Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE) has finally awarded NCR, an international supplier of Automated Teller Machines (ATM) the contract to supply 400 ATMs.
Unlike previous tenders where local companies supplied the ATMs, this bid left one local company, Moti Engineering Plc, with the role of support, maintenance and supply of spare parts, with the machines being directly shipped from the factory.
This new tender came after the cancellation of the same bid, which took place in January, 2015. During this tender, three IT firms, Computer Business Machines (CBM), Moti Engineering Plc and Wincor Nixdorf International GmbH, a German banking equipment manufacturer, participated.
CBM had made the lowest financial offer of close to 82 million Br for the 400 Diebold brand ATMs. Moti followed offering 100,000 Br more for NCR brands.
According to a source, one of the companies, CBM, at the time had presented its reservations over the results of the technical evaluation to the tendering committee. The company had previously tendered for the supply of 200 ATMs for CBE at 51 million Br.
Yishak Mengesha, business development head at the bank, however disclosed that CBE decided it had followed the right procedures and rejected CBM’s complaint, proceeding to the financial proposals. However, that tender was later cancelled after the opening of the financial offers because, Yisehak said, the Bank decided it would not be in its best interest.
“We changed the system of the procurement for both technological and price advantages of our bank and to establish a long-term relationship with the main companies,” said Yisehak.
This change took the contract to NCR, a 3.1 million dollar deal for the supply of the machines and 1.6 million Br for its local agent for after sales service.
The local agent will provide support and maintenance services after a one-year warranty period guaranteed by the manufacturer. The offer made by Moti is only for service it will deliver immediately after the warranty period, whereas for years that will follow, a renewal agreement will be made with the possibility that the company may adjust its price.
Fortune spoke with sources close to the bidding process who said that they saw the change as a good trend.
In most cases with the previous bids, there was a challenge to access foreign currency for bid security documents; but now we are allowed to give our offer in domestic currency and this eases our burden, one informant explained.
Another, welcoming the change, said that the profit was often to be made from maintenance services during after-sales service for the machines.
Aside from the awarded company, Diebold, along with its local agent, CBM, and Wincor Nixdorf International GmbH with SS Communications, a local company, had also participated in the bid.
In previous bids, evaluation was made on 70pc and 30pc basis, with the first one being the technical and the second being financial. In the latest bid, local agents were evaluated on a technical basis only.
The total number of ATMs deployed for service has reached 627 and about 11.1 million transactions have been made, 9.6 billion Br in local currency and 33 million dollars worth in various foreign currencies, according to CBE’s nine month report.
This latest purchase will boost the number of ATM’s belonging to the CBE to 1,027.
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