Kassaye Arage’s much anticipated handiwork at Ethiopia Coffee appeared to come to be realistic following the first two matches at Addis Ababa City Cup.
“I was not sure that Kassaye could deliver what he promised at his arrival. But now I changed my mind and hope he could bring some change” a longtime admirer of Kassaye suggested.
A group opening 1-0 defeat to Sebeta Town then a 1-0 victory over Welwalo-Adigrat, Ethiopia Coffee is in pole position to secure a semifinal place at the Addis Ababa City Cup. A seasoned Coach Wubetu Abate at the helm boasting a foreign goalkeeper and two strikers with veteran midfielders should have had full domination over a squad full of fresh faces including the team captain Fetudin Jemal.
Though well organized and spearheaded by the two foreigners, Sebeta took 81 minutes to break the dead lock meaning Ethiopia Coffee defense line managed to stand strong while the midfield struggled to dominate the show. The credit goes to Kassaye for making his players believe his tactical play.
Ethiopia Coffee’s second match on Thursday against Welwalo-Adigrat ended in 1-0 victory for the home side the winning goal at the 62nd minute coming from Abel Kebede. Not a single foreign player in the squad Coffee dominated not only the ball possession but also the goal trials against the side with four foreigners including the goal keeper. Though it takes longer times to come out of their own half, The Brown Shirts performed better than Welwalo and focused in counter attack.
Although it is too early to give judgment and the home support was not an easy advantage to Coffee, one can assume that Kassaye may show fans the other face of football made in Ethiopia.
Kassaye Arage impacting Ethiopia Coffee
Lelisa and Chepngetich Win 2019 AIMS Best Marathoner
World marathon champions Lelisa Desisa of Ethiopia and Ruth Chepngetich of Kenya were tonight recognized as the male and female recipients of the 2019 ‘Best Marathon Runner’ award by the Association of International Marathons and Distance Races (AIMS).
Their achievements were given global recognition in Athens, the birthplace of the marathon, at the seventh annual AIMS Best Marathon Runner (BMR) Gala.
Lelisa Desisa and Chepngetich were chosen by the AIMS athletes’ nomination committee as the outstanding candidates for the 2019 awards based upon their performances over the past 12 months.
Lelisa won the 2018 New York City Marathon before winning the marathon at the IAAF World Athletics Championships Doha 2019 with a time of 2:10:40. “Thank you to AIMS, their members and partners for presenting me with this award,” he said. “This is a proud moment in my career.”
Chepngetich is also a world marathon champion, winning in Doha with a time of 2:32:43. In the past year she also added wins at the Istanbul Marathon, the Dubai Marathon (in 2:17:08, the second-fastest time of the year), the Istanbul Half Marathon, the Seiryu Half Marathon and the Media Marathon de Bogota.
“I am very happy to receive this award in Athens where the sport of marathon running was born,” she said. “It is a great honor to be recognized in this way.”
Lelisa added world marathon gold to the silver he won in Moscow six years ago clocking a season’s best of 2:10.40.
Ethiopian Super League groups announced
Demoted from the upper tier at the end of last season Debub Police, Mekelakeya and Dedebit the top seeds, Super League new season group members became official on Tuesday. Three groups each with sixteen sides’ a total of 48 teams are taking part in the 2019/20 Super league season from which the top finishers of the groups to secure promotion.
Top seed Dedebit leading the pack group (A) brings together: Soloda Adwa, Semen-Shoa, Axum, Legetafo-Legedadi, Electric, Dessie, Federal Police, Gelan, Akaki, Woldiya and Wello-Kombolcha. Second season at Super League Electric and newly relegated Dedebit are expected to become strong promotion contenders.
Relegated side Debub Police the top seed, Group(B )is comprised of Kolfe-Keranyo, Kirkos, Hambericho, Halaba, Ecasco, Negele, Yeka, Wolayta-Sodo, Dilla and former premier league duos Medin and Addis Ababa Town. The promotion battle is likely to be between freshly relegated side Debub Police and financially strong team Ethiopia Medin.
Promotion favorite Mekelakeya the top seed, group (C) brings together Gamo-Chencha, Batu-Town, Arbaminch, Nekemet, Selete-Werabe, Bench-Maji, Kembata-Shinshicho, Shashemene, AbaBuna, Keffa-Jimma and Butajera Town. One of the most travelled Coach in Ethiopia Zelalem Shiferaw have signed nearly a whole new squad therefore thje hottest favorite to win the group. Former Premier League sides Arbaminch and Jimma AbaBuna are the one much expected to mount strong promotion contention.
ET, CBE launch co-branded platinum card
The two oldest and largest institutions in the country, Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE) and Ethiopian Airline group have launched Co-Branded platinum Card last Wednesday November 6, 2019 at Ethiopian Sky Light Hotel in a bid to serve the shared customers of the two institutions offering a multiple advantage. Ethiopian Airlines transacts through digital payment channels worldwide.
For the last ten months CBE facilitated the sale of Ethiopian Airlines e-tickets worth over 300 million birr through digital payment channels. During the period, 67,480 e-tickets were sold using digital payment channels including its CBE Birr App and online bookings at branches of the Bank.
The digital payment solution is geared towards allowing customers to use CBE’ digital payment channels and flies to over 125 destinations of Ethiopian Airlines worldwide.
The service enables customers to pay at tip of their fingers using mobile phones, Internet, PoS, and CBE birr Ethiopia. 
According to the Tewolde Gebremariam CEO of ET and Bacha Gini President of CBE, customers of the Co- branded platinum card will get a millage advantage from Ethiopian Airline group beside the incentives that the customers get while using the card shopping, at hotels, gas stations and other services.
“We are proud to have pioneered the modernization of payment systems in Ethiopia. The various e-payment facilities we deployed have enabled us become leaders in the provision of technology based banking services,” said Bacha.
“As customer focused global airline, we have invested heavily in digitizing our systems and operations to meet the evolving’ expectation of customers. The digital payment service of CBE has availed us the opportunity to greatly streamline our payment systems and help our customers process their flights at ease, in an efficient and effective manner,” Tewolde adds.
Ethiopian Airlines, one the fastest growing Airlines became one of the continent’s leading carriers, unrivaled in efficiency and operational success in 125 international passenger and cargo destinations across five continents. 
The Airline also works with over 35 digital-payment channels worldwide.
Concerning the network problems encountered at CBE, the president disclosed that they have been using the latest technology to solve the problems.
“For offering such digital services, CBE has assigned a dedicated digitalization structure at the president and vice president level to lead digitalization and go forward,” Bacha adds.
The 77 year old CBE, has over 22 million customers with over 1,500 branches in addition to branches in neighboring South Sudan and Djibouti.
Both giant institutions have shared goals of serving the people and go hand in hand with the global trends.
