Category: Finance

Ethiopian Investment Commission in collaboration with the Embassy of China in Addis Ababa is holding a three-week seminar and training on Investment Promotion for Ethiopia in Beijing, China, starting from 14th of July to 4th of August, 2023.

The purpose of the seminar is to enhance understanding and deepen friendship between participants through mutual learning and exchange, according to House of Peoples’ Representatives.

It is also to create a platform for international exchange and cooperation among developing countries including China through learning practical experiences on promoting investment and trade.

At the opening of the seminar, Deputy Chairperson of Trade and Tourism Affairs Standing Committee of the House of Peoples’ Representatives, Asemahagn Aseres appreciated the commitment of China to help developing countries to come out of poverty by sharing the practical experiences the country went through.

“Ethiopia and China are enjoying more than 50 years of diplomatic relations, no matter the international landscape changes, the Ethiopia-China cooperation and friendship have remained unbreakable and grown stronger over time,” he said.

He added that in the last 50 years, there were low and high times for both countries before the international community; no matter what situation there was, our two countries’ relations were excellent.

“In the recent parliament session, PM Abiy Ahimed mentioned and appreciated the generous China aid provided to Ethiopia, and constructed a marvelous scenery called “Friendship Square” at the epic center of Addis Ababa, in front of the Ethiopian Palace”, he added.

“We want to learn from the Chinese way of doing investment, and that is why we are here. We know that China achieved extraordinarily in terms of economic development, and lifting millions of citizens out of poverty in a short period of time. Ethiopians want to learn and draw lessons from this great achievement”, Asemahagn concluded.

Deputy Director of China Aid Training Programs of the Academy for International Business Officials (AIBO) under the Ministry of Commerce in China, Zheng Mingyuan, welcomes the team from Ethiopia and reiterates the commitment of China’s readiness to share the path it went through to help the country to eradicate extreme poverty from Ethiopians.

“China eradicated extreme poverty in 2020, reached nearly 12,000 USD per capita now, the second largest economy in the world, planned to reach 30,000 USD per capita in 2035”, he pointed out.

Academy for International Business Officials (AIBO, also known as Training Center of the Ministry of Commerce), the only education and training institution directly affiliated to the Ministry of Commerce of China, hosts the seminar.

AIBO has been carrying out foreign training missions since 1998, and it was the first to offer training courses such as economic management to officials from developing countries. The training covers a wide range of topics, including economic management, trade and investment, urban planning and management, and telecommunications.

The seminar also contains lectures and field visits, and a range of topics including the “Belt and Road” initiative, China’s reform and opening-up and economic development experience, functions of China’s investment institutions and investment promotion system.

Members drawn from the Trade and Tourism Affairs Standing Committee of the House Peoples’ Representatives, officials from Ethiopian Investment Commission and regional investment commissions are participating in the seminar.

Source: Ethiopian News Agency

The Opuwo Town Council (OTC) has since last week started registering and awarding fitness certificates to all new enterprises operating within the town’s boundaries.

The registration procedure is intended for all persons, corporations and organisations that are trading in the town in accordance with section 94(1) of the Local Authorities Act (Act No. 23 of 1992) in order to get a fitness/business registration certificate. Existing businesses will also be required to renew their registration.

McSean Makono, OTC’s Small Medium Enterprise and Business Promoter, told Nampa on Wednesday that Council expects to register as many businesses as possible before the end of August, with 500 vendors registered thus far.

Makono stated that all businesses operating in Opuwo are required by law to register with the council in order to safeguard their operations and prevent others from operating under the same organisation’s name.

“Town council is mandated by the Local Authority Act, Act No. 23 of 1992, to provide means for services, and all businesses operating within council boundaries should register with the council. We should have data on businesses in town. Knowing the statistics of businesses operating within its borders is critical for the council,” he added.

Makono went on to say that the cost of business registration and fitness certificates is determined by the size and kind of business.

Furthermore, Makono also advised that organisers of events such as bazaars should obtain a temporary license from the council, in order to comply with the liquor licensing legislation as encouraged by the magistrate.

The registration of businesses, he stressed will help the council in strengthening the town’s marketing image and conducting business in Opuwo.

Furthermore, Makono stated that all businesses must have a permanent structure or an actual physical location in order to be registered.

OTC will implement regulating measures to verify that all businesses operating inside the town’s limits are registered in accordance with the local government laws, he said.

Makono said that people or firms that fail to register their business will be fined N.dollars 2 000.

Source: Namibia Press Agency

The African Business Council (AfBC) said creating an enabling environment for young people in the continent would help them benefit from the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

The Council is established as an institution in line with the African Union Assembly Decision of 2012 on Boosting Intra African trade and Fast Tracking the Establishment of the African Continental Free Trade Area, it was learned.

AfBC President Amany Asfour told ENA that the African Business Council has more than 20 specialized committees in the Council, including agriculture, energy, fashion industry, construction, infrastructure and women, working in conducting studies and research to find out challenges facing youth and tackle them.

According to the president, the most important challenges facing young people are lack of information, financing, and marketing among others.

