The Federal Cooperative Agency will host the 8th National Cooperatives’ Exhibition, Bazaar, and Symposium-2021 from March 18th till 22 of 2021 under the banner of “Cooperative Marketing for Sustainable Peace!”
This event is an annual opportunity to highlight how cooperatives can and have contributed to social and economic development, building resilience and sustainable peace in the country. “The culture of sustaining peace in cooperative needs to be entrenched at every level of community,” the agency sensitized.
Peace has been on the agenda of the cooperative movement since its inception and it has been expressed in a variety of ways throughout that time. It is a significant strand in the weave of cooperative thought and practice.
‘As a people-centered business model, Cooperatives play an important part in social, economic, and political stabilization in conflict and post-conflict settings,” said Usman Surur, the director-general of the Federal Cooperative Agency. “Peace is not something you take for granted. It needs to be nurtured. Once you have it, it needs to be cultivated. Cooperatives are the very good fertile grounds for sustainable peace,” declared Usman.
The exhibition and Bazaar will be held at Oromo Cultural Center in Addis Ababa from March 19 to 22, 2021. In the event, more than 80 cooperatives, drawn from all over the country will exhibit and sell their traceable and quality agricultural products like Teff, wheat, maize, coffee, butter, honey and others in reasonable prices with accurate measurement. On March 18th, 2021, a symposium will be conducted at Sheraton Addis Hotel and a number of papers will be presented on various cooperative-related topics emanated domestically and internationally. “Sustainable development and as well as sustainable peace are interdependent. Cooperation goes hand in hand with promoting peace and peace goes hand in hand with equality,” emphasized Usman.
Cooperatives are one of the most effective ways to transcend differences at the local, regional, and even the international level and build the kinds of collaborative networks and practices that will contribute to building a more peaceful world.
Cooperative marketing for sustainable peace
Africa set for growth with rising poverty, debt in 2021
Africa’s economy should return to growth in aggregate across the continent in 2021 after a coronavirus recession, the African Development Bank said Friday, while warning that poverty and public debt would continue to rise.
The 2.1-percent contraction of the pan-African economy in 2020 was the first recession in half a century but should give way to the expansion of 3.4 percent this year, the AfDB said in the 2021 edition of its African Economic Outlook report.
At 3.1 percent, the International Monetary Fund’s forecast was less optimistic than the AfDB, whose mission is to fund investment in African countries and offer advice and technical assistance to development.
The development bank predicted the strongest rebound for economies like Morocco, Tunisia and Mauritius that depend on tourism, at 6.2 percent – although their GDP fell the furthest last year.
Meanwhile, oil and raw materials exporters like Algeria, Nigeria, Angola and South Africa should enjoy the growth of around three percent, and the continent’s most diversified economies like Ethiopia and Ivory Coast rise by 4.1 percent, having already suffered a softer 2020 blow.
The AfDB report also highlighted that 39 million more people could slip below the extreme poverty threshold of $1.90 per day this year, up from an estimated 30 million last year.
A total of 465 million people in Africa could be affected by extreme poverty, one-third of the continent’s population, in a setback after two decades of steady reductions.
Meanwhile “the pandemic shock and ensuing economic crisis have had direct implications for budgetary balances and debt burdens,” the AfDB warned.
Deficits roughly doubled last year, to around 8.4 percent of GDP, while the average debt-to-GDP ratio on the continent is expected to surge by between 10 and 15 percentage points, to around 70 percent.
By December, 14 of 38 countries analyzed for debt sustainability were judged “in high risk of debt distress”, with 16 seen as moderate risk and just two at low risk.
“Serious debt challenges might be looming, and disorderly defaults and lengthy resolutions could become a major obstacle to Africa’s progress toward prosperity,” AfDB President Akinwumi Adesina wrote in the report.
“We need to address Africa’s debt and development finance challenges, in partnership with the international community” and with private creditors, he added.
But Adesina also urged leaders to enact “bold governance reforms to eliminate all forms of leakages in public resources, improve domestic resource mobilization, and enhance transparency”.
The 2021 edition of the African Economic Outlook focuses on debt resolution, governance, and growth in Africa.
Nyala introduces insurance for smart phones
Nyala Insurance introduces a new insurance line called ‘Le-mobile’ which is the first mobile insurance in Ethiopia.
In collaboration with Ethio telecom and SZM Engineering PLC, Nyala Insurance has launched the first of its kind insurance product in Ethiopia.
The new insurance product is designed to protect hand held mobile phones and the product will be sold digitally in partnership with Ethio telecom and SZM Engineering. By effecting a premium payment of one birr to one birr and fifty cents based on package selected per day, any smart phone user can enter in to a contract with Nyala Insurance just by sending an ‘ok’ text message via 813. Direct premium payment will be from Ethio telecom airtime.
