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Ethiopia’s full service communications agency, 251 Communications, has teamed up with Consumer Insight, an African research agency. The two companies signed a memorandum of understanding on 21 March 2012 in Nairobi.

“It’s a win, win,” said Addis Alemayehou, CEO of 251. Speaking right after signing the deal, he went on to explain how both companies will benefit from the marriage. “This heralds a new era in consumer research in Ethiopia. We will greatly benefit from Consumer Insight’s African experience, while Consumer Insight will benefit from our local knowledge of our country”.

“Ethiopia,” says a visibly excited Ndirangu wa Maina, the MD of Consumer Insight, “is an understated giant. With its population of over 80 million people, it’s such a vast market that anyone who is serious about the region and Africa can’t afford to ignore any more.”

The Commercial Bank of Ethiopia installed CORE launching solutions introducing the upgraded, centralized, online, real time service as of last week.

In accordance with the mandate put out by the National Bank, 34 branches of CBE have managed to interface with the National Payment System with the effective migration of information on more than 1 million accounts.

The bank expects to finalize work on all of its 92 branches in Addis Ababa in the next two months and to integrate the main regional towns by the end of the current financial year according to an anonymous official at the Bank.

HP today announced it has established operations in Ethiopia with the opening of an office in Addis Ababa and the appointment of Mesfin Makonnen as Country Manager.

Customers in Ethiopia will now have better access to HP’s broad portfolio of products and services, allowing them to transform their businesses by taking advantage of improved IT infrastructure and a future based cloud computing and connectivity services. Governments can leverage HP technology to drive economic growth and stability by modernizing the delivery of services in key areas such as education, healthcare and e-Government services. HP also intends to broaden access of its consumer printer and PCs in the country.

HP is proud to establish operations in Ethiopia at a time when we are fulfilling our potential as a high-growth economy,” said Mesfin Makonnen “Bringing HP’s cloud-based and connectivity technologies by to the Ethiopian government and local companies can help build a strong technology industry.  In turn this generates economic growth and sees innovative solutions that can make a positive impact in Ethiopia.

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia has become the latest member of the Mobile Monday group dedicated to developing the mobile ecosystem domestically and internationally.

Addis Ababa joined the group during the Innovation African Digital Summit that took place here from the 27th to the 29th of March.

Mobile Monday family welcomes Addis Ababa and looks forward to future collaboration with the Information and Communication Technology Association-Ethiopia according to Jari Tammisto, Chief Executive and President of Mobile Monday Global.

Chinese telecom corporation, ZTE, has proposed to set up a Research and Development Unit to serve the African market in Ethiopia as part of the future ICT Park said Debretsion Gebremichael, Information and Communication Technology Minister and in charge of the ICT Park project.

Huawei is one of the other Chinese and Indian ICT companies interested in establishing similar units in the ICT Park according to Debretsion.

The 10th ‘Annual Innovation Digital Summit’ is to be held in Addis Ababa, from the 27th to the 29th of March according to the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, Ethiopia.

 The summit will be attended by participants from at least 500 communication and information firms as well as service providers and country representatives said a press release from the Ministry.

It is expected that large communication and information companies will attend the summit which will include a range of issues.  

Ethiopian News Agency

Huwaei introduced a major mobile broadband technology program in Ethiopia over the last week. The company is committed to invest in the Ethiopian communications sector and is sure that it can bring new technology to the country.

Ethiopia companies are increasingly taking advantage of the benefits associated with ICT and local organizations are working in partnership with Huawei and other technology suppliers to realize the growing use of ICT in the country.

Global Consultant Oracle and its Ethiopian affiliate Boston Consulting conducted a workshop for business owners in Ethiopia at the Sheraton Hotel last week.

The workshop concentrated on enhancing the technological capacity of business by offering them a better understanding of how they can utilize engineered hardware like database machines.

Businesses can avoid down time and associated costs when employees are not working at maximum productivity said Austine Ouma representing Oracle.

Oracle has presented a varied range of high tech solutions for institutions making use of Information Technology in Ethiopia.

The company is confident that the software solutions that it offers will make its customers more competitive and effective on the market said Brook Fekadu, Managing Director of Boston Consulting, Oracle partner in Ethiopia.

Financial institutes in particular are exposed to a range of risks as they adopt modern technology such as ATM’s and electronic banking according to Brook.

The first twitter map of Africa revealed that thousands of tweets were generated in Ethiopia. A total of 6450 tweets were sent from Ethiopia over a three month period according to the map.

An analysis of more than 11.5 million tweets, originating from the continent and identified geographically, was conducted by Tweetminster, a media platform and the Kenyan office of Portland Communications.