Ministry of Agriculture has completed preparing its plan which will be used to propose cultivation land for edible oil producer industries, Capital has learnt.
Though the local edible manufacturing factories have production capacity to fully meet the demand of the country, Ethiopia is forced to import the product because of raw material shortage. On a meeting held on June 28, 2021 with the edible oil producers and the two ministries: that is, Ministry of Trade and Industry and Ministry of Agriculture showed that the ministers had said that local production of oilseeds cannot meet raw materials demand for the local food processing industry, and this is stated as one of the challenges in the local production of edible oils. The Ministry of Trade and Industry and the Ministry of Agriculture have also promised to give land within one month to oil producers to cultivate oilseeds in collaboration with regional governments. The ministries plan to do so before the rainy season ends.
As Omar Hassan, minister of agriculture tells Capital, the two ministries have completed preparing their plan, “as we have said on the meeting to propose the land to the industries, the two ministries have finalized their proposals, whereas we are waiting to have meeting with the industries.”
The two ministries together are focusing to boost oil seeds production and create strong linkage between the agriculture and the manufacturing sector to end spending of hard currencies for importing processed agri-products.
As Omar said the plan will indicate where cultivation lands are found near the industries and after holding talk with the industries, they will avail the land.
The total number of active edible factories in Ethiopia has doubled in the past few years as joint ventures between government and private investors undergo to meet the demand over the past three years to substitute the importation of edible oil with domestic production. According to the Ministry of Trade, there are 232 oil industries in the country, 26 big industries and 206 medium and small industries which is still in vain. Together the industries have capacity to produce 1.25 billion liters of oil annually where the national consumption is 906 million metric ton annually, however as a result of shortage of input most of the industries are working under their capacity can’t meet the demand. Meanwhile only 40 percent of the total demand is currently covered by local edible product.
Some are under construction, when all of these edible oil factories become operational in a few years, the country is likely to substitute cooking oil imports more and more with local production and in the long-term, it should drive increased production of oilseeds locally.
“The government is assisting farmers in planting large pulse and oilseed plants on suitable land to reduce edible oil imports,” said Umer Hussien, Minister of Agriculture, adding that, “The country has huge capacity on producing oilseeds, there are huge industries but still there is huge oil shortage problem in the country, thus it requires an integrated work of all stakeholders.”
Oilseed production covers only 2.7 percent of the total production which is 6.61 percent of cultivated land from the total cultivated lands. Similarly, both new and old factories are facing challenges with input material.
MoA finalizes plan to provide land for oilseed cultivation
The first mortgage financial firm to start operation soon
Goh Betoch Bank SC, the extraordinary and first mortgage financial firm, sees daybreak to open its doors starting from the Ethiopian New Year.
National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) has officially provided the green light for the bank to commence operation.
The bank announced that it expects policy support from the regulatory body, NBE to amplify the required success, while Yinager Dessie, Governor of NBE, promised to back the operation of the first private mortgage bank.
At the official ceremony of awarding the license from NBE Getahun Nanam, Chairperson of Board of Directors of Goh and former Vice Governor of NBE said that the bank has been in process for three years to realize the dream to become the first mortgage bank in the country.
He said that the housing financing scheme in Ethiopia is very poor despite the demand being very high making the housing issue a top priority.
Getahun cited a study that to ease the current accumulated housing demands, at least 1.2 million houses ought to be built as soon as possible, “besides that every year 100,000 houses have to be constructed to cover fresh demands.”
According to the veteran financial pundit, 70 percent of the existed houses in cities are under standard that actually need reconstruction.
“Meanwhile this is the reality; the existed financial firms are not providing the required fund for the housing and construction sector. Due to that we are formed to fill the gap,” the Board of Directors Chair explained.
According to data from NBE the construction and housing sector has not benefited more than 10 percent of the total loans that banks provide.
Goh that is also expected to provide other banking products targets to provide one billion birr loan in the first year of operation and would get bigger to 6.4 billion birr in its fifth year.
Mulugeta Asmare, founding president of Goh, said that the bank is expected to see some policy changes from the regulatory body and the government in general to attain its target, which is also one of the government top economic development pillars that is mentioned on its ten year economic plan.