To this end, she stressed the need to tap the capabilities of African youth in implementing the continental free trade area by developing the work of small companies and increasing the competitiveness of products in the continent.

“To obtain effective benefits from the continental free trade, networking must be achieved between all African productive sectors, where correct and timely information can be obtained” she indicated.

Asfour added creating a supportive environment for young people, linking them to technology and training them to be beneficiaries of the continental free trade area is also imperative.

She further elaborated that the engagement of the youth in continental free trade areas would also increase trade exchange between the countries of the African continent.

Asfour expressed the council’s readiness to build the capacities of African youth through business incubators and youth capacity development centers affiliated with the council in Africa.

She further called on African small companies to participate in a competitive program that will be launched to link microenterprises with financing institutions.

“There are many developmental programs carried out by the Council, including the youth program and how to become the next millionaires in the continent through competitions and television programs to find appropriate solutions to African problems, and through this, the investment partner and financiers are summoned for these Start-up companies.”

The president of the Council has praised the African Job Creation Summit, which was hosted by Ethiopia from July 7-9, 2023 and its role in supporting efforts to develop youth skills, create decent jobs, and develop a roadmap to support small businesses in Africa.

Source: Ethiopian News Agency

Ethio Telecom CEO Firehiwot Tamiru announced that the company’s revenue during the just concluded Ethiopian fiscal year has increased by 23.5 percent compared with the same period last year.

According to her, Ethio Telecom has generated more than 75.8 billion Birr revenue during the past Ethiopian fiscal year, which covers from 08 July 2022 to 07 July 2023.

Ethiopia’s state-owned telecommunications company has reported strong revenue in the fiscal year.

“During the budget year, we earned 75.8 billion birr income. We achieved 101 percent of our target.’’,Ethio Telecom CEO Firehiwot Tamiru said.

According to her, the revenue growth was achieved through a number of factors, including network optimization work to enhance customer satisfaction, the launch of new products and services, and cost optimization measures.

The company’s total subscribers also grew by 8 percent during the fiscal year, reaching 72 million. Mobile voice subscribers reached 69.5 million, data and internet users reached 33.9 million, she indicated.

Ethio telecom’s mobile business ”telebirr”,which was introduced with the aim of enhancing the country’s digital economy, now has 34.3 million subscribers with a total transaction value of 679.2 billion Birr, Frehiwot disclosed.

From foreign currency generating services that include international interconnect, roaming, infrastructure share and international remittances, some 164.1 million USD has been generated, achieving 107.8 of its target.’’

Frehiwot said that the company has managed to be successful despite a number of challenges, adding that it is committed to providing quality telecommunications services to its customers.

“Given the challenges, this achievement can be considered as remarkable,” she said. “In addition to expanding our revenue stream, our company has devised a cost optimization strategy and managed to save over 6.4 billion Birr in the fiscal year.”

The company plays a key role in providing telecommunications services to Ethiopians, and its growth is helping to drive economic development.

Source: Ethiopian News Agency

A Nigerian, Mr Chianugo Peter, has sought a 150 million dollars compensation from Google and GoDaddy.com over allegations bordering on the shutdown of his YouTube Audio domain name after eight years of promotional and marketing works.

Peter, through his lawyer, Emmanuel Ekpenyong of Fred-Young & Evans LP, filed the suit before Justice Obiora Egwuatu of a Federal High Court, Abuja.

The plaintiff, in the application marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/238/2023, sued GoDaddy.Com LLC and Google LLC as 1st and 2nd defendants.

In the suit filed April 14, sought the court declaration that he registered the YouTube Audio business name, commenced trademark registration on the logo of the business name and secured the YouTubeAudio.com domain name from the GoDaddy in good faith to carry out genuine business to host his application thereon to attract users.

He also sought a declaration that since GoDaddy and Google encouraged him to make use of the YouTubeAudio.com domain name for the past eight years, “they are estopped from claiming that the domain name infringes any of their trademarks or deny the plaintiff the use of the YouTubeAudio.com domain name.

“A declaration of this Honourable Court that the plaintiff is entitled to compensation from the defendants for the loss of the YouTubeAudio.com brand and goodwill which has accrued on the brand and domain name for 8 years of promotional and marketing works from 2nd July, 2015 to 7th December, 2022.

Peter, therefore, sought an order directing the defendants to pay him the sum of $50 million for promotional and marketing works on the YouTube Audio business name and YouTube Audio.com domain name for eight years from July 2, 2015 to Dec. 7, 2022.

“An order of this Honourable Court directing the defendants to pay the sum of US $ 100, 000, 000 (One Hundred Million United States Dollars) to the plaintiff for loss of anticipated profits associated with the brand equity and goodwill of YouTube Audio and YouTube Audio.com domain name.

“An order of this Honourable Court directing the defendants to pay the Plaintiff the sum of N50, 000, 000 (Fifty Million naira) to enable the plaintiff to carry out fresh registrations of its new name and secure an alternative domain name to host its application to attract users.

“An order of this Honourable Court directing the defendants to pay the sum of N10, 00, 000 (Ten Million naira) paid to the plaintiff’s counsel for prosecution of this suit.”

