2merkato

Ethiopian drivers will soon have to pay an annual vehicle license fee towards maintaining the condition of the roads according to the Ethiopian Road Fund Office. It is expected that drivers will be charged 165 birr for a car when they renew their licenses.

Trucks will be charged more and additional fines will be exacted from trucks and buses that exceed weight limits or drive over long distances. The annual fee will be in addition to existing fuel taxes and vehicle charges from municipalities.

Nyala Insurance Share Company has begun preliminary efforts to establish an Ethiopian re-insurance company. The company is carrying out initial studies to be presented to the board of directors according to Eyob Meherette CEO of the insurance company.

A local re-insurer will save Ethiopia the large amounts of foreign currency required by insurance companies to purchase policies from international re-insurers, said Eyob.

The Addis Ababa City administration received a loan of 4.4 billion birr from the commercial Bank of Ethiopia for its housing development project. The money is earmarked for the construction of more than 40,000 condominiums this year.

The loan agreement was signed between the bank and the housing development project office on Sept 27. The loan from the commercial bank needs to be paid off in the fourth year after the agreement was signed with six per cent interest, according to Befekadu. The agreement allows the first year for construction and extends a further two years as a grace period he said.

The Southern Regional State will supply an estimated 171,000 tonnes of coffee to the central market this year according to the State Marketing and Cooperatives Bureau.  

This amount is more than that of the same period in the last fiscal year said Abraham Demissie Deputy Head of the State Bureau speaking at a workshop held in Hawassa. The revenue obtained exceeded that of the previous year by 122.5 million birr he said.