(CBO) and Kifiya financial technologies pen agreements to start providing finance through a collateral free digital lending system called Michu, which is a first of its kind for the country.
During the ceremony which was held on January 12, 2022 at Hyatt regency hotel in Addis Ababa, the heads of the two companies, Deribie Asfaw, President of Cooperative Bank of Oromia and Munir Duri, CEO of Kifiya Financial Technologies PLC inked the revolutionary deal.
The platform is the first kind of uncollateralized digital product powered by Kifiya’s Qena, an Al-driven digital lending platform.
The partnership allows Coop bank to tap into Kifiya’s digital lending technology and gives Kifiya the ability to leverage Cooperative Bank of Oromia’s distribution and financial capacity. It is said that CBO will offer lending solutions targeting Micro, Small, and medium businesses (MSMEs), providing access to credit, through groundbreaking and cutting-edge credit scoring systems.
Michu’s ease of access enables users to apply for loans and receive decisions based on credit scoring logic. The loan application process from eligibility and verification to analysis, scoring, and loan disbursement gets completed within a few minutes.
The Michu platform will have different offerings for Micro, Small, and Medium Businesses both in the form of loans and overdraft facilities. The Microloan is aimed towards the working capital needs of roadside traders and micro businesses with a maximum loan amount of 30,000 birr and has a repayment period of 1-4 months.
Whereas, SME loans targets traders at small and medium levels with a maximum loan amount of 150,000 ETB and has a repayment period of up to one year. Similarly, SME loans are intended to cover the working capital of SMEs. In addition, Michu also offers a consumer loan targeting employees of various organizations.
The non-collateral digital lending platform is believed to be an attractive loan that makes loan provision process swift and easy to access at anytime and anywhere as the solution is able to determine credit worthiness as well as avail a flexible payment method. Michu digital lending application is launching this month and is expected to increase Coop Bank borrowers’ base by 30% during the pilot period.
Research shows that Ethiopia’s MSME Financing to GDP Ratio was 2% in 2020. This ratio is lower than South Africa’s 14% and Kenya’s 6% in 2020. Ethiopia’s poor ratio is attributed to the crowding-out of credit by the public sector and high requirements for a loan to MSMEs by Micro-Finances and Commercial Banks. Financial institutions place high requirements partly due to a lack of credible credit ratings.
CBO, Kifiya introduce collateral free digital lending
Diasporas engage in Ethiopia’s priority investment sector
Aimed to increase the engagement of the diaspora community in trade and investment activities in Ethiopia, the Ethiopian Investment Commission held a four-day diaspora investment and exhibition forum which started Tuesday January 11, 2022 stretching to Friday January 14 at skylight hotel Addis Ababa.
Opened with a view to promoting investment potentials in different sectors across Ethiopia, the four-day event served more than 700 participants of the diaspora community by promoting priority sectors identified by the Ethiopian government.
Lelise Neme, Commissioner of Ethiopian Investment Commission, and Ministers from various government organizations presented reports on several investment opportunities identified as priority sectors for Ethiopians in the Diaspora to engage in the Ethiopian market. Presentations were made from the ministries of: Health, Mining, Tourism, Trade and Regional Integration, Agriculture, Industry, as well as the Ethiopian Industrial Parks Development Corporation (IPDC). Furthermore, EIC held panel discussions regarding investment opportunities on the sectors.
According to the commission, the priority sectors identified are health, mining, tourism, trade, agriculture, and manufacturing.
Commissioner Lelise Neme during the occasion called on the Diaspora to invest in their areas of interest and promote the untapped economic potential in Ethiopia as ambassadors.
“EIC aspires for more private sector engagement in the priority sectors,” said the commissioner whilst speaking about the first five months of this year’s performance.
The commission has attracted 1.34 billion dollars in Foreign Direct Investments up from 1.1 billion dollars last year same period showing growths of 21.8 percent.
Careers align at Dereja career expo
The annual job fair for fresh graduates, Dereja career expo was held for two days on January 13 and 14 at Ghion hotel.
The two day event aligns thousands of fresh graduates with potential employing companies to which more than 60 companies participated at this year’s job fair.
The curtains of the event were raised in the presence of Nigussu Tilahun, Commissioner of Ethiopian Job Creation Commission and project managers of the Dereja.com, Info Mind Solution.
Dereja.com is a social enterprise of Info Mind Solutions PLC. (Ethiojobs.net). Established in 2017. The enterprise is dedicated to supporting the over 200,000 fresh graduates entering the labor force by starting their career on the right path.
Kazak unrest
Kazakhstan is experiencing the heaviest unrest in its history recently. For a long time, Russia’s second most important ally in the post-Soviet realm was known as stable so what happened? Last week several hundred residents of Zhanaozen, an oil town in western Kazakhstan, took to the streets to protest high prices for liquefied petroleum gas, also known as autogas, a popular type of fuel. The protest wave has since spread across the entire country, with thousands joining street marches. Demonstrators have also taken to the streets of Almaty, the former capital. A presidential palace was torched. Capital sat down with Barlybay Sadykov Ambassador of Kazakhstan to Ethiopia to talk about the recent developments in Kazakhstan and what it means to the rest of the world. Excerpts;
Capital: How do you describe recent events in Kazakhstan?
Barlybay Sadykov: First of all, protests started in Western Kazakhstan were of an economic nature. It is important to note that there were no clashes between the police and civilians. The police did not use any force. All persons detained during unauthorized protests were released.
