Four star general Amanuel G/Kidan is emerging as a strong contender for the season’s top scorer award, Mekele is riding high to challenge the heavy weights at the top of the league table. In top form Mekele is currently second on the roster in goal differences with the Saints each collecting 26 points, but Mekele has two games in hand.
With six wins and three draws in the past nine matches including victories over Hawassa, Ethiopia Bunna and Fasil respectively, Coach Gebremedin Haile appears in full battle gear to retain the league title. Many suggested a mistake was made when Gebremedin left to play international fixtures to defending champion Jimma AbaJifar. However, Gebre has proven his critics wrong by working miracles with Mekele catching up with the title contenders even before the end of the first round. Instead of headaches over a chaotic situation, AbaJifar, Gebremedin have boldly moved to Mekele to build a strong squad considered by many the most balanced side. They boast a merciless strike force that has bagged 18 goals so far and a disciplined defensive line conceding only eight goals.
The home adventure where they demolished Mekelakeya 5-2, with Ammanuel bagging four followed by a 1-0 victory over Fasil on Thursday, the team’s consistency in the past nine outings makes Mekele appear capable of mounting a strong title contention. If the far dream comes true at the end of the season, the former popular player with the Ethiopian national team and Saint George, Gebremedin will have a place in Football’s history book as the first back to back Premier League champion.
Gebremedin Haile Mekele flying high
Ethiopia Bunna disappointed by results
Club supporters are turning their back on their beloved club following three consecutive defeats, the silence of the club’s Commander Fekade Mamo and the current chaotic situation under French Coach Didier Gomes have made supporters so angry they turned their backs and called out names when the club hosted Debub Police.
The big bosses may not consider the situation to be hazardous. But the diehard supporters went crazy enough to call for someone’s head to roll, in particular Coach Dider Gomes. Nevertheless, both officials have been silent during the three game losing streak. The team has falling from the lead to fifth place in just two weeks and already some are saying Gomez or Board Chair Fekade should be fired.
Bunna has played boring, uninspired football and the messages from the administration have been mixed. On one hand Fekade said management is confident in their French coach but then, after the three losses Gomez submitted his resignation. The Board put his request on hold until the next General Assembly. The resignation request is not timely and is not the answer to the chaos. There needs to be a serious discussion to tackle problems including Gomez’s presence. “The players are not competent enough to don “The Brown Shirts”, remarked Lakew Assefa while his friend Demes added they all are trademarks of Didier’s incompetency.
Tele starts paying off its debts after two years
CEO outlines steps for better service, revenue
For the first time since 2016, Ethio Telecom has paid its debts significantly and its revenue has covered 51 percent of its foreign exchange. They managed to pay USD 117.7 million over the past six months from their total loans of USD 1.29 billion to be paid until 2029.
The telecom monopoly has a USD 285 million loan which will mature this year and they are planning on using a higher foreign exchange contribution from their revenue this year to fully cover it.
“The maturing loan was higher this year because we had not been paying off on our loan for the past few years due to the national foreign exchange problem and our declining performance,” Frehiwot Tamiru, CEO of the telecom told Capital.
Last month, Ethio-Telecom announced that for the last seven years the contribution of international calls to revenue decreased dramatically from 20 percent to 5 percent.
“Right now we are in a sound and stable position but at the beginning of the fiscal year the company was at risk from both internal and external challenges,” according to the telecom’s statement.
The CEO said that the unpaid maturing loans contributed to instability. By failing to pay back loans their image was tarnished and their ability to sign new Service Level Agreements (SLA) impeded.
The Telecom had to work hard to restore trust. They convinced one vendor, Ericson, to stay in the country and finish a project which was due at the end of 2016. They conducted weekly follow-up meetings with vendors to improve relationships as well.
“We strived from day one to strengthen our bargaining power otherwise it would be hard to convince vendors to maintain the infrastructure they had built,” said Frehiwot.
