CBE suspends working capital loans for agriculture The Commercial Bank of Ethiopia which recently froze all private project loans has now suspended working capital loans for commercial agriculture investors sending shockwaves among farmers who were getting ready to plant seeds in the next two months. The suspension which has been effective for two weeks also denied loans already in progress. Large commercial farms in Amhara, Benishangul, Afar, Gambella, Tigray, and Oromia Regions are now being told to get working capital loans from the state owned Development Bank of Ethiopia (DBE). Most of the farmers who take out loans produce sesame, corn and cotton in the above regions. Usually the working capital loans are spent on labor in the pre and post harvesting process. Though the suspension came late, the GTP 2 strategy planned for all agricultural and project loans to be handled by DBE with CBE overseeing manufacturing and service sector loans. According to source in CBE the temporary freeze may become permanent as discussions are still being held on the matter. “We didn’t receive any formal letter, but we have been ordered to temporarily suspend loans and we expect the formal order to arrive in our office within the next few weeks,” a source at CBE said. Some farmers are asking CBE to at least allow those who have already started the process to be allowed to continue. Other investors have said that applying for a loan at DBE will take at least six months and could affect their production. “Usually at CBE getting a working capital loan takes a maximum of one month but the process at DBE has been more challenging and takes more time so some investors are asking us to lift the freeze on project and working capital loans for agriculture,” the source added. CBE previously announced that it will continue providing working capital loans which involve financing a company’s daily operations. However loans for fixed assets which are purchased for long-term use and are not likely to be converted quickly into cash, such as land, buildings, and equipment are being discontinued. Last week CBE reported that in the first nine months of the financial year they earned 11.2 billion birr in gross profit before tax with a total revenue of 23.4 billion birr. It disbursed 64.3 billion birr in loans during this time. It has 438.6 billion birr in assets. Source: http://capitalethiopia.com/2017/05/24/cbe-suspends-working-capital-loans-agriculture/#.WTa59miGOCg

The state of the art, Doraleh Multipurpose Port (DMP), was officially inaugurated in the presence of high government officials from regional states. The port, which is considered the most advanced port in Africa, was completed in March this year and received the first vessel in mid April. According to officials at the Port of Djibouti S.A. (PDSA), the new Multipurpose Port actually managed 11 huge vessels and one export vessel before the official inauguration. On Wednesday May 24, DMP was inaugurated by President Ismail Omar Guelleh of Djibouti, President Mohamed Abdullahi ‘Farmajo’ of Somalia, Sufian Ahmed, advisor of Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, Ahmed Shide, Minister of Transport and other logistics officials from Ethiopia and Deputy CEO-of China Merchant Group, Dr Hu Jianhua, among other dignitaries. In his speech President Ismail Omar Guelleh said that this is one more step towards the enlargement and diversification of the port supply and the logistics platform of Djibouti. “This new port will significantly increase our reception capacities and the service of different types of vessels and goods,” he added. The port that targets boosting the logistics activity in the region has consumed USD 590 million. At the event, Saad Omar Guelleh, General Manager of the Port of Djibouti S.A. (PDSA), said that the new 690 hectare facility is equipped with ultra-modern facilities that can accommodate 100,000 deadweight tonnage (dwt) vessels. “A real showcase of a modern and emerging Djibouti,” he added. This new port will not only reinforce service quality, but also be a part of the fast economic development of Ethiopia and the region. The project was started in 2015, and jointly financed by Djibouti Ports and Free Zones Authority (DPFZA) and China Merchant Holding (CMHC), which bought a 23.5 percent share of PDSA about four years ago. The state of the art port equipment was all manufactured by the Chinese firm ZPMC. The geographical location of Doraleh Multipurpose Port provides a naturally deep large quay and 6 berths (to reach 15 berths in the second phase) at 16 to 18 meters in the first phase. The DMP will serve all conventional cargo vessels and related services. It will be linked to road and rail transport developing an integrated transport and economic corridor. On behalf of Prime Minister Hailemariam at the inauguration ceremony, his advisor Sufian said “as we closely observed the commencement of the other ports in the transit infrastructure development expansion projects underway in Djibouti, we feel the commitment and extraordinary leadership of President Ismail Omar Guelleh and his administration for having translated their vision into such a formidable economic asset, which will serve the present and future generations of this historic nation.” Ahmed Shide told Capital that Ethiopia is a 100 million population nation which has registered a fast economic growth. “And as we are using Djibouti as our main