The state owned financial firm the Development Bank of Ethiopia (DBE), in the past financial year, has successfully been able to double its loan collection capacity despite having a rocky past few years. This has resulted in a significant drop in the Non-Performing Loan (NPL) ratio.
In a webinar evaluation of the past financial year, DBE announced that it secured close to 7.4 billion birr revenue with 111% achievement.
Haileyesus Bekele, President of DBE, described the result as historical for the bank that was in crisis in the past years due to the growing of NPL.
The bank’s revenue has also been boosted by 31 percent compared to the prior year’s performance.
In the 2019/20 financial year the policy bank has secured close to 1.3 billion birr gross profit before tax, while the net profit after tax stood at 1.13 billion birr. This is a first in the history for the bank to register a billion birr profit.
According to the report, the bank approved a loan of 10.4 billion birr with 76 percent of its target during the year. At the same time in the stated period it has disbursed 8.54 billion birr, which is 71 percent compared with the target set for the end year.
The bank has also collected 7.7 billion birr loan from clients in the past year that is 98 percent from its target during the fiscal year.
The loan collection is stated as a big result as it is badly required to reduce the NPL. DBE’s NPL had reached 40 percent about two years ago, while it has reduced it to 34 percent for the 2019/20 financial year.
“Particularly, the bank’s annual loan collection almost doubled as compared to the previous year’s performance and its historical average performance,” the bank stated.
Currently, the bank has a total loan portfolio of 55.67 billion birr, which is a 9 percent increase from the previous year’s amount of 51 billion birr. The NPL’s ratio has also decreased by 4.6 percent in comparison to last year’s performance.
The Bank also sold Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam bond which amounted to 616.43 million birr during the budget year.
Haileyesus also echoed that these achievements would be replicated in the next year by reducing NPL’s through collection of loans and aggressive participation in bond sales.
In 2020/21 fiscal year, the bank targets to approve 10.09 billion birr loan, disburse 10.03 billion birr and collect 8.24 billion birr as well as reduce the NPL ratio to 25 percent.
In May this year the Council of Ministers approved to increase the authorized capital of the bank to 28.5 billion birr.
DBE doubles performance of loan collection
Addis Ababa on track to meet SDG in access to education
Addis Ababa is on track to meet Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) of ensuring all students have access to education.
According to the annual education statistic report of the city administration in the year 2019/20 the Gross Enrolment Ratio /GER/ and Net Enrolment Ratio /NER/ for preprimary education in the city is relatively high at 103.96 and 96.62 respectively. As the report states the number has shown a great increase from the last academic year 2018/19 which was 98 and 87 percent respectively, the highest in the country at the time.
In growing Educational Accessibility in 2019/20 the city administration has increased the number of pre- primary schools to 1,206 from 1,143.
The GER and NER for primary schools in Addis Ababa stood at 137.4 and 97.9 percent in the year 2019/20 which was an improvement from the 2018/19 year.
The national GER target for primary school is 103 percent by 2020, which seems possible to achieve.
The Gender Parity Index (GPI) for Addis Ababa primary education system is 1.15, compared to the national average of 0.9, which means that there are more girls enrolled in primary education than boys in the capital.
The GER in the secondary education in Addis Ababa stood at 99.6 percent for grade 9 to 12 and the NER reached 58.4 for the same grades.
The gender parity in Addis Ababa’s secondary education system stood at 1.16 in 2019/20 which was 1.10 in the prior period.
At the city education bureau, school expansion has been higher in urban areas, mainly because of better infrastructure and the role of the private sector in education.
While many preschools and secondary schools are located in Addis Ababa, access is limited to the urban poor children whose parents cannot afford to pay school fees. Furthermore, quality of public schools continues to be an issue, transition from grade to grade is a bottleneck for many and many who attended school fail to acquire basic skills as a result of unskilled teachers, irrelevant teaching and inadequate learning materials.
Despite these challenges, the education bureau has been doing a lot to tackle issues in regards to quality education.
In Addis Ababa, the percentage of appropriately qualified teachers in primary education is at 17.6 percent .The rate of qualified teachers in secondary schools from grades 9 to 12 is at 13.75 percent.
On the positive side, the pupil to teacher ratio is 26 students per teacher in grades 1 to 8 in public schools and 19 students per teacher in private schools in grades 1 to 8 and 18 students per teacher in grades 9 to 12.
In the capital, the survival rate to grade 8, that is, the percentage of students who completed primary education – was 80 percent, which is far above the national average of 53 percent. The repetition rate for primary (Grades 1-8) in Addis Ababa is only 2 percent, the lowest in Ethiopia.
In regards to delay in schooling, 11 percent of children aged 5 to 17 years in Addis Ababa attend school with two or more years of delay.
According to the report, there was significant success in progress of tackling matters related to school dropouts and grade repetition.
Wudassie’s free scanning services
Wudassie Diagnostic Center (WDC) has launched the 11th payment free CT scan and diagnosis service for five days for 1000 people who cannot affor it. According to the center the service is said to start on September 6 and will go on until September 10 for five consecutive days.
According to Dawit Hailu General Manager of the center, such program is launched to make its contribution to the needy and to be a model for other private health facilities. “When we play our role, we can also motivate others to contribute on their field,” Dawit said while announcing the initiative.
Wudassie Diagnostic was founded in 2008 and is one of the first diagnostic centers with MRI, CT scan, Digital X-ray, Ultrasound, EKG and Ambulance service in the country.
According to Dawit, WDC is dedicated in providing the community in and outside Addis Ababa with the finest imaging services by a local team of specialized physicians and associates. Beside in helping the needy, Wudassie has been engaged in different community based services including offering free service for 18 local based NGOs.
Arts TV launches virtual bazar
Arts TV announced the launching of a virtual Bazar in Ethiopia. The virtual Bazaar is organized in partnership with Dashen Bank for the holiday season which is the Ethiopian 2013 New Year festivities.
The Bazar is being held starting from August 26 and will run until the New Year’s eve which will be held on September 10, 2020.
“Bazars were usually held a few weeks before so everyone can purchase foodstuff, presents and other goods for the holyday. This year, the Covid-19 pandemic is making it impossible for such bazars to happen. Arts TV has found a solution for people and companies enabling them to respectively purchase/offer products and services without having to expose themselves and their families to the virus,” reads a statement sent to Capital from Arts TV.
“Arts TV will be producing a two-hour live show every morning for 15 days, with a host who will be presenting partner companies. Consumers will be able to purchase products using their phones and it will be delivered for free to their homes,” the statement further reads.
Payment options are available online and through phones, or at the nearest Dashen Bank branches.
