The Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE) said it has registered 13.4 billion Birr gross profit during the past nine months of the Ethiopian budget year.
This was disclosed on Wednesday at a performance evaluation meeting which opened at the Headquarters of CBE.
Opening the meeting, CBE President and CEO Abe Sano said the bank achieved 82.4 percent of the 124.4 billion Birr deposit target during the nine months. The total deposit of CBE is now close to 700 billion Birr.
Speaking about foreign currency earning, he pointed out that CBE earned a total of USD 216 million as well as USD 2.13 billion in remittances during the period.
Despite the achievements, Abe noted that the bank has been facing different challenges such as loan collection, shortage of foreign currency, COVID-19, and security problems in some parts of the country.
According to the president, the CBE is reinforcing critical financial reforms that have brought about confidence to achieve the vision. (ENA)
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AG freezes 6.7 bln birr owned by TPLF
The Attorney General announced an embargo on the outlawed TPLF group to prevent it from using 6.7 billion Birr for illegal activities.
In addition, the Attorney General also announced that a warrant has been issued for the confiscation of 97.5 million Birr, which was run by the criminal TPLF group.
Asset Recovery Directorate General at the Attorney General, Alemante Agidew stated that successful investigations have been carried out in outlawing organizations and properties of military officers involved in the war alongside TPLF.
The money laundry has been effectively intercepted through close investigations undertaken into financial and property assets of treasonous military officers, who were fighting alongside TPLF against the national army.
Meanwhile, investigation undertaken into three civil society organizations, which were under the leadership of some members of the TPLF, has contributed to the successful banning of illicit finances.
Regarding the finance worth 97.5 Million Birr, against which confiscation warrant was issued, the Director noted that remaining money after the debt payment is conducted will be transferred to ethical education and voters’ education purposes pursuant to proclamation number 1162/2019 article (2) and (3). (FBC)
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Humanitarian aid center established in Mekelle city
Commissioner for the National Disaster Risk Management Commission of Ethiopia, Mitiku Kassa on Thursday stated that a humanitarian aid center has been established in Mekelle City to speed up delivery toward districts.
Addressing a webinar organized by Chatham House Africa Program, in partnership with UK Center for International Policy Studies, Commissioner Mitiku said the government has managed to access 4.5 million people in need in Tigray with food and non-food assistance following the law enforcement operation.
The commissioner also announced the commencement of the second round of humanitarian assistance with a view to reach 2.7 million people in need in the region.
According to the Commissioner, the federal government which covered 70percent of the need has disbursed 3.7 billion Birr for the humanitarian assistance carried out in Tigray.
He briefed the participants of the webinar that the government in partnership with partners, has set up a humanitarian aid center in Mekelle City to speed up distribution of assistance to districts and other distant parts of the region. (FBC)
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Ethiopian launches high-end COVID-19 Testing Lab
Ethiopian Airlines Group announced on Tuesday that it has joined hands with BGI Health Ethiopia, a subsidiary of China’s biotech giant, the BGI Genomics Co., Ltd, to launch a high-end COVID-19 testing laboratory at its main hub and the continent’s busiest airport, Addis Ababa Bole International Airport.
It announced that the testing center is opened to revitalize the passengers’ business by creating seamless travel experience that includes COVID-19 testing to passengers departing or transiting via Addis Ababa.
The state-of-the-art COVID-19 testing lab is equipped with cutting-edge technologies to provide passengers with quick and accurate testing. Currently, the lab has a capacity to carry out 1,000 COVID-19 tests a day with a potential to grow further after the expansion.
Regular test results can be obtained within three hours, leading to a convenient travel arrangement by reducing waiting time for testing and result collection, it was indicated.
Ethiopian Airports CEO Eskinder Alemu said the lab at the airport eliminates the hassle for testing and brings convenience and helps restore passengers’ confidence in travel. (The Ethiopian Herald)
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Experts meet in Uganda over escalation of conflict in Horn of Africa
Experts from member states of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) held a meeting in Kampala to find ways to prevent a further escalation of conflict in the Horn of Africa region.
Present at the meeting on Wednesdaywere experts from Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda under the Conflict Early Warning Mechanism Committee of Permanent Secretaries.
Conflicts are decimating the lives of ordinary people in some parts of the region, WorknehGebeyehu, executive secretary of the IGAD, said at the meeting.
The tension along the Ethiopia-Sudan border and developments in Somalia are all matters of great concern, he said.
Somalia is facing a crisis after the government mandate expired on February 8 without an agreement to hold a delayed presidential and parliamentary election.
The IGAD chief said all these active situations are unfolding against a backdrop of the perennial threat of violent extremism.
The latest IGAD’s Conflict Early Warning and Response Mechanism reportshowed that there has been a significant spike in violent incidents across the IGAD region. (Xinhua)
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Somali opposition welcomes President dropping term extension
Somalia’s opposition politicians have cautiously welcomed President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed’s move to drop a controversial two-year extension of his term in Office. But questions remain on his intentions, and how the country is going to hold an already-delayed election.
Forces loyal to opposition leaders and government security agencies had clashed in Mogadishu on Sunday, injuring several people. But residents who fled their neighborhoods are returning home since the President, commonly known as Farmajo, and Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble are calling for calm.
While members of the opposition supported Farmajo’s announcement, they remain skeptical about the next move by the President, whose term in office expired in February.
Residents loaded their belongings into rickshaws, as they fled following renewed clashes between rival factions in the security forces, who have split in a dispute over an extension to the president’s term, in Mogadishu, Somalia, on April 27, 2021.
Abdulrahman Abdishakur, a presidential candidate and the leader of the Wadajir political party, said Farmajo is not clear on the way forward. (VoA)
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South Sudan at risk of ‘large scale conflict’: UN report
A United Nations report has warned that the slow implementation of a revitalized peace accord in South Sudan risks pushing the country back into a “large-scale conflict.”
Political, military and ethnic divisions in South Sudan are widening, leading to multiple violent incidents between the main signatories to last year’s ceasefire,with the possibility of renewed war, and nearly 100,000 people facing “famine-like conditions,” it said.
In the 81-page report sent to the UN Security Council on Monday, a panel of experts said slow-moving reforms by President SalvaKiir’s government and more than a year of political disputes and disagreements over how to implement the February 2020 ceasefire and the 2018 peace agreement, has led to frayed relations between Kiir and First Vice President Riek Machar.
“Discontent within Kiir’s Sudan People’s Liberation Movement and his power base in the Dinka ethnic group over his handling of the transition “has led to calls for a new leadership,” said the report. (Aljazeera)
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Sudan ratifies Women’s Rights Convention — with exceptions
Sudan’s Ministers Council has ratified the United Nations’ 1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).
However, the majority-male council declined to endorse the notion that women are equal with men at all political and social levels and have equal rights in marriage, divorce and parenting.
Women’s rights groups criticized those reservations, saying they will not accept them.
IhsanFagiri, the chief of the initiative ‘No for Women’s Repression,’ said the transitional government tends to lower the ambitions of Sudanese people, and women in particular. She said ratifying the convention with reservations of acts like those in Article 2 contradicts the goal of the convention, as that article concerns equality. The government, she stressed, does not want women to have equality with men in the local legislations.
In late 2018 and early 2019, Sudanese women took prominent roles in public demonstrations against longtime President Omar al-Bashir, who was ousted in April 2019 with popular protest. (VoA)
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