After establishing better relationships, the telecom used the confiscated security bonds and penalty payments from its vendors to finalize its minor network expansion in Addis Ababa. The 19.5 million dollar minor expansion project in Addis Ababa is expected to begin operating within two to three weeks, although there are some places where the telecom has yet to find installation sites for towers.
In Jemo, only one green field site was found to plant a tower. Other areas like Bole Medhanealem are too congested but building owners have not agreed to put towers on their roofs.
“Using the confiscated bonds and penalties we will expand the network in other major cities,” she added.
Last week the telecom announced it generated 16.7 billion birr from inland services with USD 33.6 million shares from international transactions.
The telecom also achieved 80% of its target which was 20.86 billion birr. The report revealed that active mobile subscribers increased by four million since July 1, 2018, raising the total number to 39.54 million. The number of inactive subscribers and those on idle status was 22.26 million and eight million respectively.
They planned to earn 47 billion birr this fiscal year which would be 10 billion birr more than the year before.
“When we discussed discounting tariffs there was some debate” Frehiwot told Capital. “If we cared about the report more than the performance we would have adjusted our plan. If we took into account the 50 percent discount, we would reduce the goal by billions and if we did that we would have achieved 100 percent.”
The telecom began hosting more than one million calls after it minimized the international call tariff and took action against fraud.
The calls increased from 400,000 to 1.2 million this month, according to data obtained from the telecom.
The telecom also listed the challenges of the coming semester including sustaining the reforms by establishing two divisions to curb its challenges in its international business and resource management.
The CEO mentioned that Ethio Telecom has agreed to work with Saudi Telecom. The agreement with Saudi Telecom (STC) was interrupted in 2014 when the telecom asked them to settle payments for fraudulent calls.
“The host or the initial wouldn’t be asked to do so according to the GSMA standard,” stated the CEO. “More than 6 million potential calls could have been obtained from Saudi if the two could have smoothed over their relationships earlier.”
The Telcom collected fees on Application to the Person (A2P) for the first time. A2P is a text message that was generated from the application. The International business monetized the process in which the Telcom signed agreements to charge A2P SMS and received payments upfront in foreign currency.
Among the challenges the telecom paid special attention to were the cable cuts which it lines as affecting the network quality and the infrastructure. It was said to line up various interventions to curb the problem including the bilateral efforts it began with the Ethiopian Electric Power (EEP). The telecom agreed to pay EEP 20 million birr annually for carrying the telecom line with the power line which is going to make it dangerous to cut.
Engagements with the local security and administrative people will be another intervention.
Within the past six months, the telecom also announced that it has saved more than 100 million birr in operational costs.
Power interruption was also a major issue. Twenty percent of the power for its towers comes from solar and 40 percent from fuel generators. Towers in remote areas are difficult to refuel and maintain.
Voice calls decreased from 74 percent to 63 percent this year as data usage spiked, now amounting to 29 percent of use.
“We will focus on Value Added Services (VAS) to improve our revenue and the contribution of the telecom in other sectors,” said Frehiwot.
Ethiopia, Djibouti say Maersk decision could lead to market chaos
Ethiopia and Djibouti are denouncing Maersk Line’s decision to impose an additional unloading fee on import containers at Djibouti ports.
Recently the world’s largest container shipping company announced they would apply the so called ‘Recovery for Handling Imports (RHI)’ on containerized cargos coming into the Djibouti, ports starting February 1. Djibouti is the main gateway for Ethiopian logistics.
Logistics experts in both Djibouti and Ethiopia strongly oppose the company’s decision because in addition to affecting Djibouti’s port activity, it could significantly increase the cost of goods coming into Ethiopia.
Sources at the Djibouti Ports and Free Zones Authority, the higher body following the port and free zone operation in Djibouti, told Capital that the Authority has expressed their concerns to Maersk.
