SHEGER WALL STREET

SHEGER

‘Wall Street’

By Aklile Tsige

getting image

Nearly a decade has gone

since Ethiopia entered construction revolution; the capital Addis Ababahas especially been showing a remarkable facelift through various construction schemes like housing and real estatedevelopment projects, as well as greening and beautification endeavors.

A city with a distinct architectural style has a certain draw to travelers.

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Abyssinia Business Nework ነሃሴ 2011 / August 2019

Great architecture is both artistic and scientific, both beautiful and practical. Even more, architecture gives us cultural clues about a city’s past, present and future.

Important architectural advancements such as the invention of the dome, of concrete, and of the skyscraper itself not only advanced the technology of construction, but

also challenged architects to compete amongst themselves to produce more efficient and creative structures.

We in Ethiopia have been witnessing only few amazing and unique buildings being constructed in various cities of the country that have developed a reputation for notable architecture styles and histories, it’s also impossible to give enough attention to all architectural masterpieces.

But in Ethiopia especially at the capital, Addis Ababa a new architectural beauty is emerging with an ever-increasing building construction. At the heart of the metropolis locally known as “senga tera” mainly private banks are taking shapes and lines, creating a financial hub like that of Wall Street in the US.

Wall Street is the home of several market exchanges and is also the catch-all phrase referring to America’s financial industry. Less than a mile in length, Wall Street is located in New York City’s Lower Manhattan area and gets its name either from barriers erected for security in the 1600s or from the name of Dutch settlers who lived there.

A marketplace developed near the barriers and grew to include people who auctioned or traded bonds. Today, Wall Street is home of the New York Stock Exchange and the NASDAQ, which are the world’s largest exchanges. The Wall Street area also hosts the New York Board of Trade and the New York Mercantile Exchange. Large financial firms have offices in the area; further enhancing Wall Street’s standing as the center of the financial world.

Ethiopia’s or our “Wall Street” could be located at an approximately circular spot that stretches nearly from Meskel Square, or opposite to the old National Stadium where the magnificent Wegagen Bank headquarters is erected, to the place called ‘Mexico Square’, or ‘Senga Tera’and through the

United Bank HQs under construction

Ethiopian National Bank HQs to the ongoing construction of Commercial Bank of Ethiopia. In this vast site several private banks like Awash, Dashen,

Abyssinia, Nib, United and Zemen as well as other financial institutions have been erecting their unusual, fabulous and splendid Headquarters.

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Most importantly, the ongoing construction of Zemen, Nib, United and Nib banks HQs is creating an exquisite face to that particular area and the city in general. These buildings’ architectural beauty added with their tallness, in no doubt, makes the place a very attractive business center where the majority of the nation’s financial transactions are taking place.

Nib International Bank S.C is currently finalizing its headquarters in the heart of Addis Ababa, close to the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE). It thereby joins other financial institutions in what seems to become Ethiopia’s financial center, or our Wall Street.

What’s so amazing about this building is that its design incorporates and symbolizes the very nature of the bank’s name-NIB which literally means honeybee. This building takes the shape of a beehive with honeycomb curtaining in dark amber color.

NIB, one of the oldest private banks after the country embarked free market for the last 19 years, has been constructing this HQs on 2,800 square meter of land just behind the National Theater, in front of the new headquarters of Awash International Bank and Awash Insurance Company. The twin towers that were constructed by the two financial sister

Nib International Bank HQs under construction

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Abyssinia Business Nework ነሃሴ 2011 / August 2019

firms, Awash Bank and Insurance, remains one of the largest buildings of the capital.

Ethiopia’s largest bank, Commercial Bank of Ethiopia is also taking the leading in building the 53- story new headquarters around Gandhi Memorial Hospital and the structure is expected to become East Africa’s tallest building upon completion. The 23 story- Wegagan Bank’s headquarter is also available nearby the Addis Ababa Stadium and the HQs of Abyssinia and Oromia Cooperative Banks are in various levels of construction in the financial district.

Zemen Bank, which follows a single branch model, is also one of the banks taking queue in this financial site-our “Wall Street”. Uniquely designed and located, Zemen Bank HQs appears with a magnificent and an elegant look, incorporating modern architectural beauty, both in its interior and exterior designs.

This site also embraces Ethiopian and Addis Ababa Chambers of Commerce, Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX), School of Commerce Addis Ababa University, Government and private insurance companies as well as other financerelated institutions.

People by passing these lined up buildings under construction often express their joy and admiration to the architectural designs and beauty of the buildings prior to completion. This might be due to their height, unique structure and location as well as harmony with other buildings around.

Zemen Bank HQs under construction

Abyssinia Business Nework ነሃሴ 2011 / August 2019 09

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RisingBuildingAddingColor to

Addis

Skyline

By staff writer

One bright afternoon I had a

friendly chat with my friend who is a Branch Manager in one of the private banks here in the capital, Addis Ababa.He told me that these days his branch is incurringunjustifiable rental cost which isin turn affecting its profit as compared to other branches due to its location.

