A blaze that destroyed shops on Thursday at 1:30 am damaged 57 million birr in property and 140 shops near Grand Anwar Mosque in Mercato .
The cause of the fire, which took four hours and 147 fire fighters to control, is still under investigation.
The Addis Ababa City Fire and Emergency Prevention and Rescue Agency used 18 fire trucks and 548,500 liters of water and 900 liters of foam for the rescue operation and managed to save 65 million birr.
Three ambulances were also available for emergency services but no person died nor injured in the fire.
Electronic devices like mobile phones, tapes, televisions, clothes and food like butter, and honey were in the shops.
Solomon Mekonen, Communication Director of the agency told Capital that the cause is still unknown but rumors were spreading after the incident.
“Our job to is to save human life and property, the police investigate the cause.” According to Solomon the sheet iron which the shops were made of helped the fire to spread.
Eye witness who were near in the incident said many people were looting and stealing from the shops.
Fire damages 57m birr around Anwar Mosque
Djibouti resident released on 2m birr bail for taking forex on international flight
A man who was caught carrying a significant amount of foreign currency out of the country was granted bail.
Mekonen Abreham, who allegedly attempted to carry 36,000 USD; 14,000 ETB and 4,500 Euro to Djibouti without a permit when he was stopped during a routine check via the x-ray at the Bole International Airport. The police report stated Mekonen had the cash, which amounts to approximately 1.14 million birr, in his bag.
Mekonen claimed he was taking the money to pay his drivers in Djibouti.
Prosecutors argued Mekonen could be a flight risk especially since he has permanent residence in Djibouti. They wanted him to be prevented from leaving the country. However the court disagreed and allowed him to be released on two million birr bail.
Prosecutors of the office sighted the National Bank of Ethiopia’s establishment proclamation as violated. The proclamation made forbids any foreign currency to be carried without a permit and also Ethiopian Birr exceeding the minimum limit set by the Bank.
The suspect was released and ordered to appear on July 12, 2018. At that hearing he will enter a plea.
The money was confiscated and receipts are being used as evidence.
Foreign currency and Khat are frequently confiscated by customs officials at Bole International Airport.
Major proposed hotel ask for govt. help to secure loan
Tsemex Hotels and Business plc (THB), which is having trouble accessing the disbursement of overseas loans, has asked for the involvement of the federal government and PM Abiy Ahmed (PhD).
In the letter the company sent to the PM early this week it expressed its concern about the effect the delay would have on their hotel.
The company formed as a subsidiary of Tsemex Global Enterprise to become a player in the growing chain hotel industry has had its potential five star hotel delayed, even though it secured extraordinary finance from the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the World Bank’s private financial wing, to undertake the project.
According to the letter that the company sent to Abiy, it asked for the support of the federal government for the approval of an external plot of land around the hotel project at Lideta area.
In its initial agreement in 2012 with Intercontinental Hotel Group (IHG) it stated that TBH would have a parking lot capable of holding 200 cars to be managed under the brand of Crowne Plaza. However, the IFC has signed a deal of close to a USD 20 million loan for the development of the hotel which would be considered a hard currency generator.
According to Rezene Ayalew, Managing Director of TBH, the first portion of the USD 18.86 million loan was disbursed after the Office of the Mayor of City Government of Addis Ababa gave a confirmation letter in 2015 for the allocation of the requested 1,000 meter square plot.
However because the legal dispute over the name of Crown and Crowne forced TBH to select another manager, the French based international hotel manager AccorHotels group to manage a brand of the MGallery by Sofitel, the plot was never awarded to the company.
“Meanwhile the city administration has tried to support us but we could not secure the requested land,” he told Capital.
He says due to the delay of accessing the land which is set as a precondition of the second phase of loan disbursement the entire project has been delayed. “We are now forced to pay an interest of 5.38 percent for the disbursed loan and 2 percent commission for the balance unreleased,” the letter that the THB sent to the PM on Monday June 18 reads.
“The delay has also escalated the cost of the project from USD 37 million to USD 46.5 million,” Rezene said.
“It was the responsibility of the government to push such kind of projects to include ample parking as observed in other countries, but the opposite occurs in our country,” the Managing Director complained.
“We are now frustrated waiting for the final decision from the government,” he said. The company head said that about three months ago we have been submitted a similar letter to the former PM.
