- Photo caption : Ethiopian Airlines,Group Chief Executive Officer, Mesfin Tasew,
…Says E-Commerce Is The Way To Go
…As Africa Lag Behind
As the free fall of the Nigerian currency continues with no end in sight, Ethiopian Airlines, the leading airline in Africa, said that the devaluation of the Naira has impacted negatively on the airline especially its cash management.
This is just as the airline stated that Ethiopian Airlines is pioneering E-Commerce in the continent
The Group Chief Executive Officer of Ethiopian Airlines, Mesfin Tasew, stated this in an interview in Addis–Abba, the Ethiopian Capital.
He pointed out that though the devaluation did not affect the airline’s passenger traffic but that it impacted on the carrier’s cash management as it made losses.
“You are absolutely right that naira has been devalued extensively and that has affected our cash management because since we are not able to take out our money, which is accumulating in Nigerian banks and due to the devaluation, we lost some money in the exchange rate, but in terms of passenger volume, we didn’t see any negative impact so far. The load is very good, Nigerians are still travelling abroad and they are using Ethiopian Airlines.
“The traffic volume is still at the same level. We didn’t feel it negatively,” he said.
Speaking on the airline’s partnerships with Ali Baba among others, Tasew, explained that so far, the partnership the airline has is for the construction with a Chinese company, but that when it comes to operations, the carrier will work with other e-commerce Chinese companies such as Ali Baba and the others.
According to him, “We transport e-commerce goods from China to other parts of the world and in a strategic agreement with the two companies in China. Now, we have started to do sorting here; we can bring the goods from these companies to Addis Ababa and re-aggregate it and we can ship it to Africa destinations.”
On the possibility of establishing it elsewhere in the future, Ethiopian Airlines, GCEO, “For the time being, we have set up this facility in Addis Ababa. This facility would serve the Nigerian people and its market. We will bring the e-commerce here and sort them, then, deliver them to our Nigerian customers. In the future, this is something to consider setting up a similar type of facility in Nigeria.”
On why the airline built the new E-Commerce Logistic Hub and the projected annual revenue the organisation will generate from it,Tasew, informed that the new e-commerce logistics hub was built by Ethiopian Airlines Group to facilitate the development of e-commerce in Ethiopia, Africa and that the group commenced construction about two and half years ago.
The facility, he said, has the capacity to handle over 150,000 tonnes of goods yearly, adding that until now, Ethiopian Airlines has been in the cargo business to transport cargo by air, but that its mode of operations was mostly on conventional cargo for small and large cargo transportation.
He pointed out that today E-Commerce is the future, adding that the Western world is using e-commerce extensively because they are ready for it in terms of its platform, payment and daily services.
The Ethiopian Airlines boss , however, lamented that unfortunately, Africa is not yet there but that Ethiopian Airlines understands that it is a matter of time for Africa to endorse E-Commerce as a way of life, as a way of doing business, and trade.
E-Commerce in Africa has to start from somewhere and Ethiopian Airlines wants to take the pioneering growth in investing and construction of this facility.
“Gradually, we believe that the portion of e-commerce services will grow in parallel with conventional cargo. It is just the beginning, but there are a lot of things to be done to really make e-commerce grow in the African continent. There should be a payment platform, electronic marketplace and the companies that are ready to do first line, first mile and last mile delivery services.
“Our focus now is on the logistics part of e-commerce. It is difficult to know how much revenue to generate now, but it will start at a small level and continue to grow.
“Until that happens, this facility is going to be used also for mail and parcel services. Today, we do mail and parcel services on a small scale and manually, but this facility would do it automatically and with minimal mistakes,” Tasew, said
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