Nyala mobile insurance is said to provide cover for screen damages, mobile phones lost because of theft or any other related reasons.
Tegene Masresha, executive officer of marketing and business development of Nyala Insurance said after conducting a rigorous feasibility study towards the applicability and viability of the product, the company delved into the product to become the pioneer to launch such kind of an insurance product in the Ethiopian market.
As he stated the policy is systematically designed to effectively meet the growing needs and demands of customers.
The policy is therefore expected to give the much needed relief for a number of smart phone users across the nation with an insignificant daily premium payment.
In order to give the insurance cover to all the smart phone apparatuses, Nyala Insurance has collaborated with Ethio telecom’s data base through media platforms.
The service is fully self-serviced by Nyala, in which users can purchase insurance by downloading Nyala mobile insurance application and when accident ensues one can claim via three options; one directly through the Nyala mobile insurance website, the second through the Nyala partners mobile vending and repair up store and lastly through direct calling the Nyala call centers.
According to Nyala insurance, customers can also get similar replacement for the stolen or damaged smartphone model device.
As Tegene claimed, the new product will be a strategy to stay competitive and in order to outreach their customers enhancing insurance service through continuous product development efforts.
It is to be recalled that the 25 years old Nyala was the pioneer to introduce Micro insurance and political violence insurance.
According to Ethio Telecom, the sole telecom service provider, there are currently 64 million connected devices on its network of which 32 percent of it is smart phones.
Android has by far the largest share of the mobile operating system market in Ethiopia, being used in over 90 percent of the smartphones in the country while the share of Apple’s iOS in the Ethiopian market only amounts to 5.73 percent.
Syringing access to affordable and quality medication
mPharma and Belayab Pharmaceuticals PLC sign franchise agreement to launch Haltons Pharmacies in Ethiopia on Thursday 11th of March,2021.
mPharma has signed a franchise agreement with Belayab Pharmaceuticals PLC to increase patient access to affordable and quality medications in Ethiopia, through its subsidiary, Haltons Limited. Through this agreement, mPharma will leverage its technology platforms, insights, and extensive experience working with hospitals and retail pharmacies across Africa to help Ethiopia achieve universal medical coverage to all its patients.
Through its franchise, mPharma and Belayab Pharmaceuticals aim to open two operational pharmacies in Addis Ababa this year. Headquartered in Ghana, mPharma, a technology driven healthcare company acquired Kenya’s second largest pharmacy chain, Haltons, in 2019, taking control of 27 stores across Kenya. Currently operational in Ghana, Nigeria, Zambia, Rwanda, and Kenya, mPharma serves about a million patients every year through over 300 partner pharmacies and provides patients with affordable and high quality medicines in its quest to build an Africa that is in good health.
In Africa, the pharmaceutical market faces challenges such as sprawling supply chains, low order volumes, and exorbitant prices. Millions of Africans continue to die from diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis, and Hepatitis B; these diseases can be prevented or treated with timely access to appropriate and affordable medicines and other health services. With less than 2% of drugs consumed in Africa being produced on the continent, many sick patients cannot afford to buy the medications they need for treatment. mPharma has been working with drug manufacturers and suppliers to make medicine supply chains more efficient, thereby reducing the financial burden to patients.
Under this partnership, each pharmacy launched will offer Mutti – mPharma health membership program – to patients in Ethiopia. Patients will benefit from discounts on their drugs and financing options that can help alleviate the costs of health care. Mutti will particularly benefit uninsured patients in Ethiopia who pay out-of-pocket for their medication and therefore bear the brunt of high drug prices.
The franchise will see mPharma enter its eighth market in Sub-Saharan Africa and third in East Africa. The partnership has also mentioned its interest in potentially being involved in the Corona virus vaccine provision.
mPharma specializes in vendor managed inventory, retail pharmacy operations, and market intelligence serving hospitals, pharmacies, and patients. It was founded in 2013 and currently has network of over 300 pharmacies in our key markets serving more than 100,000 patients each month.
Belayab Pharmaceuticals PLC is a part of the Belayab Group in Ethiopia where the group has companies such as Belayab Foods 9official franchise of Pizza Hut, Coldstone Creamery and Burger King), Belayab Motors (Kia Motors assembler), Belayab Cable (Cable manufacturing company), and Golden Tulip Hotel in Ethiopia. Belayab Pharmaceuticals PLC was founded by Aschalew Belay, Michael Ghebru and Robel Minassie.