When IFC approved the loan it has considered the capacity of the hotel that could gross over USD 14 million per annum. The hotel, which has 221 rooms, is expected to be opened within 12 months for service, if the balance of the loan is released.
Unprecedented changes happening to the Insurance Industry
Nyala Insurance observes the 4th Ethiopian Insurance Brokers’ Day
These days more than ever before, dynamic changes are loudly happening in all corners of the world due to the disruptive nature of information technology. The case is not an exception to the financial sectors like the insurance industry.
Nyala Insurance S.C. (NISCO) is the one to worry much more about the poor performance of the Ethiopian insurance industry and its insignificant contribution to the national economy (less than one percent), on the one hand, and the effects of the forceful changes to the industry, on the other. Hence, the company has been showing its readiness to play a vital role in enhancing the country’s insurance industry in cooperation with the major role players such as the Association of Ethiopian Insurance Brokers.
To that end, NISCO has been organizing a series of consultative meetings to seriously talk about the challenges and prospects of the insurance industry and thereby come up with pragmatic solutions. For the fourth time, the company observed the Ethiopian Insurance Brokers’ Day on14th June 2018 at Intercontinental International Hotel under the theme: “Ethiopian Insurance Industry today and tomorrow”.
After welcoming the participants of the consultative meeting, Yared Mola, Chief Executive of Officer of Nyala Insurance S.C, underlined that due to the unpredictable and disruptive changes in information technology, the global insurance service is totally being transformed into a new mode of service excellence.
“This is an era of unprecedented change for the insurance sector. New technologies, new customer expectations and new competitive pressures are rapidly disrupting the traditional insurance business model,” Yared remarked.
Yared went on to say that the global insurance industry is transforming exponentially while Ethiopia’s is still walking at a very slow pace. “As we are not on equal platforms with the global insurance trends, we are surely the most vulnerable insurance companies in different dimensions; we need to redefine our organizational structure and culture, adapt ourselves to sustainable and value- creating change and need to compete in this new era,” he added.
In relation to the captioned theme, three NISCO’s young branch managers also broadly discussed the current challenges and emerging trends of the Ethiopian insurance industry categorizing in three major perspectives:
Perspective 1: Insurer and insured
Perspective 2: Product and process
Perspective 3: Marketing and regulations
According the presenters, many insurance customers are not happy with their current experiences due to vague and complicated underwriting processes and highly procedural claim handling systems.
Being the case, as the revolution of technology is reshaping the underwriting process, many Ethiopian insurance companies seem to be reluctant to renovate their services to compete with the new world, the presenters added.
In general, focusing only on the general insurance services, competing for the same of type products, absence of research and development departments, lack of integrations among insurers and other stakeholders, frequent snatching of employees, domination of affiliated businesses, being unwilling to allocate funds for creating awareness among the general public, lack of well-skilled human power, a long chain of claim processes, heavy dependence on manual systems, etc… are the key challenges of the Ethiopian insurance industry, the young managers outlined.
Similarly, a conclusion was drawn that the regulatory body (National Bank of Ethiopia-NBE) is hardly giving key level supports to the insurance industry unlike it does for the private banks.
According the presenters, NBE frequently concentrates on controlling rather than supporting; and it is not ready to quickly evaluate and approve proposals for new products, unable to go with the global pace, rigid regularity systems for investment options and expansion plans.
By the same token, by acknowledging Nyala Insurance S.C. for raising such important nation-wide issues into joint discussion forums, Wubetu Workneh, President of the Association of Ethiopian Insurance Brokers, said that insurance companies in Ethiopia are taking price-cutting strategy as an instrument for competing, rather than service excellence and technology innovations.
“In this regard, we have made many efforts to strengthen our association to play our role in addressing the current challenges and emerging trends but due to internal and external constraints we have not yet met our objectives”, he added.
Wubetu hailed all other insurance companies to show their due concerns and integrations emphasizing on developing technology-based services than to dwell on the traditional approaches.
Other participants of the consultative meeting also acknowledged NISCO for organizing such important meetings for the past four consecutive years, designing tailor-made insurance products like political risk policy, and its readiness to work with all members of the insurance industry.
NISCO is committed to jointly work with all stakeholders to contribute its part for the enhancement and development of the Ethiopian Insurance Industry in terms of designing new products, creating overall public awareness, service excellence, innovations, and market integrations.
At the end of the meeting, Nyala Insurance S.C. honored and gave recognition to the best performing Insurance Brokers for the 2016/17 fiscal year.