Of course in the case of branch network expansion, renting an office is inevitable. But placing different organs of a head office in various locations has several disadvantages as it is costly, impedes speedy delivery of service, andbeing unmanageable, among others.

Hence, the writer of this piece feels that this trouble has necessitated for the coming into being of high-rising headquarter buildings of financial institutions.These buildings are believed to bring all the dispersed

Abyssinia Business Nework ነሃሴ 2011 / August 2019

organs of the bank into a single location.Besides, centralizing the head office operations in one building is an important aspect of achieving efficiency in the banking industry.

One of these eye-catching andthe most distinct landmarks in Addis skyline andbecoming the grace of the city is the skyscraper which is being erected by Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE). The glamorous edifice is visible from distant locations towering all the medium ones surrounding it.

This 198 meterstall and 52-storey world-class HQswhich rests on a total floor area of around 147,692m2 is expected to be the tallest structure in Sub-Saharan Africa. The construction work of the buildingwhich is under execution with an outlay of 5.3 billion Birr on RasDestaDamtew Road, behind Ethiopia Hotel began in April 2015 and scheduled to be finalized in July 2019.

However, due to various reasons the construction is still going on, undertaking curtaining and other installation works.

The building designed in diamond shape consists of a high-rise office tower and two low-rise building volumes. The office tower of over48 floors (4B+G+48)comprises the major departments of the Bank. The two low-rise buildings (4B+G+6 and 4B+G+8) are mainly conference centers, shopping center and parking garage.

Besides, the edificewill also have four parking lots with a capacity

to hold 6,000 vehicles at a time. One of these parking lots will be outfitted with a mechanical parking system which makes use of magnetic cards and can hold 1,500 vehicles at one time. In order to transport their vehicles automatically inside the parking lot, drivers are required to insert the coded cards into the system. Moreover, the building will consists of eight conference halls, out of which one will have the capacity to hold 2,000participants. Inside the structure, there will alsobe an emergency waiting area where individuals can seek refuge at times of disaster. The top two floors will house two restaurants and a sightseeing tower.

Apart from this, this state-ofthe-art headquarters will also have many unique structures such as Heat Ventilation and Air conditioner (HVAC), pressurized firefighting, Security Camera Television (CCTV), etc. whichmake the construction process quite complex.

The

contractor

selected

by

the bank to undertake the

design and construction work

is the renowned China State

Construction

Engineering

Corporation

Ltd.

(CSCEC).

Besides, the design review,

supervision

and

contract

administration task is offered to

Addis Ababa University-Addis

Ababa Institute of Technology

(AAU-AAIT).

When we see the track records of CSCEC, it has undertaken the construction offamous high-rise buildings across the globelike Marriott Hotel in New York and

the architectural wonder in Dubai, Palm Jumeirah Island. Besides,it has built its reputation after executing the AU Headquarters here in the capitalas per its two years deadline.

The Bank has now its Head Office function which is spread out in several other buildings it owns and rented in Addis Ababa. So the objective of the construction of this new head office building is to house all head office functions under one roof.

Apart from the aforementioned purposes, the giant complex would serve to further enhance the profitability and fortify the asset base of the bank; add beauty to the metropolis; enhance public trust and confidence as well as technology transfer and job creation, among others.

Similarly, other private commercial banks havealso made attempts to erect their headquarters in this area which is growing as Wall Street of Addis as well as in its surrounding. For instance, we will find the G+18 twin towers of the pioneer AwashBank in which one wing houses departments underthe bank; while the other one comprises departments under the insurance wing.

consists of 23 floorssituated around Addis Ababa Stadium.

United Bank Share Companyon its part signed a headquarters construction agreement with China Jiangsu International Economic-Technical Cooperation Corp (CJIETCC) on May 2015 to erect a 119m high 30-storey headquarters having four basements. Currently, the Bank has fully completed the skeleton frame of its Headquarters and it is also becoming one of the eye-catching buildings of the metropolis.

Zemen Bank, on the other hand, is undertaking the construction of headquarters building (3B+G+32) on the same street and it is expected to be completed as early as 2020 (Annual Report, 2018).

The other private bank, Nib International Bank S.C also hired the China Railway No. 3 Engineering Group Co. Ltd for the construction of its 35-storey headquarters. Currently, the finishing work of the edifice is being speeded up. On the other hand, some private commercial banks like Bank of Abyssinia and OromiaInternational Bankpurchased their own headquarters building. However, the cost of finishing work or reshaping a building as per ones taste could also be equated with constructing a new building.

All in all, days won’t be long that we witness our own Wall Street likethe one in the New York City which is an eight-block-long street, and that plays pivotal role inthe financial market of the U.S.

Dashenand

Wegagen Bankalso followed suit to erect and finalizetheir own headquarters in this area. Accordingly, Dashen Bank erected a 21-storeyheadquarters with an outlay of one billion Birr. Similarly, Wegagen Bankfinalized the execution of its 107 meters edifice which

Source: www.china.org.cn

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