The Ministry of Trade and Industry (MoTI) is accusing oilseed and pulses exporters of illegal activities associated with foreign trade because they allegedly traded sesame seeds and white pea beans outside the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX).
Two weeks ago officials at the ministry called a meeting of 95 business people involved in exporting sesame and white pea beans including the board of directors of Ethiopian Pulses, Oilseeds and the Spices Processors and Exporters Association (EPOSPEA) to consult and warn about the illegal activity in illegal trading against ECX.
Sources in the sector told Capital that the officials have clearly indicated that the export price of sesame seeds are lower than the value that exporters purchased them from ECX and some of the exporters have suspended their export. This is happening at a time when other exporting countries like Sudan and Nigeria are expanding their exports and boosting their production, according to sources who attended the meeting. The source adds that, MoTI officials say Ethiopia is losing its major sesame seed market in China, which consumes 70 percent of Ethiopia’s production.
The sector experts said that even though it is the peak season for sesame seed production like other export items traded at ECX the price has sharply increased every day. A pulse and oilseed trading consultant, who requested anonymity also said that even though the price has gone up at ECX some of those exporters are exporting the seeds at lower price than the rate that they paid at ECX. “This has confused the market,” he added.
“For instance, even though the exporter paid USD 1,750 per ton of sesame seeds during trading at ECX it will sell it for USD 1,500. This trend has affected the export oriented businesses,” he explained.
Ministry officials are warning the illegal traders that they are only harming themselves. “Both your business and the country are losing due to your practices,” the officials said. They have told the exporters that they consider this to be under invoicing, which is illegal.
Experts said that some new exporters are joining the export business in order to access hard currency, which is severely scarce, for their other business.
The latest trend is also seen by some of the manufacturers who are unable to get foreign currency from banks unless they are engaged in export business. According to experts they are told by banks to engage in an export business to access foreign currency which affects the export business.
“Manufacturers are engaging in the export to get relief from their daily work and settlement of bank loans and labor costs since it is their ultimate goal, but it has affected the country’s hard currency earning and business owners,” experts said.
In the meeting at MoTI, the officials also stated that there are exporters buying white pea beans outside of the trading floor. Sources said that some of the exporters are engaged in buying the bean from primary markets like Adama.
Sources said that even though MoTI officials warned those illegal actors nothing has changed so the ministry has written a warning letter to exporters via their association.
Association sources said that the current move from the government is the right decision otherwise the sector will be crushed in the coming few weeks since most of the regular exporters are buying and selling the products in connection with a loan scheme from banks.
The letter issued on Monday December 3, and signed by Mesfin Abebe, Crops Marketing Directorate Director at MoTI, stated that the ministry has been made aware of the latest illegal practices at the sector.
The letter that Capital obtained stated that the ministry will take action against those engaged in illegal activity.
According to the sector actors, engaging in exporting sesame seeds, which is the second largest hard currency source after coffee, is not difficult for new comers since the seeds are well accepted by major destinations in Asia. A few years ago Ethiopia was one of the top sesame seed exporters in Africa and listed as one of the top five in the seed production and trade in the world. The latest data indicated that new countries like Tanzania and Nigeria have expanded their production more than Ethiopia. China, India and Myanmar are major producers but they are also large consumers.

A Joint Venture contracting company which is developing the National Integrated Justice Information System (NIJIS) is complaining that the government has been slow to finish reforms which are affecting its development. They want the customization finished faster. The local partner of the JV Africom Technologies stressed that the finalization of the National ID is also necessary for the highly expected system to operate effectively.
It was back in April the project was signed between the Office of the Attorney General and Africom Technologies, ISYX Technologies and ALROWAD IT at a price of USD 14 million. The JV which is in the process of receiving 10 percent of the total payment says the delay in the precondition means the project will slow down and hinder their business.
“We deposited USD three million to the government both for performance and advanced security and we are expecting a USD 1.5 million advance payment,” said Baheru Zeynu. “The project will be delayed a few months based on the current status and if the government can’t finalize the preconditions both our business and the peoples’ demand for justice will be affected.”
