After the draft of the Civil Society (CSO) proclamation was finished by the advisory committee the Attorney General’s Office decided that a Civil Society Commission should be established to respond to the Office of the Attorney General (OAG).
The advisory council passed by one vote the decision to have the commission respond to the parliament. The working group, which is responsible for preparing the draft, and presenting the document to the council, initially, wanted the Commission to respond to the OAG, according to the Deputy Attorney General Gediyon.
“As the Commission is a regulatory organ, but not a democratization organ in the constitution, we decided to change the draft for the commission to respond to the Executive Branch,” he told Capital. “We believe the content of the proclamation is the main issue not the response and we will consider the recommendation of the council in other matters.”
Also the recently amended proclamation that governs the powers and responsibilities of the executive, the CSO Agency was mandated to respond to the Executive Branch, specifically to the OAG.
Civil Society Commission to be overseen by Executive Branch
Record profits for Nyala Insurance
Nyala Insurance S.C. (NISCO) recorded record profits among private insurers by amassing 769.4 million birr last fiscal year. This was a 76 percent increase in profits compared with the preceding year.
From the total profits 707.7 million came from general business and life insurance business accounted for 68.6 million birr.
Kemal Mohammed, NISCO’s board chair told the press last Thursday that the company’s work ethic is behind the profit increase.
“There is no secret behind our success, we deeply go into our work, attract new customers and widen our space which allows us to maintain good results.’’
He further indicated that during the budget year the company’s total income grew by 498.2 million birr up from 430.5 million birr, an increase of 16 percent. The company’s total assets stood at 1.9 billion birr, which means an increase of 32 percent over last year or 1.4 billion birr. Similarly, the company’s paid up capital at the end of the year reached 340.5 million birr. This shows a significant increase of 32 percent and 51 percent from last year and the strategic target of 258.4 million birr and 225 million birr respectively, he said.
Kemal added that lack of human resources and unfair competition among insurance companies is still a challenge in the sector.
Yared Mola, Chief Executive officer of NISCO added that even though NISCO achieved record results the insurance industry in Ethiopia still has a long way to go.
“Insurance penetration (total premiums as a percentage of GDP) is 0.4 in Ethiopia while it is 2.6 in Kenya; premium per capita is 2.9 USD in Ethiopia while it has reached 40 USD in Kenya,‘’ he said.
He cited absence of a strategic alliance among industry players and tightened regulations as critical challenges faced by the industry.
Nyala Insurance Share Company (NISCO) was founded in July 1995 following the liberalization of the insurance business in 1994. Currently, NISCO guarantees protection with care to its customers through three pronged services – General, Life and Micro-insurance solutions with a network of 43 service outlets (28 Service Centers and 15 Contact Offices) distributed all over the country.
Sodere Resort resumes service after three months
The largest and the oldest resort in Ethiopia, Sodere Resorts, resumed operation this month after being closed for three months due to over flooding caused by its adjacent river, Awash. The resort which was founded by the government 69 years ago is known for its hot natural springs.
The flood damaged 67 new bedrooms which were under the last stage of construction, according to Abyot Temesgen, Manager of the Resort.
“We have sustained millions of birr in damage by the flood,” he said. “We also paid three months of salary for 670 employees besides the potential revenue we could have generated. The resort is a life line for the Sodere Town, Awash and Adama and its closure has affected them badly. The flooding which was said to be caused by the increasing level of alluvial in the Awash River is being removed by the resort now. The resort also began making bricks to limit the flow of the water into the compound in addition to diverting the direction of the water.
“We hired 10 experts to study how society can use the water for irrigation while we all work to control potential damages of the river,” said Abyot. “We want to be a major chain hotel in Africa and we hope the resort will be ranked five stars soon.”
Abiyot also revealed that the resort soon will open new hotels in three different cities in Ethiopia including Addis. He also stated that that they are working to expand abroad.
Sodere Resorts and hotels currently has 304 bedrooms beside the upcoming 67 bedrooms under repair. The resort is constructing one Olympic standard swimming pool which also has mini stadium seats, aiming to host games. Four operational swimming pools, three meeting halls, unlimited parking lots, spa and bars are among the facilities it features.
The resort is said to claim 427 hectares of plot while only 127 hectares are utilized.
TDP, Enat Bank collaborate on small, medium enterprises
As part of its work to make entrepreneurship more inclusive in the 22 member states it serves, the Eastern and Southern Africa Trade and Development Bank (TDB) signed a memorandum of understanding last Wednesday with Enat Bank.
The memorandum was signed by Admassu Tadesse, TDB President and Wondossen Teshome, Enat Bank President. According to their deal the two banks will collaborate on developing a pipeline of small and medium enterprises which qualify for export credit support involving a loan guarantee or other instruments, through a partnership with various stakeholders.
TDB President Admassu Tadesse during the signing ceremony said “We are pleased to offer a targeted SME partial-risk guarantee support facility to Enat Bank. We have been engaging with Enat Bank in Ethiopia for over a year and now selected it as one of our partners because of its unique ethos. This instrument is aimed at helping Enat Bank scale-up its impact, share their risk and reach out to more SMEs, particularly women-led and women-owned SMEs. We also hope that Enat will use this instrument to reach more young entrepreneurs and those companies employing youth.”
He pointed out that this is only a starting point, and that TDB expects to join forces with other international development partners to extend such facilities to other specialist financial institutions in its member countries. TDB launched its first facility in Zimbabwe in October 2018 and will be rolling out the programme to other Member States in the months to come, starting with Burundi and Kenya.
Established in 1985, the Eastern and Southern African Trade and Development Bank (TDB), formerly the PTA Bank, is a multilateral, treaty-based development financial institution, with assets of over USD five billion. The Bank’s mandate is to finance and foster trade, regional economic integration and sustainable development, through trade finance, project and infrastructure finance, asset management and business advisory services.
