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.

The Federal High Court 10th Criminal Bench granted further investigation time for police over Tesfaye Urge’s file. The suspect, who allegedly attempted to assassinate the Prime Minister, is being tried at the Federal First Instance Court.
After the last adjournment the police didn’t bring the suspect to this court as he appeared to be in another allegation in the high court where he will have to appear after 14 days, starting from last Monday.
Also, the same bench of the FHC adjourned the case of M/G Kinfe Dagnew until December 19, to grant police extra time for investigation. The investigation team presented various transactions suspected to be deceptions by the former CEO, Kinfe. The police also presented the case of a contract between the Alem Fitsum and the Corporation.
In addition, the bench entertained the case of Yared Zerihun, former Security Intelligence Office Deputy Head, and granted the 14 days of further investigation for police to be calculated since December 5. Yared was suspected of involvement in various human rights violation throughout the nation and allegedly abused his power.
The busy 10th criminal bench has approved the request of police to finalize its investigation over the case of M/G Kinfe Dagne’s brother, Essays Dagne and it has adjourned until the 20th of December. Kinfe was suspected of causing damage to the public by abusing power in allegedly awarding a tower construction deal to MeTEC, while he was working in Ethio-Telecom.
The same bench heard the case of TV show host, Fitsum Yeshitela, an adjourned the hearing to 23rd of December granting police additional time for investigation, rejecting the suspects’ bail right claim.

Tadesse Kiros Law Office (TK) in collaboration with the Baker McKenzie Law Firm, one of the top law firms in the world, organized a roundtable dialogue last week on the topic of Ethiopian and African power sectors. The discussion, which brought the Private and Public sector together, aimed to create a common ground between the stakeholders and building their capacity on the evolving power sector in the country.
The nation which is in the process of creating the Policy, Legal and Operational surfaces for partnerships between the Private and Public sector has become the center of attention for giant global companies. Last month the Public-Private Partnership Board approved 16 projects and 13 of them are in the renewable power sector.
Issues of potential opportunities and challenges were researched and presented by both sides, comparing the local reality with the global experiences. Participants also raised various issues and held conversations.
Jen Stolp, Partner at Baker McKenzie, presented the financial aspects of the sector compared with global experiences. Titled Funding-trends and challenges, she stressed the transition from the traditional project financing to the modern modalities of financing public projects. She also listed out the major issues in the project financing both from the lender’s side and the projects.
Focusing on the African Energy Projects: trends and lessons learned, Kieran Whyte presented various achievements and challenges faced by projects in Africa.
The Ethiopian Energy Sector: Legal and Regulatory Framework were researched and discussed by Shimeles Hailu, associate at Tadesse Kiros’. In session that went over the government structures and legal frameworks Shimeles elaborated about what the legislation and administration in Ethiopia would look like for the power sector, including the new PPP scheme.
Tadesse Kiros, founder of the office, indicated that the main aim of this roundtable discussion is to establish a close relationship between the stakeholders to establish power projects. He also stated that the sector is very young and needs to develop with expertise an active participation.
The Law office is also operating with limited powers.
“Our office has expertise in different legal specialties but as the law firm arrangement is not allowed here we were not able to perform up to our potential,” Tadesse told Capital. “We are working with law firms which are among the top five on the globe aiming to work with our common clients coming here in Ethiopia. But as the government still doesn’t allow us to be organized as a law firm we can’t specialize in one area or grow competently in the skyrocketing demand of the economy.”
He also stressed that as the economy is opening up and giant international companies are surfacing the need for more professional lawyers is necessary.
The Law office organized similar dialogues on the issues of the commercial laws, last October.
Participants from various government institutions including the Ministry of Finance, Ethiopian Electric Power, Ethiopian Electric Utility and Development Bank of Ethiopia were present.
The office which has been operational since 1996 has 20 experts.

The prominent Ethiopian hospitality brandKuriftu Resorts and Spas, has opened one of the biggest seaside restaurants in the heart of Djibouti city.
The company, which has become well known for its chain of recreation destinations in Ethiopia over the past ten years, has officially opened its luxury restaurant featuring global cuisine.
Tadios Getachew, the Ethiopian born diaspora who lived in the US and owner of Kuriftu Resorts and Spas, said that the eatery can accommodate 400 people as a restaurant or up to a thousand people as a cocktail reception spot.
The restaurant rests on 2000sqm and was inaugurated a week ago in the presence of top government officials in Djibouti. The facility is considered to be a big opportunity for expanding tourism in the east African nation and attracting more Ethiopian tourists or people who have visited Ethiopia.
“We are venturing out of Ethiopia because we want to be an African brand. We have been receiving many brands from all over the world but we have never been able to export our own Ethiopian brand to the rest of Africa or somewhere else before,” Tadios told Ethiopian journalists who visited the restaurant a few days before its official inaugural.
According to the owner this is the second venture for Kuriftu in Djibouti, the first one is on 65.3 hectares of land at Moucha Island, which is a 15 minute boat ride away from Djibouti’s capital. The project, which is under construction, includes a massive recreation facility on a beautiful natural white sand beach. It is a location where people can view whale sharks, dolphins and exotic fish. The company has received 653,000 square meters of land on the island, including 250,000 square meters of thick forest.
He said that the restaurant has consumed two million USD, while the resort investment is close to USD 7 million.
“Djibouti will benefit from this value added investment and Ethiopian tourism will benefit because blue water, white sand and sea food are rarely available for Ethiopian tourists, expats and Ethiopian residents but now they only have to fly 45 minutes to experience all this,” the owner of Kuriftu said.
“Tourism in Djibouti will also benefit from this because whatever Djibouti does not have Ethiopia can provide. Ethiopian, Kenyan and Djibouti airlines can package this as a destination to promote the region,” he added.
So far Kuriftu has 11 operational businesses that employ 3,000 people in Ethiopia. It is in the process of opening the largest water park in the country.
“We want to be a chain of resorts, spas and restaurants all over Africa,” he added.
Kuriftu Resorts Djibouti’s hospitality project will maintain the same standard and a similar style to Kuriftu Resorts in Ethiopia. One of the qualities of Kuriftu is the architectural design of shades in the resort.