gateway, the new port is a huge additional port capacity that will help our fast economic growth since it is a very modern and quality port,” he added. “DMP has a big port with the accommodation of six vessels at a time with very wide storage field and is able to manage different type of cargos,” he explained. According to PDSA General Manager, DMP is able to process 220 000 TEU and 8.2 million ton of non-containerized goods. “This new port will allow us to increase our productivity by unloading the vessels with a performance three times greater than the present one,” he said, adding “Connected to both the rail and road networks, DMP is positioned as a multimodal platform that will provide us with the means to achieve our logistical ambitions at the international level.” DMP has four separate terminals for handling containers, ro/ro, break bulk and bulk cargos. The railway line constructed between Ethiopia and Djibouti will also connect with the port. “Ethiopia and Djibouti are part of the 21st century Belt and Road Initiative of China and this project and the railway line is mainly financed by China and constructed by Chinese companies. These projects are considered to be an early harvest of the initiative and those facilities shall be good advantages for the realization of Belt and Road Initiative,” the Minister of Transport added. The government of Djibouti is also working to attract other landlocked countries in the central part of the continent. Since DMP started operation, the historical Port of Djibouti, located at the heart of the capital will be transferred to the new economical development phase that includes massive tourist destination of the country and recreation center besides real estate and office apartment development. PDSA will continue managing the new facility in Doraleh, DMP, 12km at the outskirt of the metropolitan city of Djibouti. Source: http://capitalethiopia.com/2017/05/29/doraleh-multipurpose-port-inaugurated/#.WTa5iGiGOCg

The state policy Bank, the Development Bank of Ethiopia (DBE), is among the companies whose websites were destroyed by malware, malicious software which damages or disables computers and computer systems, for more than a month. The damage brought an embarrassment to customers who could not access the website to tap information. The incident that disrupted the works of the Bank put its relationship with its customers at unease for a while. “We were forced to quit using the website for weeks,” said a head of the Information Technology (IT) department at DBE. “It arose from ignorance.” The website attack occurred while DBE’s IT expert was transferring a file from a USB disk to the Bank’s computer. Such kinds of malware infections are mostly set by IT technicians and hackers intending to damage a computer system to disrupt a workflow or steal data. The malware that attacked DBE originates from online even though it entered into the website through a USB disk. “Malware easily transfers from one computer to another through USB disks and networks,” said Filmon Tekele, an IT expert, who has a decade of experience in the area. Besides the easily transferable nature of malware, lack of IT literacy and carelessness among computer users contributes to its spread. The head of the IT department at DBE, for instance, was not sure that the Bank’s website was infected with malware. He initially was of the opinion that it is a regular problem that could happen with any computer in any institution. However, an expert who checked the problem found that the crash of the website was an illustration of a cyber attack. As it appears to be, computer networks with a weak security system are also more exposed to cyber attacks. “Yes, this denial of service is a risk that comes with a weak security system as is observed in most of the financial or whatever institutions,” explained an anonymous IT expert who spotted DBE’s website blackout. Denial of service, hacking and defacement of private and government websites are not unusual incidents in Ethiopia. The attack on the Ministry of Defence’s website last December was among the shocking cyber vandalism. It was an accidental phenomenon fired up by random hackers who could not be traced to date. Needless to say, many public institutions including the websites of Dire Dawa University, the Ministry of Education, the Pharmaceuticals Fund & Supply Agency, the Ministry of Finance & Economic Cooperation, and Commercial Nominees Plc had been attacked during the political unrest, particularly in Oromia and subsequently in Amhara regional states, nine months back. Ever since the advent of digitalisation, the value of data has been growing astonishingly everywhere in the world. Information and data have become precious assets to organisations and businesses. This has called for immense cyber attacks. On the contrary, as companies and governments have to protect themselves from such exposition, a lot of research has been carried out to come up with a sophisticated cyber security innovation to counteract attacks and ensure safe operation in the ever digitalised community. Nevertheless, malicious and unbeaten attacks are frequent in the news. A year ago, one of the local newspapers which has been operational in the market for two decades, was under attack by anonymous hackers. “Our website was not accessible for two days since it was hacked by unknown groups associated with Pakistan,” said the Editor-in-Chief of