With a life span of 28 months, the integrated system will enable the federal and regional institutions under the justice umbrella including police, courts, prison and documents registration. The companies are expected to work on the maintenance, support, and training of the system after the implantation is finalized.
The JV that beat out seven global companies, including ZTE and Huawei, is composed of two Asian companies which built and operate the Judicial Data System in Dubai. Alrowad is the company which runs the Social Security Service in Dubai.
The JV also finished the gap analysis and is waiting for the government to hand over its workflows to go to the next stage of customization, according to Baheru. The companies apparently have 20 features in their past experience and it only needs to be adapted to the Ethiopian feature.
The Office of Attorney General established technical committees to finalize the demands, according to Zenabu, PR directorate Director of the Office.
Capital’s repeated effort to obtain a comment from the IT Directorate Director at the Office, monitoring the project, bore no fruit.
When the system is completed it is expected to contain the entire history of the justice records in the city. This would include: finger prints, the medical history, educational background and details in the crime record. Currently the justice sector stakeholders are performing their jobs separately in terms of data and that is said to affect the rights of the cities. A sector analysis revealed that there were cases where prisoners spent additional time in prison because of a misinterpreted release date.
The OAG claimed the delay was created because of the payment constraints as a result of the lack of necessary conditions by the office before the singing of the contract.
“As the payment is going to be made from the capital budget Ministry of Finance asked for a letter from the consulting company insuring the appropriateness,” said Fantaye Kumsa, Head of the IT Directorate at the office. “But after long debates the Ministry agreed to pay the advance payment to the companies referring only to the contract. Also INSA was hired as a consultant to look over the project but now we agreed that no payment will be made to them and we are finalizing an external consultant.”
Establishing the Project office which will look on to the inception report of the JV took time and it is looking to the report to send its comment next week, according to Fantye. She also stated that the issue of the national ID will be solved before the finalization of the NIJIS as the respective Ministry is handling the issue critically.
“We will accelerate the procedures starting next week as most of the constraints are moved away, expect for the foreign exchange issue which we will expect to consider in advance,” she said.

The Djibouti branch of the state owned Commercial Bank of Ethiopia, (CBE) Djibouti Limited is hoping to escalate its business via international business and transfers after the long awaited SWIFT Code is secured.
Mathewos Kidane, Acting Manager for Customer Service at CBE Djibouti, said that his company has been unable to commence the massive banking business which they were planning on starting in Djibouti because the bank was waiting for a SWIFT connection.
He said that the bank has a goal of starting the activity in the export operation and transfer service, which is in high demand by Ethiopians based in Djibouti.
In the past 20 months since its recommencement of operations the bank has been focused on opening current and savings accounts, which is manage by USD and the Djibouti Franc. So far the Djibouti branch has about 300 account holders including Ethio Djibouti Railway Corporation which is a pioneer as a client at CBE Djibouti Limited. “We did not introduce total banking operations so we have been focused on opening accounts,” he said. “Now we hope that in the near future the operation will expand into major business in the country which means foreign businesses and transfers,” Mathewos added.
According to the acting manager for customer service, initially the branch was expecting to get the SWIFT Code in a short amount of time, but the Italian company asked for several preconditions and documentation to provide the code. “We got a green light about a month ago and expect to commence the whole business in the coming weeks,” he explained. Currently employees of the bank, which has about 17 employees at Djibouti, in training sessions to introduce the new service, while IT experts are expected to arrive in Djibouti to commence operation.
The financial sector environment in Djibouti is highly competitive since some prominent international banks are involved. Including CBE 12 banks operate in Djibouti, which has less than one million people. “The bank has a direct relationship with Ethiopia wants to serve Ethiopians and Djibouti citizens, who have a business relationship with Ethiopia, to work with the bank,” Mathewos told Ethiopian journalists visiting Djibouti.
