Regional Bank Donates Masks to Ethiopia

Jul 13 , 2020


The Eastern & Southern African Trade & Development Bank, aka TDB, has donated 160,000 locally manufactured face masks to healthcare workers. Ahmed Shide, minister of Finance and the country’s shareholder representative on the TDB board of governors, handed over the masks to Lia Tadesse (MD), minister of Health, during a ceremony on July 8, 2020. The Bank procured the masks from Everest Apparel Ethiopia S.C., Everest Textiles’ garment factory in Hawassa Industrial Park that employs 2,000 workers. To boost the member states’ efforts in mitigating the effects of the COVID-19 crisis, TDB has launched Covid-19 Emergency Response Programme (CERP) through which essential supplies are procured mostly from regional factories to address healthcare sector imperatives while supporting local private sector and employment, including of women and youth, according to Admassu Tadesse, president and chief executive of TBD. TDB is implementing similar interventions in 20 of its member states as part of CERP, as well as continent-wide, via a half-million-dollar grant that was extended to the African Union’s Africa Centres for Disease Control & Prevention (Africa CDC).


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...