Access Real Estate Home Buyers Association (AREHBA) was established and obtained its certificate of registration on 12 October 2020.
When the Access Real Estate Share Company failed to deliver on its promise as per the agreements it entered with home buyers and its manager left the country, a high-level committee, the "Abiy" Committee, composed of high government officials was established on the orders of former Prime Minister Ato Hailemariam Desalegn. This committee was tasked to study the problem and propose actionable solutions. It had one meeting with home buyers at which it assured them that the company has not gone bankrupt. Later, some home buyers' came to learn that the "Abiy" Committee had dissolved itself after submitting its report and without honoring the promise it had made to home buyers to hold another meeting with them.
Later, some of the home buyers' representatives committee, as part of the "Abiy" Committee, asserted that home buyers have agreed to build their homes by themselves and for the land to be given to them, some thing over which home buyers were never consulted.
The home buyers' representatives committee was supposed to safeguard the interests of all home buyers. But, it seemed that it was working against the best interests of most home buyers. So, a group of home buyers, calling itself "Dedicated Home Buyers", emerged, and tried to counter the activities of the newly branded "Abiy" Committee. It created mailing lists and started contacting home buyers.
Contacting more than 1,500 home buyers by mailing list was not the proper way to do it. So, an online group was created and all home buyers with known email addresses were invited to join the online group. Those who failed to respond to the first invitation were sent two more invitations. This way, the monopoly on information the so-called "Abiy" Committee had imposed was broken. Now, home buyers, no matter in which country they reside, could exchange ideas with other home buyers.
The online group enabled home buyers to exchange many good ideas. The problem was that there was no one to follow up on the good ideas on the ground and get them to be implemented. So, some home buyers started to suggest an association be established. That is how the Access Real Estate Home Buyers Association (AREHBA) came into being.
The following are the main activities of the AREHBA
43 home buyers volunteered to act as founders of the association. They were residents of Addis Ababa and abroad. They were required to fill in forms by the Civil Societies Organizations Authority and provide documents such as ID cards, passports, Ethiopian-origin ID cards, etc. All of them provided their time, energy and finance. But, only 26 home buyers were able to fulfill all documents and requiurements within the period provided and put their signatures as founders.
An election for Executive Committee was held, and those in the committee were also required to give detailed information about themselves to the Civil Societies Organizations Authority.
For information on how to join the association, read here
Office space was secured and furnished. Office furniture was bought. In this regard, AREHBA members voluntarily collected funds and bought two laptop computers for use in office.
A search was made for an executive director. Some one who had the proper qualifications was found. But, the remuneration asked was beyond our financial means. So, some one who agreed to work within the financial means at our disposal was employed for four months.
We employed our first office assistant in February 2021. Since then, we have had office assistance all the time.
We have tried different ways to reach home buyers and urge them to join our group and association. After the online group was established in February 2018, we sent emails to more than 1,500 home buyers inviting them to join.
We also advertised on ESAT TV (two rounds of five insertions each) and on Sheger FM Radio inviting home buyers to join our group and our association. We have also used word-of-mouth information sharing through our members to inform other home buyers.
We have been contacting all parties who claim to have a stake on the matter and asking them to work together.
We also contacted and still contact all government offices that we believe might help to resolve the problem in connection with our homes.