“Currently, except the Development Bank of Ethiopia all banks have similar operation and with similar policy but when it comes to Goh, we are coming with different services that needs different regulation and policy from the regulatory body,” he elaborates, adding, “due to that starting from policy change we need support from NBE to amplify our operation.”
“We want to see preferential treatments on NBE policies like the composition on long term loans portfolio, which is now 20 percent of the total portion of loans and advances for commercial banks, and enable to be partner with foreign fund sources,” Mulugeta, who is well know by his role to register massive success at Bank of Abyssinia as a president, told Capital.
The policy change on the composition of loan portfolio would allow the bank to get huge amount of long term deposit and at the same time provide long term loans that are given for more than five years.
Goh has targeted that the majority share of loans portfolio would be long term.
“There are also opportunities that Goh shall work with international institutions to access and using idle funds to support our mortgage business, due to that on this side also NBE is expected to make consideration,” he explains, while he added that so far the bank would use the current environment for operation.
Mulugeta said that the bank is also expects conducive policy environment and other segments of supports from Ministry of Urban Development and Construction and similar public offices in regions and cities to realize the housing solution in the country.
Yinager said that NBE will consider supports for such kind of specialized financial firms “the country needs different specialized banks besides the existing commercial banking scheme.”
He said that currently, most of the existing banks are financing the commerce, while residential housing problem mainly in urban areas is very high that should be backed by a financing scheme.
The governor appreciated the initiative of Goh, which formed to support the housing and construction sector that is also one of the tools for economic growth in the country.
“On our ten year economic plan, the government and political leaders have underlined that special support shall be provided for banks that are forming on the focus of housing financing,” Yinager says, adding, “the sector and demand is very high that needs more similar banks and the government will also provide special support.”
“As per the NBE rule, we have to have core banking and to do that we have already hired Temenos, Geneva, Switzerland based technology firm that is engaged with different banks in Ethiopia in related with technology support,” Mulugeta who will become the first private mortgage bank president in Ethiopia, explains adding that it will be fully ready in few months time.
Until Temenos’s project becomes operational, the bank has planned to carry an installed system as transitional core banking scheme that is developed locally, while Websprix is also finalizing the establishment of the data center that is crucial to make effective the core banking technology.
Goh includes 6,658 shareholders. Its subscribed capital is 1.056 billion birr of which 521.5 million has been paid up.
Goh is the first after the Housing and Saving Bank (HSB) that was formed by the merger of Imperial Savings and Home Ownership Association and the Savings and Mortgage Corporation of Ethiopia mid 1970 during the Derg period. HSB was also reconstituted to Construction and Business Bank (CBB) in 1994 before it became defunct and merged under the state giant Commercial Bank of Ethiopia in 2016.
Even though these days banks are providing some sort of financial schemes to obtain housing it is mostly focused on the upper class of the society that may have already the facility and want more or for those whose income is extraordinary, as opposed to the general public or civil servants.
During the Derg era several urban dwellers mainly civil servants and housing associations benefited from a plan by HSB to own their property in cities and towns of the country. Even though the HSB loan scheme realized their wish to own houses, the scheme did not continue as usual after the fall of the Derg regime. Due to the former HSB that changed its name to CBB focused on commercial banking services.
Since then the housing scheme has been neglected from the loan scheme of the financial firms until the condo housing project which was introduced by the government in 2004, which is fully controlled by the government. Lease has also been the other option to secure a plot and construct residential houses; however it is not affordable for the masses. Experts argued that the condo housing project is vulnerable to corruption in the construction stage and lottery process besides poor performance in the accomplishment.
Currently, the government has introduced different housing scheme including the housing association to ease the residential house problem.
The formation Goh at the initial stage was led by Getahun Nana; Gebreyesus Egata, founder and CEO of Gift Real Estate, Kefeni Gurmu, legal expert, Wubishet Jekale, Professor at Addis Ababa University and General Manager at Jekale CM Consultancy, Heyaw Terefe, Professor at Addis Ababa University, Yoseph Assefa, well known on the financial industry, Fasika Kebede, former president of Enat Bank, Amerga Kassa, former president of Nib International Bank, and Araya Gebreegziabher, former president of Wegagen Bank.
