Eutelsat Penetrates Ethiopia's Market

Oct 19 , 2019


Eutelsat, one of the longstanding market leaders in satellite television broadcasting, announced that Ethiopia will be able to receive high-quality broadband connection via its KONNECT satellite in 2020. Considering the high growth potential of the Ethiopian video broadcasting market, Eutelsat signed a multi-year contract with Ethiopian channels including TV9 Ethiopia, Nahoo TV and ETV for video capacity on its EUTELSAT 8 West B satellite, one of the most sophisticated satellites in orbit today. Ethiopia has high growth potential for video broadcasting, because currently only 21pc of homes in Ethiopia are equipped with television, which translates to approximately 5.2 million homes having television sets. Out of these, 86pc are using satellite television transmission, which means 4.4 million homes receive satellite broadcasts, according to the product of quantitative market research, a survey carried out by an independent research firm.


Radar

Electricity Bills Get the VAT Jolt

The new Value Added Tax (VAT) has begun implementation on electricity consumption and various service fees affecting customers who use more than 200 kilowatt hours of electricity per month. Based on a directive from the Ministry of Finance, the tax will be applied to the excess amount of electricity consumption above 200 kilowatt hours. The Ethiopian Electric Utility (EEU) began implementing the VAT on bills starting from November though both prepaid and postpaid customers will have to pay V...


Radar

Gadaa Bank Expands Reach, Faces Lending Constraints

Gadaa Bank closed its first full fiscal year of operations with a net profit of 90.2 million Br. The 18-month-old Bank held its annual general assembly at Millenium Hall on Africa Avenue last week where the board announced that during the year, the Bank opened 15 branches and now has 85 operational branches. “Due to recently enacted policy measures on credit by NBE and unmet resource mobilization during the fiscal year, the Bank was unable to make loan disbursements,” stated Wolde...


Radar

Oromia Bank's Branch Expansion Weighs on Profits

Oromia Bank reported a 47pc decline in net profit to take in 840.9 million Br for the past fiscal year. Interest income grew by 21pc to reach 7.19 billion Br while personnel expense grew by 36pc to hit 3.16 billion Br. The opening of 72 new branches, bringing the total to 575, led to a four percent growth of deposits to 56.4 billion Br. The profits are “unsatisfactory against our ambitious moves,” said Assefa Seme (PhD), board chairperson. “The deviation is primarily attributed to our aggr...