Issue 176: Ports & Portals

Hello

In the past week, news broke that the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia tightens account access amid fraud concerns, while Somalia weighs port negotiations to ease regional trade tensions. Meanwhile, USAID funding cut continues to change ripple within Ethiopia’s local business sector.  

Our round-up of news also includes the central bank's new reserve requirement reforms, the Ethio-Djibouti Railway's digital ID mandate for travel, Ethio Telecom's digital expansion, an ed-tech startup's rapid growth, and an engineer's artisanal guitar venture, among other stories. Enjoy.

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Tellers at the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE) no longer have access to customer account balances as the nation’s largest lender implements a stringent policy to combat escalating fraud, a move that could slow service and test customer patience. Read more.

Somalia may grant landlocked Ethiopia access to a port on the Indian Ocean, a step that may help end a dispute between the neighboring nations over Addis Ababa’s quest to have a direct trade route to the sea. Read more.

Stories of USAID grant-powered Ethiopian businesses might soon become tales of a bygone era, as America’s 47th President cracks down on the Agency. Read more.

Fayda National ID registrations have become mandatory to book travel tickets from the Ethio-Djibouti Standard Gauge Railway S.C (EDR) for Ethiopians. Read more.

The National Bank of Ethiopia has proposed amendments to commercial banks' reserve requirement rules with more detailed and structured procedures for reserve maintenance, reporting, and penalties. Read more.

The much-anticipated Addis International Convention Centre, spanning 40 hectares, was officially inaugurated last week. Read more. 

Ethiopia’s state-owned electricity retailer is revamping its operations under new management focused on tackling corruption and improved service delivery backed by a new digital platform. Read more.

An array of services from digital livestock tracking, push-to-talk/video communications to cloud-based banking, an education management system (EMS), and enterprise resource Planning (ERP) are available from the state-owned Ethio telecom. Read more.

Bani Abraham, an industrial engineer passionate about music, has set up a budding business by handcrafting guitars priced at nearly half of the imported options. Read more.

Addisastemari's portal, which allows the creation of customized teaching websites, has attracted around 8 thousand students attending courses from 19 clients in less than a year. Read more.

1. Africa’s startup funding crisis deepens as Mastercard Foundation exits top VC firm 

2.Volcano in Ethiopia is releasing unusually large plumes of methane