IN VOLUNTARY LIQUIDATION
Following a sudden change of regulations by the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) Ethio Lease was no longer able to write new leases. Despite repeated requests, the rule change has never been reversed, and Ethio Lease officially entered into voluntary liquidation on April 12, 2024. The Voluntary Liquidation is expected to take until late 2026 when the last leasing agreements will expire. Ethio Lease was Ethiopia’s first privately owned equipment leasing company with a license from the National Bank of Ethiopia.
What We Did
Ethio Lease provided its customers with carefully selected equipment on the basis of a lease contract, whereby the customer is the Lessee, who has a conditional right to use the equipment, and Ethio Lease is the Lessor, who buys and owns the equipment.
If the equipment needed to be imported, Ethio Lease would buy the equipment abroad, using foreign currency from its parent company, AAFC. The Lease Contracts aree denominated in USD and Ethio Lease customers can pay the lease fee in Ethiopian Birr.
While leasing comes in many forms and shapes, for now the only form of leasing that the NBE will allow is a capital lease (aka “financial lease” or “full pay-out” lease).
Creating Jobs
By providing Ethiopian businesses with high-quality equipment, we enable long-term, sustainable growth, help accelerate economic activity, and create hundreds of thousands of jobs.
An AAFC Company
Ethio Lease is part of the AAFC group of companies. AAFC is a privately owned US corporation, with its main office in New York. Ethio Lease is also the first foreign-owned company with a license to operate in a corner of the Ethiopian Financial Services sector.
Equipment Leasing
We used to offer capital (or finance) leases, typically in combination with a maintenance agreement, insurance, and operator training, certification and deployment. At the end of the capital lease, our customers have an option to buy the equipment for a pre-agreed price, usually well below what it is worth in the market at that time.
Every equipment comes with a maintenance agreement to allow the Lessee to use the equipment as intended and ensure that the equipment retains its value. These maintenance services are provided by partners or affiliated companies of Ethio Lease.
We focused on high-quality equipment that contributes to a more energy efficient economy, a safer workplace, better yields and a meaningful impact on the populations our customers serve.
Examples of equipment we offered include:
Agricultural machinery, such as tractors and irrigation equipment
Medical equipment, such as MRI and CT scanners
Food processing equipment, such as imaging technology for coffee sorting
IT equipment, such as servers, switches and storage equipment for use in data centers
Drilling rigs for water bore holes, geothermal and infrastructure
Power generation: solar, wind, storage and energy efficient back-up power
Equipment Selection
On the basis of suggestions made by potential lessees, we continually researched and vetted equipment, both Ethiopian and on the international market, for compliance with our standards, available capacity and capability for maintenance, insurance and operation, the demand for equipment in the Ethiopian market, and how well the equipment is predicted to retain its value over time.
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