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Habesha Construction and Materials Development, Ethiopia has selected Rama Construction plc to construct the 10 storey shopping center it proposes to build at a cost of 233 million birr. Rama will handle only the structural aspects of the proposed project at an estimated cost of more than 123 million birr according to the agreement signed between the two companies yesterday.

Rama will be expected to complete the structural work in 18 months from the time of the agreement.

The center to be named the Tigat Shopping Center will be constructed on 2,100 meter squares of land to be found on Haile Gebreselassie Street. It will be a mixed-use building to host offices, shops and a ninety bedroom four star hotel. Add a comment Add a comment

The Cooperative Bank of Oromia SC is to construct a new headquarter building close to the National Theater with an investment of 700 million birr.

The construction work of the proposed 25 storey building will be conducted on 5 thousand meter squares according to Wondimagegnehu Negera President of the bank.

The bank is currently handling the process of clearing the land of existing residents by handling compensation payment with the plan to begin construction work by the end of 2013. Add a comment Add a comment

Ethiopian Airlines has registered more than 25% in annual growth in areas including revenue, cargo transport and passenger.

The airline has managed to earn 1 billion birr in revenue and made 732 million birr in profit according to Tewolde Gebremariam, Chief Executive of Ethiopian.

Ethiopian transported 4.8 million people and moved 182 thousand tons of cargo showing significant increase as compared to the previous budget year he said. Add a comment Add a comment

The Ethiopian Ministry of Finance and Economic Development backed a 505 million US dollar loan extended to Djibouti by the Chinese Export-Import Bank. The ministry responded to a request for a guarantee for the loan to be used in the construction of Djibouti’s part of the railway connecting it to Ethiopia.

The bank has accepted the Ethiopian guarantee and approved the loan according to sources.

The Ethiopia Commodities Exchanges signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the government of the United States. The US government signed the agreement through the agency of the Unites States Agency for International Development.

The agreement is intended to allow collaboration towards enhancing the quality, marketing and traceability of Ethiopian coffee.

The agreement facilitates a partnership between the Agricultural Growth Program-Agricultural Market Development Project of the USAID with the exchange to enable sellers and buyers to track the origin of coffee through electronic coding and marking. The collaborative efforts will also include certifying laboratories and quality graders as well as enhancing the efficiency of the ECX warehouse system and increasing the number of farmer’s cooperatives. Add a comment Add a comment

Ethiopian Airlines renewed its long-term operator agreement with Travelport. The agreement means that Ethiopian Airlines will continue to distribute the Galileo products and services offered to the travel industry by the business service provider according to the announcement made by the airline.

The current agreement is an exclusive five year contract cementing the long term relationship between the two parties and highlights the important of the East African Region for the travel sector noted the announcement made by the airline.

Ethiopia is one of the fastest growing Global Distribution Systems in Africa as demonstrated by the 24% annual growth recorded between 2011 and 2012, according to figures compiled by Travelport. Add a comment Add a comment

Agriterra Ethiopia announced that it has assigned a 20% interest in its South Omo Block to Marathon Ethiopia ltd for 28 million US dollars plus adjustments for closing. Marathon Ethiopia ltd is a subsidiary owned completely Marathon Oil Corporation.

An additional 12 million US dollars has been lodged with the Ethiopian government to be held on account until Agriterra finalizes any tax that is related to this transaction. The tax is expected to be an estimated 30% of the net gain realized after deducting all attributable costs incurred by Agriterra in relation with developing the block in the past. Add a comment Add a comment

The Ethiopian Metal and Engineering Corporation and SKY Energy International have manufactured the first solar panel in Ethiopia.

The solar panel was manufactured by the assembly line commissioned in April of last year as a joint venture between the Ethiopian Metal and Engineering Corporation and SKY Energy International.

The turnkey assembly line was fully installed in December and the first efforts to laminate, test and produce solar panel were launched by engineers at this time. Add a comment Add a comment

The Farida Group based in Chennai, India has launched a tannery in Ethiopia. The tannery is intended to target the export market including to India.

The new tannery commissioned at the end of the last year is expected to have the potential capacity to manufacture an estimated 800,000 sq. ft of leather, said  Rafeeque Ahmed, Chairman, Farida Group.

The factory was launched through Farida’s international subsidiary in Singapore. The plant will supply finished leather to the international markets as well as catering to the leather requirements of the Farida group according to Ahmed. Add a comment Add a comment

Ethiopian Airlines announced that it is to launch flights to Ndola, Zambia three times a week.  The airline will introduce the new route beginning from the 31st of March.

The airline decided to launch this route because Ndola is third largest city in Zambia and the commercial and industrial center for the copper producing part of the country according to sources according to the company’s press release.

This flight will be the second Zambian destination to Ethiopia and is a part of its efforts to connect Africa to the rest of the world said Tewolde Gebremariam, Chief Executive of the Airline. Add a comment Add a comment