The 25-year-old United Insurance inaugurates a 300 million birr building five years after the groundbreaking ceremony.
The new high rise sits on a 2,000 sqm plot around ‘Tewodros Square’. The 12-storey building has three basements which can be used to park 500 cars.
The design and construction of the office was done by Geretta Consult and Zamra construction Plc.
United Insurance leased the land to build the headquarters from a third party 20 years ago however as Tesfaye Desta, deputy operational manager of the Insurance Company told Capital, at the time United was looking for more land from the government to make a bigger building. However, when they were unable to secure more they decided to begin building on the plot they had. “Even though we waited for a long time for permission to build a better building than this we didn’t get it so we decided to start the building.”
United also had three other buildings one at Bahirdar and Bole Medhanialem which they rent out for extra income and use as a branch office and another at Kality which is used for similar purposes as well as storing damaged equipment.
United was headquartered in a rented space at the Ethiopian Workers Association building when it started operating, and after merging with Lion Insurance, United moved to Alta Awlo building near ‘Beklobet’.
The United Insurance Company SC, better known as, “UNIC-ETHIOPIA” was established by 87 Ethiopians (individuals and enterprises) in November 1994 with an authorized capital of 25 million birr and an initial paid up capital of 8.073 million birr. Following the merger with Lion Insurance Company SC in 2002, the company is currently owned by more than 500 shareholders.
Currently, the Company’s authorized capital is 600 million birr and 1.6 billion birr in assets with 50 branches all over the country.
Meseret Bezabeh, CEO of United Insurance said “UNIC-ETHIOPIA’’ aims to be the best insurance company in Ethiopia, the most professional, most commercial, and most responsible by providing complete insurance coverage at economic rates, honest, prompt, and courteous claims services, to fully satisfy all its constituencies: customers, shareholders, employees, society and the environment.
In its 25 years, United has been building its capacity, said Meseret.
United sells motor insurance, travel insurance, funeral insurance, fire insurance and political violence insurance, which has been put in place due to the instability in the nation. The CEO said the insurance paid over 1.7 million birr to one customer who have a political violence insurance. Many customers have been asking to purchase the insurance but United has not offered it to them. Meseret says that because of the insecure situation they may have to pay out more in compensation than they are able to.
United Insurance inaugurates new HQ
Rail needs money to get to fuel depot
The Ethio Djibouti Railway SC (EDR) is looking for funds to connect the electrical heavy rail to the fuel depot in Awash.
The line connecting Djibouti ports with central Ethiopia has replaced the historical Franco-Ethiopia line and commenced operation in 2018 dry transporting containerized and bulk cargo.
“If we connect the line with Awash we shall easily transport fuel to the country from the fuel port in Djibouti, which called Horizon Djibouti Terminal,” Tilahun Sarka, Director General of EDR, told Capital,
The company is looking to connect the Awash depot with the main line that the Director General indicated is not more than 1.5 km.
Currently the two ports in Djibouti that serve the multipurpose and containerized cargo have already connected with the main railway line, while Horizon, which is about 2km from the main line is not connected but should be connected to commence the operation.
EDR has already bought 110 tankers and stored them, while a single fuel tanker shall manage three fuel trucks. For the single tanker the company paid USD 100,000 but the tankers have sat idle for years.
“It is unfair not to use the tankers for this much period,” he explained.
These 110 oil tankers shall be managed by three rails or wagons, according to the head of the joint company of Ethiopia and Djibouti.
“If we operate the rail tankers we shall cover more than 30 percent of the oil transport to the central part of the country,” he added.
“At the same time our daily fleet to Djibouti would be increased by three if the oil cargo transport was commenced,” Tilahun said.
According to the information Capital obtained the company has already tabled the proposal for the relevant government body, Ministry of Finance. He added that it needs also a decision from the Prime Minister’s office.
Experts claimed that the government is not interested in embarking on more investment on the railway line that costs about USD 4 billion on both sides with commercial loan, meanwhile Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed ask the financer, China, to extend the repayment and grace period.
Even though the government is not interested to invest more in the railway system it may affect its operation and against the economic value.
They insist the government does more investment on the line for economic advantage, Tilahun said. “Other railway system would work for centuries or more due to they have significant investment every time that should be applied on our operation,” he explained.
“At the initial stage the investment of railway is very high but you have not retreated investing more on the claim once you invested USD 4 billion,” he added.
He claimed the investment might be focus on the feasibility of additional investment.
Based on that Tilahun support the idea the government to invest on the linakge of the line to Awash depot.
At the same time Tilahun appreciated the support of Ministry of Finance, who backs the company indifferent supports including providing working capital.
Ethiopia has 75 percent share on the railway line that is 760km of which 100km is in Djibouti border.
The government is working to transport fertilizer for this coming harvest season via rail system from Doraleh Multipurpose Port, which is recently connected with the main railway line.
Last week relevant government leaders and Tilahun has been visited Djibouti to see the way to commence the fertilizer transport from the port to central Ethiopia.
The SGTD port which was called Doraleh Container Terminal is also connected with the main line about a year ago and currently cargos on container shall be transported from the port directly to Ethiopia via railway.
The 760km railway line costs about USD 4 billion. The line was constructed by two Chinese construction giants, China Railway Engineering Corporation and China Civil Engineering Construction Company.
Based on the bilateral agreement signed on December 16, 2016 the railway share company was formed on January 11, 2017 and one year later, on January 1 the first day of operation started.
TECNO launches Phantom 9 in Addis
TECNO launches its premium flagship device PHANTOM 9 and upgraded camera smartphone CAMON 12 last Thursday November 7th 2019 at the Sheraton Addis Hotel.
The long-awaited addition to its flagship device PHANTOM smartphone series PHANTOM 9 and new smartphone CAMON 12 with upgraded camera comes with an array of enhanced features that takes smartphone experience to a whole new level.
The new PHANTOM 9 has the latest Android P, and it has 128GB+6GB and an in-display fingerprint; 4G LTE capacity for smooth high speed browsing. 
“With the advent of today’s Smartphone, cameras have stopped being the exclusive preserve of professional photographers. Professionals in different fields of life now find it convenient to carry a high-quality camera in their pockets in the form of a Smartphone,” said El Hassani Mohamed, Marketing Manager of TECNO.
Both TECNO PHANTOM 9 and TECNO CAMON 12 will appear in the market by the end of next week.
TECNO is a major global player with presence in around 60 emerging markets across the world and one of the top three mobile phone brands in Africa.
Tecno built its own factory in Addis Ababa and has over 100 business centers and over 150 brand shops in 40 cities in Ethiopia.
