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The Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX) has awarded
the project for the development of software to
introduce the Short Message System (SMS) and an
Interactive Voice Response (IVR) to Apposite LLC, a
local branch of a US based IT company, EXC officials
disclosed.
The project is financed
by the World Bank which has dedicated about seven
million dollars to set up the ECX while supporting
and modernizing its operations according to Achim Fock,
senior economist at WB Ethiopia Office and task
manager of the Bank’s Rural Capacity Building
Project.
This project, the latest information dissemination
system, is part of the Bank’s funded projects. The
World Bank is also involved in ECX’s bid to have
about 200 Price Tickers, a.k.a. electronic display
boards, in major market places across the country.
These Price Tickers provide farmers and traders with
real-time prices of commodities as transacted at the
central exchange place, Fock told Fortune.
The ECX has already installed about 12 Price Tickers
in major towns.
The next project the Bank will be financing is the
development of new IT systems. These systems require
the procurement of a lot of software and hardware to
make the current home-made IT system more
sophisticated in order to support future trading
whereas currently it supports real-time trading
prices, Fock said.
The World Bank supports ECX through the Rural
Capacity Building Project.
The SMS and IVR services are to be launched in
October 2009. At which point they will be expected
to enable the ECX to provide continuously updated
information on the daily market prices at the
commodity exchange and the international market as
well. The service will also include additional
advanced features (functions) such as providing
business reports, headlines, international prices
and messages to registered fax lines.
“Since market information is core to our mode of
transaction, these services are vital,” Eleni
Gabre-Madhin (PhD), CEO of ECX, told Fortune.
The service is of two distinct types: the “push” and
the “pull” systems. The “push” service will provide
information about transactions to subscribers
including members of the exchange at the end of
every deal on the ECX trading floor. The volume of
commodities transacted and the corresponding value
(price) can be received on cell phones.
Subscribers may use the “pull” service by sending a
text message from their mobile phones requesting to
be notified of commodity prices, the volume that is
sold and the price differences with the previous day
listings.
“We can reply to inquiries in four seconds,” Ahadu
Woubshet, chief market data officer of ECX, told
Fortune.
The software will give ECX the capacity to screen
messages to approximately 400,000 subscribers in
five minutes, as stated by Ahadu. This capability
makes the Commodity Exchange the first organization
in Ethiopia that can transmit several thousand
messages at a time, after the Ethiopian
Telecommunications Cooperation (ETC).
IVR is a voice based service that is planned to be
added on to the ECX price information announcement
system.
Subscribers can call the toll free line and can
choose either of the Amharic, Oromiffa, Tigrigna and
English language channels to get the information
they need. IVR provides all the services the “push”
and “pull” features offer. Anyone can access these
services by calling one of the four three digit
numbers and by following the voice instructions to
select the required service.
“Members can request for information about their
account balance by entering their user name and
password,” Ahadu said.
The commodities price announcement service uses
pre-recorded data which makes the service accessible
24 hours.
ECX has reached an agreement with the ETC to grant
access to four telephone lines which the ECX will
use to provide the market information in four
different languages.
By dialling 929, 934, 944 and 986, customers can
access the service that will provide them
information in Amharic, Tigrigna, Oromiffa and
English languages, respectively.
The system will be controlled by both ECX and ETC
through their connections via IP network. Data
authentication, security and administration of the
system will be controlled by ECX’s marketing
department while ETC is responsible to sending
information, according to Ahadu.
ECX has floated the tender for this project in
November 2008 inviting local companies including
those who are agents for or operate in joint
ventures with foreign firms.
The Ethiopian branch of the US based Apposite LLC
won the tender in May 27, 2009 after 14 IT had
firms competed for the bid.
MKTY Information Technology Service, GCS-NCR ET,
Concepts Data Systems, BridgeTech and Sassanet were
in the short list to compete with Apposite in
bidding process.
“We followed the World Bank bidding process,” Eleni
told Fortune. “We know the awarded company
has worldwide experience.”
The company will work on software development and
integrating the system with the ECX structure, Adam
Abate, managing partner of Apposite said.
The company will earn less than one million Br
though he did not disclose the exact amount of the
agreed payment.
“We will do it in partnership with De La Phone Tech,
a British based company, which has an international
experience in the sector,” Adam told Fortune.
“We will also promote a sophisticated solution to
maintain the quality.”
The company will start working on the software
development as of June 29, 2009. The first release
of market information through the system is expected
in October 2009, according to him. Additional
functions of the system like sending information to
registered fax lines are expected to be finalized by
the end of November 2009.
Apposite LLC was incorporated in America in October
2007, and opened its branch in Ethiopia in December
2007.
The year old ECX has been using different mechanisms
for market information dissemination such as
electronic display boards, its own website, radio,
television and print media.
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