Mesfin Tasew, GCEO, Ethiopian Airlines
Said Williams/Business Am
Ethiopian Airlines Group has built a newly commissioned e-commerce logistics hub in Addis Ababa to foster the development of e-commerce in Ethiopia and Africa as a whole, said Mesfin Tasewu, the group's chief executive officer. .
Taseu said in an interview that the airline started construction about two and a half years ago, adding that it has the capacity to handle more than 150,000 tons of goods annually.
“Historically and up to now, Ethiopian Airlines has been in the cargo business of transporting cargo by air, but our business model has been primarily traditional cargo for small and large cargo transportation.
“But as we all know, now e-commerce is the future. Western countries are ready for e-commerce in terms of platforms, payments, and daily services, so they are making extensive use of e-commerce. Unfortunately, Africa is not there yet. Therefore, Ethiopian Airlines understands that it is only a matter of time before Africa supports e-commerce as a way of life, business and trade. Therefore, somewhere “We have to start from scratch, and Ethiopian Airlines wants to pioneer growth in the investment and construction of this facility,” he explained.
Taseu noted that while Africa is still striving to match developed countries in terms of e-commerce development, there is much work to do to truly grow e-commerce on the continent.
“Gradually, I think we will see the e-commerce services part grow alongside traditional freight. This is just the beginning, but there is much more to do to really grow e-commerce on the African continent. There have to be payment platforms, electronic marketplaces, and companies that are ready to do first-line, first-mile, last-mile delivery services. We are currently focusing on the logistics part of e-commerce. Therefore, it is difficult to know how much revenue it will generate at this point, but it will likely start at a small level and continue to grow.
“Until then, this facility will also be used for postal and courier services.Currently, we operate our postal and parcel services on a small scale and manually, but this facility will automatically , it will be done with minimal mistakes,” he added.
Regarding partnerships with Alibaba and other companies, he said the Ethiopian airline has signed agreements with two other companies for seamless distribution of goods within Africa.
So far, we have partnered with a construction company, but we plan to cooperate with other Chinese e-commerce companies in terms of operations. Alibaba and others.
“We have strategic agreements with two companies in China to transport e-commerce goods from China to other parts of the world. Now, let's start sorting. It can be transported to Addis Ababa, re-aggregated and shipped to destinations in Africa,” Taseu said.
Regarding establishing similar facilities elsewhere, the head of the Ethiopian airline said: This facility will serve Nigerians and their markets. We bring e-commerce here, categorize it and deliver it to customers in Nigeria. In the future, we should consider establishing a similar type of facility in Nigeria. ”
On the impact of Naira devaluation on operations to Nigeria, he said although airlines had suffered some losses, passenger numbers remained high.
“It is absolutely true that the naira has been severely devalued and it is affecting our cash flow because we have money sitting in Nigerian banks and we are not able to withdraw our naira money. Because we lost some money in the exchange rate because of the devaluation” , but so far we have not seen any negative impact in terms of passenger numbers. “Load capacity is very good and Nigerians are still traveling abroad and using Ethiopian Airlines. Traffic is still at the same level,” he added.