New COVID-19 treatment begins human studies
Skymount Medical, in collaboration with Louisiana State University announced that human studies have begun on the unique combination of therapies for COVID-19 patients. The move comes to reduce the number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients rises around the world, particularly in countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Brazil and India.
SM-19, as it is known, is expected to eliminate ICU visits and drastically reduce the chances of developing long term conditions associated with the virus.
The medication was discovered using an artificial intelligence (AI) platform that significantly decreased the time to drug discovery. Pre-clinical cell and animal test results estimate an efficacy rate of 97% and these FDA approved medications under investigation are expected to become available to the public shortly.
“We are optimistic that the treatments will reduce extreme symptoms in humans and the need for hospitalizations,” states Dr. Kishor M. Wasan, co-inventor and chief medical and scientific officer for Skymount Medical.” These experimental outcomes provide a complement approach to the current COVID-19 vaccine strategy that is cost-effective, safe, and accessible to patients.”
The SM-19 treatment is expected to be effective against several COVID-19 variants and decrease viral load and long-term symptoms. At present, there are no approved oral medications to decrease COVID-19 symptoms in people who have not been hospitalized.
“The discovery of these medications came through a highly unique and novel process fusing AI with traditional wet lab pharmacology,” said Chris Galliano, co-inventor and chief technology officer of Skymount Medical. He said that the Louisiana State University’s AI based drug discovery platform has enabled Skymount Medical to directly target symptoms using a time saving strategy.
Dr. Supratik Mukhopadhyay, co-inventor and associate professor in the LSU Department of Computer Science. “Starting human studies is exciting because we wouldn’t be at this step if early studies didn’t indicate high levels of efficacy and validate the data produced by AI,” he said.
Compassionate use tests of the medications began on August 10/2021 and are expected to continue throughout the United States, the United Kingdom, India and Brazil. The test is a randomized and controlled study which will evaluate the efficacy and safety of SM-19 in the treatment of COVID-19 patients.
Redefining approaches for menstrual health
Pioneering the Menstrual Cup Brand in Ethiopia, a private company called Meri-Bandnet trading PLC is distributing the Noble cup within the country and redefining the approach to menstrual health.
“The noble cup is a product that can be reused for five years. The cup is a soft menstrual cup made from a medical grade non-toxic silicone which has no disadvantage for body,” said Liya Alemayehu, project coordinator of the company, adding that during menstruation, the flexible cup is inserted into the vagina and collects menstrual fluid inside the body.
“Menstrual cups are bell-shaped suction receptacles that collect blood and can be kept in for up to 12 hours,” she elaborated.
“The flexible bell shaped cup is folded and inserted into the vagina, catching menstrual fluid. The cup can be removed, emptied, and re-inserted. It is reusable for 5 years. They are the safest and most economical option for women living in poverty. Moreover, the Noble Cup is an eco-friendly, time saving, cost effective method of managing menstruation,” added Liya.
“Pads create unnecessary waste and are difficult for women with limited sanitation facilities to dispose of. Noble Cup requires far less water to clean than cloth rags,” Liya explained. However, stigma and taboos around periods can make it difficult for people in any culture to try them as she said to solve this the company is working on awareness creation in health centers and schools.
Additional to not having access to clean water or safe toilets, nationally, lack of affordable sanitary pads is the main challenge for managing, women hygiene. In Ethiopia, the
re are approximately 50 million women and this number is expected to double by 2050. In Ethiopia, 25% of girls do not use any men
strual health products during their periods, often due to the high cost of disposable pads mainly; poorer, rural girls are more likely to utilize reusable products, whilst urban, wealthier girls are more likely to utilize disposable sanitary pads. The menstrual cups in this regard are cheaper in the long run, says Liya.
To minimize the period poverty and lack of access to adequate resources and education to manage menstruation, the company was been founded in 2018 by Sara Eklund in order to make an eco-friendly and affordable period product available to all women both in Ethiopia and across Africa.
Eklund launched Ethiopia’s first menstrual cup brand, the Noble Cup, in 2018. Now, the brand cup is already stocked by between 10 and 13 stores and pharmacies respectively in the country and hopes to grow its reach. The company imports the product from China. The company lists the price of the noble cup as 200 birr.