In the statement of claim, Peter said he was the owner of the YouTube Audio, also known as YTAudio which could be accessed through platforms such as Google Play Store and Apple Store in Nigeria.

According to him, YouTube Audio is a creative mobile application that encourages users to be more creative and enjoy utilising audio as a primary source of entertainment, information, and expression.

He said sometime in 2015, he acquired YoutubeAudio.com and YoutubeAudio.ca. domain names from GoDaddy without any caveat that it infringed the YouTube trademark or any other products of Google.

He further averred that in that year when he applied to GoDaddy to obtain the YouTubeAudio.com and YoutubeAudio.ca domain names, GoDaddycarried out an availability check and confirmed that the names were available for him.

Peter said GoDaddy did not inform him that neither YouTubeAudio.com nor YoutubeAudio.ca domain name was similar to YouTube or any trademark of Google.

“It was upon this premise that the plaintiff consistently paid for the domain name and carried out promotional and marketing works on the domain name,” he said.

Besides, he said from 2015 to April 2022 when he carried out extensive promotional and marketing works on the domain name, Google did not lay claim to the domain name or insist that it was similar to the YouTube trademark.

The plaintiff said he even paid Google to host the YouTube Audio.com application on the Google Play Store in 2021 without any query that the domain was similar to the YouTube trademark or any of its other trademarks.

Peter said the YouTube Audio was duly registered on Feb. 22, 2016 as a business name with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) under the laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as BN 2395035 and continuously filed tax returns with the Federal Inland Revenue Service in Nigeria (FIRS).

He said the domain was fully established and had a management team, business address, foreign and local bank accounts with several banks, including master card and cheque books.

He said it was after eight years of serious promotional and marketing works on the YouTubeAudio.comdomain name to make it attractive to users and launch its application thereon that the defendants suddenly claimed that the domain name was similar to the YouTube trademark.

Peter, who stressed that GoDaddy registered the YouTube audio.com domain name and gave him the assurance that he had acquired a right over the name.

He insisted that Google also gave him the assurance that he had acquired a right over the name when it took no action throughout the eight years period when he carried out promotional works on the name and even gave approval for the YouTube Audio application to be listed on Google Play Store in 2021.

He said it was based on the assurances of the defendants that he relied upon and incurred tremendous cost and expenses in registering and branding the YouTube Audio.com business and domain name and carried out wide promotional works on the name for eight years.

According to him, on 29th April, 2022, the 2nd defendant (Google), through its Solicitor, Aluko & Oyebode contacted the plaintiff to express its concerns about YouTube Audio and its similarities with YouTube.

He said Google’s lawyer called for amicably settlement of the issue and advised him to change its business name, social media pages, domain names and trading style to YTAudio.

He said through his lawyer, he agreed to an amicable settlement of the issue only if Google was willing to compensate him.

He said instead of taking steps to compensate him, GoDaddy shut down his domain on a claim that it infringed the YouTube trademark after an arbitration proceedings against him before the Forum under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy, adopted by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

According to him, on the basis of the forum’s decision, the 1st defendant shut down the plaintiff’s YouTubeAudio.com domain name and transferred it to the 2nd defendant on 7th December, 2022.

Peter argued that Google did not have a monopoly of the “YouTube” acronym and that was why there were other independent companies and domain names with the “YouTube” acronym such as “YouTube Downloader”, “YouTube Promoter”, “ssyoutube.com”, “YouTube to MP4 Converter” amongst others.

He said that the defendants acted against the assurances they gave him that he acquired a right over the YouTube Audio.com domain name when they commenced arbitration against him and took over the name without any compensation.

When the matter came up for report of service of originating processes on the defendants, only the plaintiff lawyer, Ekpenyong, and counsel to Google, Mark Mordi, SAN, were in court.

Source: News Agency of Nigeria

Ethiopia’s Green Legacy development is the foundation of the country’s economic growth which needs the participation and dedication of all, Addis Ababa University President Tassew Woldehanna said.

Recall that Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed launched last month the second phase of the Green Legacy Initiative in Afar region under the theme: “Let’s Plant the Future Today.”

Professor Tassew told ENA that the green legacy development will have an irreplaceable role for Ethiopia’s economic growth and development by enhancing the nation’s forest coverage and withstanding the impact of climate change.

So, he added, since Ethiopia’s green legacy development is the foundation of future generations and the nation’s growth, it needs the dedication and participation of all for its success.

In addition to the learning–teaching and research works, Addis Ababa University is playing its part in social services and green legacy development, he pointed out.

The president stressed that Addis Ababa University has finalized its preparation with special priority for the success of the single day record-breaking seedlings planting campaign which will be held on Monday.

It is to be recalled that Ethiopia planted a record more than 350 million trees in a single day in 12 hours on July 29, 2019.

The Green Legacy Initiative is a flagship program initiated by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed in June 2019 with a target of planting 20 billion seedlings within a period of four years.

However, by the end of fourth year, 25 billion seedlings, including fruit trees and cattle feeds, were planted.

Source: Ethiopian News Agency