Ethiopian Shipping and Logistics Services Enterprise (ESLSE) amassed over 5.6 billion birr profit before tax in the 2021/22 budget year. The enterprise, which is the only flag carrier in Africa, financial capablity has also reached 64.85 billion birr.
The multimodal monopoly, ESLSE, has also generated 1.8 billion birr revenue from its vessels in the stated period.
Roba Megersa, CEO of ESLSE, siad that all vessles are free from any debt that contributes to spike in profitablity.
Ethiopian Shipping and Logistics Services Enterprise (ESLSE) amassed over 5.6 billion birr profit
INTERNATIONAL CALL FOR PROPOSALS
INTERNATIONAL CALL FOR PROPOSALS
TERMS OF REFERENCE
ETHIOPIAN SECURITIES EXCHANGE (ESX) PROJECT FINANCIAL ADVISORY SERVICES
1. Introduction
Ethiopia is in the process of establishing a securities exchange, the Ethiopian Securities Exchange (ESX), in line with the Capital Markets Proclamation (No. 1248/2021). Article 31 of the Proclamation provides that the Ethiopian Securities Exchange shall be established as a share company by the government in partnership with the private sector, including foreign investors.
Towards this goal, the Ethiopian Investment Holdings (EIH) has established a dedicated project team (“Project Team”) with the support of Financial Sector Deepening Africa (FSD Africa). The Project Team is expected to lead the task of developing the ESX business plan, organisational, management and ownership structures, and designing and setting its market segments. Additionally, the team will lead the development of the ESX trading rules, policies and procedures, the development of the ESX trading and operating systems and other ICT infrastructure and realize the operationalization and launching of ESX.
The Project team is supported by the Capital market Project Implementation Team (CMPIT) and expert advisors and with guidance from a Project Steering Committee (PSC), which will have an oversight role over the operations of the Project.
http://www.capitalethiopia.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/22-08-19-ESX-Financial-Advisor-TOR-Call-for-Proposals.pdf
ESLSE refloats bid for its cold chain logistics
The state multimodal monopoly, Ethiopian Shipping and Logistics Services Enterprise (ESLSE), refloats the procurement of its first set of refrigerated (reefer) containers.
The logistics giant which had earlier attempted to buy 30 forty feet reefer containers during the past budget year through multiple bidding, had paused the process due to technical failure of those who had shown interest to be part of the supply.
As a result, the enterprise has been thoroughly engaging on the revision of the bid document before another round on invitation.
According to the information Capital obtained from ESLSE, this time around the international bid has been refloated as of few days ago.
The long established logistics company and the sole owner and operator of commercial vessels in the continent, excluding the South African container shipping company, Safmarine, which is owned by the Danish global giant Maersk Line, has not had its own reefer containers throughout its close to seven decades of service.
The current move is stated as an attempt to stride forward to include new business lines to its operation by expanding the shipment of perishes through sea by its vessels.
According to Wondimu Denbu, Deputy CEO for Corporate Service at ESLSE, the number of reefer containers the enterprise is eying to buy is very limited since cold chain logistics is a new business venture for ESLSE.
“This time around, we want to buy a limited number of reefer containers since it is a trial period that would be expanded in future,” the Deputy CEO said.
During the initial bid floating stage, companies had shown their interest to supply the cold containers; however, the process had been annulled at the technical evaluation stage.
“Companies’ which participated in the bid did not meet the technical specification the enterprise had set as a result the bid was canceled,” Wondimu reminded.
He added that on the fresh bidding a team from ESLSE had revised the bid document as per the experience observed in the previous bid.
As per the bidding document, interested suppliers are expected to come up with the rate for the 40 feet MGSS reefer containers and mounted generators.
The generators are the equipment that will be fixed on vessels to support the cooling process on the voyage of reefer containers to their destinations.
The public logistics giant is currently using leased reefer containers for commodities, mostly those at the trial stage.
Recently, Roba Megersa, CEO of ESLSE, told Capital that the enterprise is opting to buy the reefer to support the export rather than for revenue-oriented purposes, “this initiative is not for profit-oriented purposes but we want to support the export of perishables.”
He told Capital that ESLSE has already facilitated two hectares of a dedicated terminal at Mojo Dry Port for reefer cargo handling and power plug-in service.
“As per our plan, in the short term we will have a dozen reefer containers to accelerate the export of agro-industry products,” Roba added.
The consignment of reefer cargo is limited in Ethiopia to which experts said that Freighters International, one of the well-known private logistics companies in Ethiopia with long-term agent partnership with the leading containerized cargo operator of Maersk, is widely operating in Ethiopia’s logistics sphere.