The country has a direct business relationship with Ethiopia that attracts an international cliental. For this reason adequate facilities are needed to serve major Ethiopian businesses or operations like the Ethiopian Embassy, Ethiopian Shipping and Logistics Services Enterprise and other Ethiopians. ESLSE was registered as the first account holder at the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia Djibouti Limited when it opened its doors on April 8 in the heart of the city.
CBE Djibouti Limited wants to dominate Ethiopia’s logistics business transactions between the two nations.
About twenty months ago, the bank reopened with a total capital of over USD 6.3 million and a plan to be one of the major financial institutions in Djibouti.
Before its closure in 2004 the bank was one of Djibouti’s major financial players. As former leaders of the branch bank stated it was a respected bank in the past and can return to that reputation.
When the bank closed its doors over a decade ago the major reason was a high non performing loan portfolio amounting to USD 16.7 million.
Djibouti mostly imports Khat from Ethiopia. Before halting its operation in 2004 Khat importers were the major customers of CBE’s Djibouti branch. The Ethiopian community was another potential customer for the bank. At that time the economic activity was very slow and the bank activity mainly focused on Khat.
Before it left Djibouti, CBE Djibouti sold several of its buildings. Initially the bank expected to become profitable within two years, but currently it is losing money.
In Djibouti CBE began operation in 1962 as a liaison office and became a full-fledged bank in 1971.

Ethio-telecom started a shop-in-shop project for six broadband gadgets, allowing them to be sold in their service centers by private suppliers. The telecom has invited businesses to install a sales corner in their existing service centers. So far three agreements have been made and a fourth was approved previously.
The companies are expected to come up with proposals and fulfill the listed requirements. They must have a renewed business registration, provision of after-sales service, provision of accessory supply, adherence with the working hours and brand management of the telecom and meet the quality requirements for the devices they sell.
“We were not able to meet our customer’s demand to provide gadgets for broadband after we decreased the service tariff,” said Mohamed Haji, Sales Officer at the Telecom. “Because of the scarcity in the devices, we were not able to sell our services which also affected our performance. We did a survey and we found out that outsourcing would solve the problem, then some companies approached us with proposals to sell the devices.”
In just a week, the telecom was able to attract close to six interested companies in addition to the ones that have already signed. We are still accepting applications, he added.
The companies are expected to work with their own staff and the telecom will be looking to the quality of the products provided by them. Also prior to the contract, the Telcom will cheek the device quality of the suppliers.
The companies are obliged to provide maintenance service for the gadgets they provide. The telecom provides the service to the customer. The companies only sell the devices; they do not have anything else to do with any telecom services.
The telecom has not bind itself in any commitment that would prevent them from selling a device in shops where the private operators are functioning. It is considering not being involved in selling broadband devices, according to Mohamed.
“We are facing foreign exchange problems hindering us from providing the devices,” said Mohammed.
The telecom is planning to implement the project in its 217 candidate shops. However, in this first phase we will only do it in 20 shops,” said Mohamed. “Response has been positive though it has only been a week since we announced the proposal. We do want other businesspeople to get involved, so far only people that have supplies in stock have approached us,” he added.
He went on to say that this is an example of a positive public-private partnership.
“We are implementing a win-win approach and we think this will make our customers happier. We were losing many services because of the gadget shortage so this should increase service sales as well.”
After the telecom announced a significant price discount for service the number of broadband Internet users has increased.
It was on November 2018 that the Telecom decreased broadband Internet price up to 54 percent, Mobile Internet and SMS service up to 43 percent and voice services up to 40 percent.
The former price which was adjusted in December 2016 was levied 35 cents on 2G/3G and 4G of mobile networks from the previous 46 cents for 2G and 3G and 55 cents for 4G.
Frehiwot Tamru, CEO of the Telecom, stated that the price reduction would not affect the revenue of the telecom.
In a related development, the telecom signed agreements with companies that won a procurement to work with Etio-telecom on a franchise basis.
Three companies are working in 94 service centers. Hedase Telecom took 82 shops around the country. Bravocom Plc which was formerly the sole agent of NOKIA Mobile took charge of shops as well.