Page 1 - Print Version Volume 22 - Number 1127

Volume 22 No. 1127, SUNDAY, December 5, 2021 Content Matters
Federal
Wheat
Procurement
Flounders
Only three
companies
submitted bids
By HAWI DADHI &
BERSABEH GEBRE
FORTUNE STAFF WRITERS
Procurement officials at the federal
government have floundered in
their efforts to buy hundreds of
thousands of tonnes of wheat due to
uncertainties over lack of interested
bidders and technical issues.
The import of wheat is considered
crucial to stabilise the market and
provide welfare to low-income
groups. The Ethiopian Trading
Business Corporation (ETBC), a
state-owned enterprise established
with a capital of 3.8 billion Br in
2015, has been given the mandate
to buy wheat this year, unlike in the
past when the Public Procurement
& Disposal Service carried out
the task.
The Corporation plans to import
400,000tn of wheat, inviting
suppliers to participate in a bidding
process. Only three companies of
the 37 that bought bid documents
responded with offers to supply
80,000tns of wheat each in five lots,
sourced from Romania, Ukraine
and Russia. One of them faces
disqualifications for failure to
comply with bid technicalities,
undermining the timely delivery of
the imported wheat.
One of the prospective suppliers,
the Dubai-based Promising
International, placed its bid for
lot five, planning to source the
wheat from Romania. If awarded
the contract, the company would
deliver the grain by July 2022 in two
rounds. Promising International
(Continued on PAGE 5)
Assets (2019/20)
T e n ( 1 0 ) b i r r o n ly
City Cabinet Lowers Interest Payments
for Undocumented Homesteads
Determining interest on outstanding balance on lease fees remains controversial
By BERSABEH GEBRE gives the Administration title deeds to 44,547 is subjected to demolition.
FORTUNE STAFF WRITER the mandate to make undocumented homesteads To facilitate the lease
adjustments on the that occupied land illegally process, the Administration
The Addis Abeba City lease payment modality in the 10 years beginning established a land bank in
Administration cabinet has to ensure low-income 1996. 2013.
granted housing properties segments of the population
erected on unlawfully access land at affordable Plots illegally occupied after In 2010, the Administration
occupied land reduced prices. Three years later, 2005 are appropriated by had granted the same
annual lease payment rates. the City Administration and entitlement to 60,000
It is based on a regulation the Administration began put under a land bank while (Continued on PAGE 5)
introduced in 2011, which the process of granting construction on these plots
FRESH LOOK, OLD HORSE
Photo by: Sawrawork Tafari
Teferi Mekonnen (right), president of the re-named Oromia socio-political system.
Bank, was joined by Yinager Dessie (PhD) (centre left), “Oromia Bank reaches upward in promise, outward in
governor of the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE), for the friendship, and forward in confidence,” reads its new slogan.
unveiling of a new brand logo. Adanech Abiebie and Shimelis The Bank has been showing growth over the years and its
Abdisa, mayor of Addis Abeba and president of Oromia industry peers. Its capital ballooned to three billion Birr
Regional State, respectively, attended the event where one last year from over a quarter of a billion Birr a decade ago,
of the mid-sized private banks made public its new brand while its branch network expanded nearly 10-fold in the
aesthetics on December 2, 2021, at the Sheraton Addis same period. Run for a decade by Abie Sano, now president
Hotel. Branches across the country also celebrated the new of the state-owned Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE), it
brand logo with their staff. netted 860.5 million Br over the past year but its injection
The new brand updates Oromia Bank’s characteristic green of paid-up capital has come at a price for shareholders.
and white logo. It also sheds the “International” in its Bumps along the road will be hard to avoid, considering
name and features a leaping horse superimposed over the the political uncertainty and impacts on productivity.
globe - a melding of tradition and global outlook. It also Oromia Bank hopes its new aesthetic will help it ride out
has eight stripes representing the Geda, an indigenous the challenges more smoothly.
Dashen (68.3b Br) BoA (57b Br) NIB (42b Br) Hibret (43b Br) Awash (89.3b Br) LIB (31.8b Br) BIB (18.9b Br)