They explained that the ports in Djibouti had not changed any tariffs for carriers. “The increase from Maersk is unreasonable because no ports in Djibouti have raised their prices,” he said.
“The charges for carriers were set over a decade ago, which is when the container terminal began operating. There has not been any change in fees for operators at the port since that time. We fail to understand why the new fee for incoming cargo to Djibouti was imposed,” the spokesperson complained.
The company, which is one of the logistics partners for Ethiopian cargo announced that it had applied RHI to incoming containerized cargo arriving at Djibouti. Based on this new rule imported cargo will be charged USD 133 and USD 166 for every 20 foot and 40-foot container respectively.
In its announcement Maersk stated “to ensure continuity of the Maersk service standards and maintain an exceptional customer experience in Djibouti, we would therefore like to inform you of the need for recovering part of the cost associated with the terminal operations of loading and unloading containers from vessels.”
Daniel Zemichael, a logistics expert and owner and Chief Executive of Freighters International Plc, told Capital that these types of charges are common in the global logistics sector. He said that carriers or liners like Maersk pay at the port in Djibouti and now the liner has transferred the cost onto the customers.
Mekonnen Abera, Director General of the Ethiopian Maritime Affairs Authority (EMAA), said the partner’s action is unacceptable. “We have asked them to annul their decision,” the Ethiopian logistics sector chief told Capital.
“Last week I was in Djibouti we talked about the issue with relevant officials there,” he said. “Initially I did not understand their decision,” he added.
Capital obtained information from both, the Ethiopian and Djibouti, sides. They said that in addition to asking the company to change its new scheme the authorities have written a letter to Maersk arguing their side of the story.
“The Djibouti authority and EMAA’s branch in Djibouti wrote a joint letter to the company,” Mekonnen confirmed.
There is not a so called ‘unilateral decision’ since we don’t have a bilateral agreement with Maersk and we don’t have any agreements with liners but this will highly affect our economy.
Sources in Djibouti said that the company’s decision is applied purposely to affect the relationship of the two countries and to make port services in Djibouti more expensive.
“Even though they said that RHI will start being charged February 1st we have told them it will not be applicable,” Mekonnen said.
“We had no idea that they would add tariffs on shipping services. In the past when the unloading tariff that liners are supposed to pay at ports is adjusted we would be informed. So the current decision is inconvenient for us and that is why we are against it,” he claimed.
Experts in the sector said the stated amounts added to unloading containers are very high which could lead to chaos in Ethiopia and affect end users here.
“It is international trade but it is a high rate for Ethiopia so this may affect the market locally,” Daniel said.
In its statement Maersk said that the recovery for handling will be applied for imports from the rest of the world into Djibouti and invoiced as RHI; the recovery for handling will be collected in Djibouti for all imports, “the recovery for handling is a pure pass-through charge at cost and not intended to be used for profit increase beyond the cost levels. Neither is it an effect of any new increase in government fees.”
“We would request your understanding and cooperation to join our efforts in ensuring future container shipping investments to meet the rising needs of both Djibouti and Ethiopia,” it added.
According to the announcement the rates are also subject to other applicable surcharges, OF (Ocean Freight), OHC (Origin Terminal Handling Charge), DHC (Destination Terminal Handling Charge), ERS (Emergency Risk Surcharge), SBF (Standard Bunker Adjustment Factor), LSS (Low Sulphur Surcharge) and PSS (Peak Season Surcharge), including local charges and contingency charges.
Experts stated it is additional burden for Ethiopia, which is highly affected by the hard currency shortage for imports. “We are suffering because of the hard currency shortage for imports and the current new charge will be another burden since we settled the payment on foreign currency,” experts explained.
Mekonnen said that he expected that the company will change its decision soon.
From the total Ethiopia’s coming cargos the containerized is up to 300 thousand TEU per annum, while the share of cargos that Maersk, which is the leading partner for Ethiopia, handle is estimated one fifth. The containerized export of Ethiopia is about 65,000 per annum.
