Dear editors,
Alatyon General Hospital (AGH) co-hosted the event with Ethio Lease, and as a major host, invited all government bodies, senior citizens and religious leaders, NGO, VSO, and community leaders to celebrate the coming of CT-scan and to amplify the challenges associated with Ethiopian birr ever-increasing inflation as well as to request the government to intervene to offset the unexpected extra money the AGH is forced to pay.
As you may know such microfinance organizations are established based on the “Proclamation No. 103/1998 Capital Goods Leasing Business Proclamation” to support any business as an alternative source of financing but never assumed to bring those investors to a loss or bankruptcy.
Accordingly, the objective of the handover ceremony effort was on one hand to inaugurate the coming of the first 64-slice CT-Scan in the region, and simultaneously to address the challenges we have been facing due to the unexpected increase in the dollar exchange rate.
By the time we signed a contractual agreement with Ethio Lease, the exchange rate for 1$ was 27 ETB, now 1$ is being exchanged at roughly 39 ETB, which shows a 44% increment. According to the obligatory agreement we signed with Ethio Lease we are expected to pay at the current exchange rate at the end of each month. You can imagine how much the repayment keeps increasing and became unbearable.
Thus, during the handover ceremony, as CEO of the hospital, I raised a critical issue of inflation on the face of Ethio Lease’s obligatory repayment policy, which obliges a partner to repay them in foreign currency. I had already brought this challenge to the attention of the governor & vice governor of the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE), the Prime Minister’s office, Ethiopian Chamber of Commerce, Director of MFISD at National Bank of Ethiopia and the Board of Ethio Lease. It is the obligation of the government to protect us from bankruptcy.
During the 64-slice CT-Scan handover ceremony, after thanking Ethio Lease for facilitating the importing of 64-slice CT-Scan, I have expressed the challenges the hospital was facing in terms of inflation due to Ethio Lease’s obligatory repayment policy.
I also requested Her Excellency Dr. Liya Tadesse, the Minister of Health and other invited government officials to solve this challenge the hospital is facing at the moment.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for taking time to read and publish our concerns.
Kind Regards,
Yidnekachew W/Meskel Aniye (MD)
CEO: Alatyon General Hospital
Hawassa, Ethiopia
