CBM to Supply Nib Int’l 100 ATMs

Nib International Bank S.C. has awarded CBM Integrates Plc, a local IT firm, a contract for the supply of 100 Diebold brand Automated Teller Machines (ATM) on non-disclosure agreement.

The contract was signed on December 7, 2015, after four months of technical and financial evaluation. CBM is said to have offered a higher price than the other companies in the tender, Moti Engineering Plc and SS Communication, supplier of NCR and Wincore branded ATMs, respectively, but was selected because of the higher score of 70pc earned in the technical evaluation, according to a source close to the process. An industry source said the price of one machine could be around 8,000 dollars.

This will be the first award for CBM to win a bid, after a four month gap dominated by consecutive wins by Moti. These two firms also have a legal dispute over unfair trade practice, which started in March 2015, when CMB filed a case to the Trade Practices Tribunal accusing Moti of plotting against its interests. Moti also claimed that CBM had been operating in maintenance, wholesale and retail markets both as a local and as a foreign company. It further argued that CBM, which had secured its investment licence under a null and void proclamation, had not returned the incentives it had unfairly gained when it became a local company.

CBM will supply 70 ATMs that will be fitted through the walls while 30 will stand in hotel lobbies. The machines are model 5500, which are also called green ATMs because of low power consumption and one hour battery reserves, according to the manufacturer. The machine accommodates five types of paper notes, although now the Bank’s ATMs dispense only 50 Br and 100Br notes.

“This is not about technical issues, rather it is more about business,” said Gashawtena    Amdetsion, vice president for strategic support & modernization.

CBM, established in August 2012, has so far supplied around 530 ATMs to banks – 200 ATMs to the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia, 100 to Awash Bank, 50 to United, 35 to Dashen, 35 to Bank of Abyssinia and 60 ATMs to the premium switch solution (PSS).

Nib will integrate its new ATMs with PSS.  This is a joint venture initially established by three private banks including Nib, United and Awash in 2012 with 165 million Br. PSS now has seven banks as members, including Berhan, Addis International Bank and Oromia International Bank and Cooperative Bank of Oromia,which have join the league.

As one of the founding members of PSS, Nib has access to 70 ATMs under the umbrella so far; the new order will expand its coverage to 170.

Customers of all these banks with ATM and PoS cards, can access electronic transactions from all vendor machines of the member banks by using the card of their respective banks. Nib in its case has 60,000 card holders.

In addition to the usual cash dispensing tasks, it has also ATMs that provide foreign exchange services. The bank has also partnership with Visa and MasterCard, and recently it has signed an agreement with China Union.

In view of CBM’s plan to deliver all the ATMs to Nib within three months time, an official with the company expressed concern over access to foreign exchange. However, facilitating access to foreign exchange is not part of the deal, said Gashawtsena.

“We are not going to provide them with a special arrangement,” he said to Fortune.

Nib, established in May 1999 by 717 shareholders, now has more than 3,500 shareholders. It has reported 337 million Br of profit after tax for the 2014/15 fiscal year.


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