The private sector association of the Djibouti Chamber of Commerce (CCD), marked its 110th anniversary by hosting a successful forum and international trade fair at the public conference center located in the heart of their capital.
The event began on Sunday December 3 and continued through the end of the week. It cost CCD, who prepared for a year close to two million USD. Equipment was brought in from abroad to construct adequate spaces and meeting halls.

Top international experts were part of the forum, and although they discussed many topics, their primary focus was on practical integration of the African continent and particularly the eastern Africa sub region.
The president of CCD, Youssouf Moussa Dawaleh, told Capital that economic and other integrations have to be real.
He quoted Paul Kagamen the Rwandese President saying the implementation of integration has to be down to earth and become practical.
Besides the forum several sideline discussions occurred. For instance, the first Ethio- Djibouti Tour Operators meeting went on during the week; while the Ethiopian Chamber of Commerce and Sectoral Association and its Djibouti counterpart met and took steps to make their relationship stronger.
Speaking on the sidelines of the event, Youssouf Moussa Dawaleh, President of the Djibouti Chamber of Commerce, said “This Trade Fair and Forum has connected the Djibouti business community and the world. The country’s key development strategy which will transform Djibouti into a regional hub in the next decade was the inspiration behind the forum. In this high-level exchange, best practices, relevant strategies and real solutions for the development of regional infrastructures through PPP were discussed. The aim of the forum was to support Djibouti so that it can take its place in regional and international trade to boost its long-term economic growth.”
Trade fair
The president lauded the great success of his chamber convincing several exhibiters throughout the world to participate in this new fair. He said that over 250 companies from around the world participated. “We have registered a marvelous achievement in our first experience,” he told Capital.
Companies from the Middle East, Far East, Europe, Africa, and the US worked to introduce their companies to visitors and other participants.
The fair included all sectors like construction, finance, logistics and the service industry.
According to Youssouf, additional participants were willing to offer more money to lease the booths since the fair began on Sunday.
According to experts these types of fairs are crucial since the country is looking to establish the biggest free zone facility in the region following the model of Dubai and Singapore. “We need similar events to create a market linkage between other companies that come from different corners of the world,” one of the Djiboutian exhibitors who was showing his product, told Capital. He considered the fair and the forum to be successful. “We have met with local and international visitors, which is new for us,” he added.
Companies from Ethiopia were expected to be part of the fair but only one showed up. Shamebo Fitamo Ethiopian ambassador to Djibouti, told Ethiopian media that six Ethiopian companies were registered to participate in the fair, but they did not come.
Some of the Djibouti private sector actors that Capital interviewed said that at least companies that have businesses with Djibouti were supposed to be part of the fair.
“Marble, furniture and other products are imported from Ethiopia,” a trader in Djibouti said. “I don’t understand why these companies did not attend the fair because it was a good opportunity to expand their market linkage here and in other regional markets,” he said.
However the CCD president said that the lack of participation from Ethiopia is because the event was the first of its kind. “I hope in the coming future a crowd of Ethiopian businesses will be here,” he added.
Forum
Carols Lopes (Prof), former head of ECA, Constantinos Berhe, an economic expert, Ilyas Moussa Dawaleh, Minister of Economy and Finance of Djibouti are some of the panelists who explained about regional integration and private investment in infrastructure.
They said that in addition to government assistance in regional integration private sector activity is crucial for realizing inclusive integration in the region and the continent.
Experts from over 20 countries attended the panels, according to Youssouf. He said that this is a good beginning to expand such kind of dialogues for the sake of regional economic prosperity.
The main issue mentioned at the discussion was the model of Ethiopia and Djibouti, who expanded their linkage in every sub-sector of infrastructure including water and telecom cable. They also stated this will be a symbol for the rest of the sub continent to begin the expected achievements in the future.
CCD is a strong private sector association formed 110 years ago and it is one of the pioneer chambers in the region. It organized this event for the first time. At the session the former president of CCD, Seid Ali, who served the chamber from 1957 to 2003 and made it strong, was recognized by the current leaders of the chamber and by government officials.
The fair and forum was opened by Abdoulkader Kamil Mohamed, Prime Minister of Djibouti. It continued for approximately a week. The president said they plan to hold the forum and fair regularly.

