The Commercial Bank of Ethiopia approved a 942 million birr loan for MIDROC Ethiopia. The Board of Directors of the 
commercial bank approved the loans two weeks ago.
850 Million birr of the total loan will be disbursed for the Grand African Union Hotel Project while 92 million birr is expected to finance the construction of the Maya PP bag factory. The bank is holding the two properties as collateral against the loan.
The African Union Hotel will be constructed on land granted to the AU by the Addis Ababa City Administration in 2006. MIDROC proposed to cover the full cost of the construction of the hotel in exchange for a transfer of the title bid for the plot after the AU has floated a tender for the construction of the hotel.
The AU cancelled the bid for contractors and accepted the proposal allowing the city administration to transfer the title deed to MIDROC.The construction of the hotel has already been launched and the loan has already been disbursed to MIDROC according to sources.
The Maya PP bag factory which will receive some of the money disbursed under the loan is expected to manufacture plastic packaging to facilitate the packing of cement and rice produced by Derba MIDROC and Saudi Star Agriculture Development.
The factory is expected to produce approximately 80 million bags a year at its factory located on 13 hectares of land in the Oromia Regional State.
MIDROC is only second to the government road projects in the credit it has drawn from the the commercial bank.
Source: The Reporter
