The final draft to amend Ethiopia’s national Chamber of Commerce and Sectoral Association’s charter is finalized.
The charter that is in place now came into effect back in 2009. According to Awol Shifa, Director of membership affairs at Ethiopian Chamber of Commerce and Sectoral Associations (ECCSA), the amendment is aimed to make the organization competitive and update in accordance with the time.
“Amending the charter was essential because the previous charter had limitations in some practical areas,” said Solomon Afeworq, president of ECCSA.
Preparing the draft document consumed a year and it was drafted by the membership affairs department of the Chamber.
The national chamber was founded back in 1943 in the aim of solving bottlenecks the business community faced. Currently it has a total of 18 members out of which nine are regional chambers and two city chambers. The rest are associations.
The amendment is said to address mainly the term allowed for a nominee to be elected as a board member. The draft states one nominee will be allowed to run for two terms. On the other, the charter in place allows nominees more than twice.
Another area where the amendment focuses on is increasing membership registration fee and annual membership payment of regional chambers. Membership registration fee is expected to rise to 20 Birr from 10 Birr and annual membership payment for regional chambers is going to go up to 20 percent from 10 percent where it currently is.
In addition to these, the draft document has provisions prohibiting sponsorship of the ECCSA to regional chambers to the capital city, Addis Ababa, for the general assembly meeting. The regional chambers will have to cover their costs themselves.
The discussion to evaluate the draft document was held without the presence of a representative from Addis Ababa Chamber of Commerce Sectorial Association (AACCSA), for its board was annulled by a court ruling.
The last general assembly of ECCSA took over 11 hours following disagreements regarding nomination of board members. The attendants nominated two individuals who have already been on term more than twice. Nonetheless, after two hours of squabble, it was decided to drop the candidacy of the two.
The board made its first task after election to amend, which was a source of controversy among the members, said Abebaw.
Source: Fortune
