2merkato

The Ethiopian Ministry of Water and Energy said over 13,200 home solar systems has been installed in rural areas which are not connected to the national electric grid system over the past nine months.

Public relation and communication director with the Ministry, Bizuneh Tolcha told Ethiopian News Agency, that the installation is part of the year long project which was launched in December 2012 at a cost of 208.8 million Ethiopian birr secured from World Bank. He said the project so far has benefited more than 13,200 households across the country.

Gulf Air, the national carrier of the Kingdom Bahrain, has appointed Mr. Salah AlShawosh as the airline’s country manager to the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia. Mr. AlShawosh, a Bahraini national, was previously based in India where he held the position of airport manager in Bombay for six years.

The Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs together with the Ministry of Urban Development & Construction, and  Commercial Bank of Ethiopia , are finalizing a new housing registration strategy for Ethiopian expats.

The move was following problems during the registration period which ran from 12-23 August, 2013 marked by numerous challenges, such as lack of guidelines to identify eligible expats for the housing program.

Ethiopia's economy is to grow 7 percent a year over the next three to five years, the World Bank forcasted. The growth is below its average of the last decade, and to push that rate higher, the government needs to change policy to encourage private investment, the Bank said.

"We still think growth could be robust - in the order of 7 percent in the medium term would not be unexpected," said Lars Christian Moller, the bank's lead economist in Ethiopia, in an interview with Reuters.