Ethiopia has set a target to expand its export of fruit and vegetable which is expected to be backed by sea freight.
The consignment of perishable cargos through vessels is highly recommended since it has a competitive advantage in the global market. The issue has been frequently raised by Ethiopian fresh producers and exporters like fruit and vegetable sector actors.
On similar efforts, the government has been carrying out different initiatives and several pilot operations to export perishable commodities through vessels that are packed with reefer containers. For instance, recently, Ethiopian avocados have been exported through the new initiative to the European market.
Recently, Tewodros Zewdie, Executive Director of EHPEA, told Capital that the lack of reefer containers is the weakest link for the sector business and its supply chains.
He said that next to flower, the export of fruits and vegetables is the country’s competitive advantage on the global market.
He said that the cost of reefer containers and the availability of the box are pivotal to expanding the fruit and vegetable export.
Experts said that using vessels means a less costly mode of transport besides enabling to manage the shipment of bigger size of cargo other than airfreight.
They added that cool logistics investments, by drastically reducing transport costs and lead times, can unlock Ethiopia’s perishable industry.
Ethiopia is working to strengthen the cool logistics corridor that links farms with dry ports and railway network system up to sea port at Djibouti. The cool supply chain at Mojo is part of the new initiative.
ESLSE has also expanded its container ownership from about 3,000 to close to 14,000 different sizes of containers in a very short period.
New program launches to power agriculture through solar
By Muluken Yewondwossen
A solar appliance manufacturing program has been launched to accelerate an energy source for irrigation based agricultural development and household services.
The program was announced on August 18 by Precise Consult International to support the initiatives of the Ministry of Irrigation and Lowlands, and the Ministry of Water and Energy with a focus on solar appliances manufacturing in Ethiopia.
The program targets to assemble and manufacture 250,000 Solar Home Systems (SHS) and 25,000 Productive Use Energy (PUE) appliances, the latter with a focus on solar pumps.
Aisha Mohammed, Minister of Irrigation and Lowlands, said that with the launch of the solar appliance manufacturing program, the ministry aims to achieve a short-term goal of replacing approximately 200,000 diesel pumps that are in use and currently on demand for irrigation pumps.
She said that the ministry has adopted the idea of local manufacturing of solar appliances because local manufacturing at scale is expected to save up to 20 percent in foreign currency; in addition to developing the local technical capacity to provide after sales services which is one of the most critical gaps in the country.
“The success of this initiative is very important as the ministry is currently working with International Fund for Agricultural Development and the World Bank to scale smallholder solar irrigation by availing much needed foreign exchange facility for companies to import solar kits for manufacturing and assembly,” Aisha highlighted during the launching ceremony held in Hyatt Regency Hotel with the presence of government officials, development partners, and representatives from off-grid energy companies and manufacturers.
As expanding irrigation is an important goal for the government, the ministry has established three main irrigation implementation strategies including empowering smallholder irrigation with reliable solar pumping technology on less than 5 hectares of plots and medium scale irrigation schemes with cluster farming on 5-500 hectares of land using surface and ground water irrigation schemes.
Studies show that up to 7 million hectares of smallholder farms can be irrigated using solar pumps from shallow ground water and surface sources.
A study by the Rocky Mountain Institute shows that electrifying irrigation has the potential to create an annual value of USD 1.2 billion by 2025.
Ethiopia has the third largest energy access deficit in Sub-Saharan Africa; and achieving universal access by 2025 as targeted by the National Electrification Program 2.0 means reaching over 10 million households with off-grid energy solutions in the next few years.
Since almost all solar appliances are currently being imported from overseas, the lack of foreign currency is a major obstacle standing in the way of achieving these worthy government objectives.
For instance, to meet the universal electrification target by 2025, USD 1.4 billion is needed in new forex plus USD 1.8 billion in local currency working capital for a total capital of USD 3 billion.
The statement of Precise Consult indicated that local assembly and manufacturing can help increase availability of solar appliances by optimizing the available forex.
In the meantime, a growing manufacturing industry can help create jobs, and ensure knowledge transfer to young skilled experts to maintain and fix malfunctioning solar systems in the country. The solar appliance manufacturing program which is funded by Shell foundation will work with key stakeholders to solve the key bottlenecks of the off-grid manufacturing sector focusing on: enabling improved access to forex for assemblers and manufacturers, technical assistance to high potential lighting and productive use energy (PUE) technology assemblers and manufacturers selected based on predetermined criteria and a grand challenge selection process, promoting better policy and regulations for off-grid solar systems assembly and manufacturing, and improved information to the sector through research and market intelligence.