the newspaper. The local newspaper had to spend over 50,000 Br to retrieve the website. Studies show that cyber security is dependent on behavioural dimensions of users. It is indicated that the enormous number of cyber attacks is caused by behavioural limitations of users globally. A report conducted five years ago by Verizon Data Breach Investigations reveals that about 96pc of cyber attacks are easily reversible using good practices. A member of the Cyber Defence, Readiness & Response Team at the Information Network Security Agency (INSA) also shares the finding of the investigation. “Similar website defacements occur every day,” the team member said, adding that, “since sites are quickly built, they are not up to the standard and capable enough to resist attacks.” Since recent times, with the coming of WannaCry malware, many countries in the world are under the risk of cyber attacks. Over the past three weeks, many municipalities and citizens have fallen prey to cyber attacks that began hitting targets worldwide. As it was identified first by the Russian cyber security firm, Kaspersky Labs, the Russian Telecom giant was one of the primary targets of the malicious virus. First occurring on May 11, 2016, WannaCry attacked over 300,000 machines in two days alone with a large-scale attack on Russia’s telecommunications infrastructure. The virus tends to exploit a vulnerability in Windows operating systems, such as Windows XP, Windows 7, Vista, Windows 8 and Windows 10, to encrypt files without the authorization of users, said the team member of cyber defence at INSA. Known as “WannaCrypt” and “WannaDecrypt”, WannaCry encrypts a computer’s documents, music, pictures, and all other files, making them unreachable to the victim. It then makes the victim a hostage until the victim pays a ransom of 300 dollars to regain the files. If payments are not made within three days, the ransom doubles to 600 dollars. The WannaCry malware was initially made from a cyber weapon developed by US National Security. This weapon, among others, was stolen by Shadow Brokers, a group of hackers who gave it to the creators of WannaCry ransomware, according to CNN. Many cyber security companies including Kaspersky and Symantec attributed the initiation of the malware to a hacking operation linked to the controversial state of North Korea. The code similarity, according to CNN, that was revealed five days after the emergence of WannaCry has raised a red-flag on North Korea’s involvement in the case. The unprecedented attack of WannaCry has affected 200,000 systems in more than 150 countries, including Ethiopia. European countries were the highest to bear the brunt of the malware. British hospitals, Spanish telecoms, France Renault and German railway, were amongst those forced to quit services for a while after the malware attack. The attack of WannaCry is not singular to Ethiopia. Merima Mohammed, who requested her name to be changed, is among the victims of malware viruses. After her computer was attacked by hackers, she was asked to pay the ransom by unidentified hackers to get her files back. “It was so puzzling for me to be attacked by such a virus. I have not seen such things except in movies,” Merima told the Reporter, a local weekly newspaper, at the time she was attacked by the virus. She had never thought she would be the target of a cyber attack. Although Merima had an encounter with a malware virus half a year ago, the recent similar attacks coming from the infamous WannaCry was scary for her. It is, in fact, the biggest large-scale malware attack in the history of digitalisation, according to experts. Her computer was hit by the virus twice while she was browsing the Internet. In both instances, the virus froze the system and files on her computer. Following that, the window screen with a dialogue box asked her to pay 500 dollars to unlock her computer. Making the problem worse, payment is only accepted in Bitcoin, a cryptocurrency and a digital payment system used for online transactions. The WannaCry malware also tells users bluntly – “maybe you’re busy looking for a way to recover your files but do not waste your time, nobody can recover without our decryption services.” When Merima’s computer was attacked for the second time, she was curious to know whether there was a way to pay the ransom or not. Fortunately, due to the unavailability of an electronic payment system in Ethiopia, she did not send the money to the unknown vandalists. “I was not able to pay the requested ransom for the lack of access to an online system even if I was capable of paying the 500 dollars,” Merima added, whose computer was finally fixed after being formatted. After observing similar attacks, the state cyber guard, INSA, urged individuals and institutions to be cautious and protect themselves from malware. About 256 of the attacks in Ethiopia have been targeting key public organisations such as telecommunications infrastructure, the financial sector and railway system, not to mention the thousands of attempts on others every day. “The attack would have been irreversible and unbearable if our team had not controlled it,” said the cyber army member of INSA. Filmon believes an aggressive campaign of creating awareness can help to prevent the malware attacks, if not minimise the extent of destruction that comes from it in the country. Source: https://addisfortune.net/columns/red-alert-over-cyber-attacks/