The Development Bank of Ethiopia (DBE) said that it was evaluating a 2.1 billion birr financing request from SAYGIM - BM Capital Technology Group, a Turkish company which is planning to manufacture fibre optics.

SAYGIM - BM Capital Technology Group is planning to relocate machinery from Turkey to a plot it has acquired in Sebeta, 35km west of Addis Ababa.

Besides fibre optics, the company is planning to manufacture cables for household use and electric transmission lines according to the business proposal it submitted to the bank.

In the second phase of its project, SAYGIM - BM is planning to involve in the production of transformers.

A three-member technical team from the Development Bank of Ethiopia is currently in Turkey evaluating the machinery before presenting its assessment to the bank management.

The nature of the project the company has proposed falls in line with the industry sector for which the bank has allocated a majority of its funds. If approved, the amount the company has requested would take up 50 percent of the amount the bank had planned to approve this year. The bank has planned to approve 4 billion birr and disburse 3.5 billion birr.

So far, two companies, Euro Cables Plc and Elsewedy Cables Ethiopia Plc, have been producing cables in Ethiopia.

However, Elswedy is the only company which also manufactures fibre optics.

Source: Fortune