Unfortunately, peaceful demonstrations in Almaty, the biggest city of Kazakhstan, have been hijacked by terrorist groups and bandits seeking to undermine law and order in the country. Their criminal activities led to riots, robberies, rapes and mass violence. Almaty was attacked by almost 20 thousand armed groups and terrorists trained outside the country. They destroyed administrative buildings and military facilities, seized the airport and took foreign passenger and cargo planes hostage. This indicates a high level of readiness and coordination of the actions of criminals.
To deal with the national security threats, to protect countries’ sovereignty and integrity, protect people lives and property of citizens President Tokayev ordered to launch a counter-terrorism operation starting from January 6, 2022.
Capital: What was the main goal of the people involved in the unrest?
Barlybay Sadykov: We need to differentiate them. Those people how organized the riots in Kazakhstan are definitely terrorist groups. Their armed, coordinated and aimed to coup the State power by military means.
And we also know, that people peacefully participated in the protests are ordinary citizens. That is why all persons detained during unauthorized protests were released. The main goal of peaceful but unauthorised demonstrations, started on January 2, 2022, in the Mangystau region of western Kazakhstan was against the increase in retail prices of liquefied petroleum gas. The protesters demanded for prices to be reduced to the previous level, and requested a solution to some other socio-economic issues.
Following instructions from President Tokayev, the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan promptly responded to the demands of the citizens and took measures to reduce gas prices, and imposed a moratorium on price increases for socially important food products, fuels and utilities.
Capital: It was said some of those arrested came from outside, who are those that are involved and where did they come from?
Barlybay Sadykov: The analysis of the situation showed that Kazakhstan was subjected to armed aggression by well-coordinated terrorist groups trained abroad. According to preliminary information, there are persons among the attackers who have experience of combat participation in «hot spots» on the side of radical Islamist groups. Currently, law enforcement agencies are investigating as part of a counter-terrorism operation, and all internal and external participants of the armed attack will be identified.
While the initial rallies in Western Kazakhstan were peaceful and accompanied by demands of a socio-economic nature, the participants in the subsequent mass riots did not put forward any specific economic or even political demands. They had no intention to negotiate with the authorities, and instead aimed at violently overthrowing the constitutional order.
Capital: How did the government not see this coming?
Barlybay Sadykov: Terrorist groups appeared due to the activation of the so-called «sleeping cells». Unfortunately, the law enforcement agencies of Kazakhstan were not ready for such massive and coordinated attacks in the different regions of the country simultaneously.
President Tokayev has instructed law enforcement agencies to form an investigative group to conduct a large-scale investigation and bring all those responsible to justice. The results of the investigation will be presented to the international community once ready.
At the same time, due to the sharp aggravation of the situation, President Tokayev assumed the post of Chairman of the Security Council of Kazakhstan, dissolved the Government and declared a state of emergency until the situation will be fully stabilized.
In this situation, Kazakhstan was compelled to seek help from the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), which has deployed a peacekeeping force totaling approximately 2,500 personnel to assist in the stabilization of the situation. The mandate of the peacekeepers included the guarding of strategic facilities and providing cover-up for Kazakhstan’s forces. It is important to note that the main combat operations against terrorist groups are conducted by the law enforcement agencies and armed forces of Kazakhstan.
Now the counter-terrorism operation is continuing in the country. The police, the National Guard and the Armed Forces are carrying out large-scale and coordinated actions to neutralize terrorist and criminal groups. However, peaceful protesters are not subjected to any persecution. Since situation is under control, on 13 January 2022 CSTO started withdrawing peacekeeping troops from Kazakhstan.
All that happened is a huge tragedy for us, the relatives of the victims and the entire Kazakh people.
It is important to emphasize the unity of the people of Kazakhstan at this difficult time. Citizens support the measures taken by President Tokayev to restore peace, and have established communal groups to protect social facilities.
Capital: What will the future hold?
Barlybay Sadykov: The large-scale counter-terrorist operation will be completed in the near future and there is a lot of work ahead and lessons to be learned from the tragic events.
After the New Prime Minister Alikhan Smailov has been appointed by Parliament on January 11, President of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev set a number of tasks for the reform of the country’s law enforcement agencies. All measures to reform and strengthen law enforcement agencies and the armed forces are aimed at protecting the population from external threats. To radically reform the law enforcement agencies, President gave instructions to increase the combat readiness and equipment of law enforcement agencies in general, and Special Forces in particular. The legal protection of the police will also be strengthened. In addition, President emphasized the importance of strengthening the border service and intensifying work to counter religious extremism.
Capital: Do you want to add something?
Barlybay Sadykov: The tragic events in our country highlight the problems of democracy and human rights in a new way. As stated by President Tokayev, only law and order can guarantee the wellbeing of all civilized states, including Kazakhstan.
As Almaty tragedy demonstrates, violence and anarchy, unlawful actions of criminals and terrorists not only undermine the security of civilians but also lead to violation of fundamental human rights.
Democracy is a work in progress and we continue learning from experience. We are defending our democracy and Constitution from Islamist radicals and terrorists. Kazakhstan remains committed to the protection of fundamental human rights and freedoms.
We have come a long way to building our state from scratch. And will do all it takes to protect our democracy and our people from any unlawful interference both at home and abroad.
