the bank or money transfer agents to send the money to family or others at home but with our method they can send the money via mobile money from anywhere. Our service has reduced the cost of sending money,” Kinyanjui.
“Traditional transferring companies could charge from ten to 12 percent of the transfer amount but in our case it is up to 2 percent only,” she said.
Elfagid Aregahegne, Head of Business Development and Operations World Remit in Ethiopia, said that Ethiopia has secured about USD 5 billion per year from remittance, which is from 25 to 30 percent of total transfer to the country. One of the reasons people prefer to send their money through informal remittance is the high cost of sending which his company has reduced significantly, according to Elfagid.
We have been working strongly in places like the Middle East and the Gulf to encourage Ethiopian Diaspora there to save their money at the bank using different options.
World Remit, which has been operating for the last two years in the country, launched its first mobile money service in Ethiopia in 2018.
According to Simret, Wegagen is using 10 partners in international money transfer. The bank, which is one of the top six profitable banks, has 1.2 million account holders and 338 branches.
Gov’t to pay over 200 million birr for cooperative unions
The government is to pay over 200 million birr to cooperative unions as compensation for the non essential purchase of over 271 quintals of fertilizers used as inputs for Blending Plants.
Back in 2015, what was known as the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) and the Agricultural Transformation Agency (ATA), together with four cooperative unions located in four regional states constructed four fertilizer blending factories to supply specific fertilizer mix based on their soil type for specific areas.
“The blending factories are meant to increase the production and productivity of the farmers in the country through the supply of appropriate fertilizer to the soils,” said Ousman Surur Director of the Federal Cooperative Agency.
The Ministry and the ATA found out that sulfur, potassium, boron and zinc nutrients are deficient in many areas which indicated that one compound fertilizer NPS and five blended fertilizers namely NPSB, NPKSB, NPSZnB, NPKSZnB, and NPSZn are needed to address the key nutrient deficiencies in the tested soils according to ATA’s 2013/14 report.
According to the3 agency, Gibe Dedessa and Becho Weliso Farmers’ Cooperative Union in Oromia Regional states registered success at least in small scale for the first batch of production.
The cooperative union encountered failure when the Ministry of Agriculture and Agricultural Transformation Agency (ATA) purchased non-essential fertilizers of Boron, Zinc and potash amounting to 271,680 quintals of fertilizer.
“The blending factory quit producing as the result of unspecified fertilizers purchased as an input,” he adds.
As a result the five cooperative unions Merkeb Cooperative Union in Amhara Region, Enderta Multipurpose Farmers’ Cooperative Union in Tigray Region and Melek Silte in Southern Nations, Nationalities & Peoples Region (SNNPR), Gibe Dedessa and Becho Weliso Farmers’ Cooperative Union in Oromia region have lost a total of over 200 hundred million birr for administrative expenses, rent for warehouses, bank interest and damage to the plant.
According to the Agency, the government is to pay nearly 252.7 million birr to the cooperatives based on the report of Auditor General.
The country, which has been using only di-ammonium phosphate (DAP) and urea for many years, abandoned DAP and began importing a new fertilizer called NPS.
The blending factories that were administered under the respective unions were built with a 1.2 million USD grant from the USAID Feed the Future innovation and were intended to distribute their products to the farmers in their mandated areas through the cooperatives.
Presently, over 95 percent of the country’s agricultural inputs including fertilizers are distributed through cooperatives.
Cooperatives in Ethiopia are play an active role in the fields of finance, input and output marketing, consumer goods, agro processing, mechanization and many other economic and social activities.
Currently there are 85,496 primary cooperatives with individual membership 19,502,786 and 388 Cooperative Unions (secondary tier) with members of 15, 813 primary cooperatives, 3 Cooperative Federations (tertiary tier) with 146 members. Their capital has reached 22.9 billion Birr and they employ 1,495,391 people in the country.