Nyala Insurance S.C. is considering operating in foreign markets. During a press conference, the company’s executive team said it was time to explore new markets so that the company can build its capacity and learn from larger companies in the same sector.
“We are looking at the regulatory laws and working with the regulatory body to see how we could expand to new markets and we hope we will be able to do that in the near future,” stated Yared Mola, CEO of Nyala.
During the 23rd Annual General and the 16th Extraordinary Meeting of the shareholders it was stated that NISCO has registered a net profit of birr 122.2 million in the 2016/17 fiscal year, a massive profit margin since the company’s establishment.
According to a report presented at the meeting, the company registered a gross profit of birr 137 million, up from birr 77.4 million in the previous fiscal period.
According to the company, it was able to secure a high amount of gross profit margin due to appropriate risk management techniques that have been put in place to attract more customers.
The company’s assets have reached birr 1.22 billion, an increase by 28.4 over the previous year and the company’s paid up capital rose to birr 359 in the 2016/17 fiscal year. The differentiated and value adding services extended to the customer are among some of the reasons for the boost in profitability.
Speaking about challenges, it was stated that a shortage of skilled manpower as well as lack of dynamism are some of the major constraints.
“We have been crawling too long and fighting tooth and nail on the domestic market frontier while our East African counterparts have outrun us by a long mile. We need to reboot our business philosophy and rethink beyond short term plans which are heavily seen in the Ethiopian financial industry,” said Yared.
Chairman of the Board Kemal Mohammed underlined that, while the performance of the company is really good compared to the local market, it is still very small and has a long way to go. He further stated that the regulatory body should stay ahead of the sector by putting forward new regulations that pave the way for insurance companies to become more capable and fast moving in front of international markets.

Discussions on how media can bring forth cases of abuse and violence against women and girls and increase the rate of conviction of perpetuators were held at a meeting organized by UN Women and the Australian Embassy. The event brought together journalists, editors, activists and those who work in the area of protection of women and girls.
“Every girl and woman has the right to live a life free of violence and discrimination. However, and unfortunately one in every three women has experienced physical or sexual violence at some point in their lifetime. Violence does not only have negative consequences on survivors, it also has negative consequences on their families, communities, on society and nations,” stated Letty Chiwara, UN Women Representative to Ethiopia, AU and ECA.
Chiwara cited a study by UN Women and the Economic Commission for Africa, which said that violence against women and girls, especially domestic violence costs countries like Ethiopia three percent of their GDP.
“Another recent study done by the World Bank also revealed that Nigeria, looses 90 million USD per year because of violence against women and girls. If we can address this issue in Ethiopia, we will not just be addressing the consequences of women and girls, but also will improve the economic status of the country,” Chiwara said.
One speaker said violence against women does not have boundaries, it transcends generations, nationalities and spheres of society. It is also irrespective of age; recent trends show older women, grandmothers, being sexually assaulted by younger men.
The theme of this year’s ‘16 Days of Activism’, an annual campaign that advocates stopping violence, is: ‘leaving no one behind’ and ‘ending violence against women and girls’.
“As UN Women we believe that the media can play a critical role in bringing the voices of those women who haven’t been able to speak. There are many times that violence against women goes unreported for various reasons. It goes unreported because sometimes it happens within a situation where you are in a work environment and it is perpetuated on you by your boss and you are threatened that if you say anything, you lose your job,”
“I can tell you myself, I am part of the ‘me too’ campaign, I have suffered in that way, I have been violated at work, at home but it hasn’t stopped me from moving on and surviving. I wish when it happened to me, it happened to me at a time where there was a media dialogue like this with media representatives; because maybe I could have come to you and told you my story, and maybe you could have shared my story. I kept quiet because I wanted to save my family, I wanted to save my job and I wanted to save my humility,” Chiwara said.
In Ethiopia, one in three women have experienced domestic violence. Two out of every three women and one out of every two men believe that wife beating is justified under some circumstances.
One out of every two girls aged 15 to 19 have undergone female genital mutilation. One out of every four women experience their first sexual experiences under coercion. In the country, there are only an estimated 12 shelters for female survivors of violence throughout the country.
Adding to the problem, poor data collection and under-reporting continues to be a challenge, there is also a weak enforcement of laws and policies that protect women’s rights.