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The Commercial Bank of Ethiopia is to purchase more than 1,400 units of note counting machines at an estimated cost of 30 million birr.

The order has been placed with the Ethiopian Trade Contacts plc which won the bid to supply the machines for 19,085 birr a machine.

The machines will be supplied by ScanCoin, a Swedish manufacturer of cash processing solutions. The SC-1500 model of machine to be supplied to the Ethiopian bank will possess accuracy enhancing features such as chain fed notes and automatic detection of double bank notes.

The Development Bank of Ethiopia extended a loan of 1.42 billion birr to Saygin B.M Technology Group LLC, a Turkish company expected to establish a cable manufacturing plant.

Saygin requested a loan of 2.1 billion birr, making it the single largest loan request for a bank loan from a private company operating in Ethiopia.

The Turkish company intends to manufacture optical fiber and power cables said Tadesse Hatiya, Vice President of Credit Services at the Development Bank of Ethiopia.

The Commercial Bank of Ethiopia is to purchase about 420 Automatic Teller Machines and 600,000 electronic payment cards at an estimated cost of 100 million birr.

Suppliers from China, India and the United states were among those that tendered technical offers to deliver the ATM’s required by the CBE.

Zemen Bank Ethiopia introduced a new pre-paid card service that can be used without requiring an account at the bank. The cards will be preloaded with a determined amount of funds that can be drawn from ATMs or used for purchases at POS terminals.

The prepaid cards, expected to be made available for a range of denominations from 100-50,000 birr, will be equipped with a personal identification number to facilitate cash withdrawal said Tsegaye Tetemke President of Zemen.

The prepaid cards can be used as expense cards or be gifted to avoid the need to carry around a lot of cash he noted.

The National Bank of Ethiopia rejected Birtukan G. Egzi, nominated as President of Enat Bank. Regulators at the central bank declined to approve the presidential nominee presented by the bank because she lacks experience in credit management.

Her previous experience in deposit mobilization is not enough for the central bank to approve her as president of the new bank because bank presidents need a broader understanding of the industry and experience in various services offered according to a senior official with the NBE.