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Mesfin Industrial Engineering, Ethiopia is planning to build Geely cars within the next five years with the Chinese company. The manufacturer expects to commence full blown production within the next three to five years according to Habte Hadish, General Manager of MIE.

MIE is currently assembling six cars a day but is looking to begin manufacturing cars completely within the country he said.

Mesfin Engineering registered 620 million birr in revenue in the last fiscal year and has projected to earn 1 billion birr in this financial year.  The company currently assembles trucks for International Tractors Ltd, which is part of Hoshiarpur, Indian based Sonalika group.

The capacity of Ethiopian reinforcement steel bar manufacturing companies is at 61% according to the Metal Industry Development Institute of Ethiopia.

The companies were able to increase their capacity from 41% according to Fite Bekele, Director of the Institute Corporate Communication Directorate.

The Institute expects to raise the production capacity of the companies to 95% by the end of the GTP plan said Fite. The companies are receiving a range of support with this plan in mind he said.

The Central Statistics Agency of Ethiopia released the Household Consumption and Expenditure Survey Report for the 2010-11 year. All rural and urban areas were covered by the survey excluding three zones in afar and six zones in Somali.

The survey was broken down in to three major categories consisting of caloric consumption, expenditure levels and sources, and socio-economic indicators noted the agency.

The survey showed that urban areas have an average of 3.5 people in each household while the average number of people in a household in rural areas is 5.1 people in 2010/11 according to the Household Consumption and Expenditure Survey.

Nib Insurance Company has registered a 53% higher level of profit in the last financial year. The company earned 42 million birr in profits as compared to just 27.5 million birr in the previous financial year.

The per share earnings also grew by 35% with Nib share holders, who had earned 180 birr in the previous year earning 243 birr this year.

The company earned 336 million birr in premium from non-life insurance which showed a 54.8% increase as compared to the 217 million birr it earned in the previous fiscal year. The insurer also registered 10.7 million birr in premiums from the life insurance showing an increase of 26.4%. The market share of Nib insurance has reached to 9.1%.

Ethiopian Airlines is prepared to launch e-freight for certain cargo destinations by the end of the current year in order to save time and minimize paperwork related to cargo shipments.

Ethiopian Airlines joined the e-freight initiative founded by the International Transport Association headquartered in Canada in 2004. The aim of the foundation in introducing the initiative was to eliminate paper work from the international air cargo supply chain.

The e-freight will enable to process paperwork on line eliminating airway bills that are on average twelve pages long.  The system will include requirements such as High Level Assessment and Detailed Level Assessment for the airline to meet.

The 5th Ethio Chamber International Trade Fair will be launched this week according to the Ethiopian Chamber of Commerce and Sectoral Associations.  The fair will be held under theme ‘‘Buy Ethiopian.”

The event is expected to help promote local goods and to encourage experience sharing according  to Gashaw Debebe, Secretary-General of Ethiopian Chamber of Commerce and Sectoral Associations.

Domestic producers can become more competitive in the global market. He said it will also contribute to import substitutions as well added Gashaw.

A new company, New Life for Civil Servant General Business, is being formed to re structure the wholesale and retail goods business in the country with an aim of stabilizing the national market and to ensure equitable wealth distribution.

The company is in the process of floating shares with shares being primarily offered to employees registered on payrolls through the Tax Payer Identification numbers.

Payroll employees make up a significant portion of the tax payer base in the country but are not able to take advantage of the bank loan system according to Abel Hailemariam, General Manager of the new company.

The deposits made into the economy by payroll employees are utilized by businesses in the economy which control the commodities market creating monopolistic systems and ultimately resulting in skyrocketing prices he explained.

Oromia Insurance Company registered 11.7 million birr in net profit in the last financial year. The insurer recorded a 447% increase from the 2.1 million birr it had earned in the previous financial year.

The profits earned during the last fiscal year were a new record for the insurance company just three years old. The increased revenue earned by the company is due to an enhanced system of risk selection and a decrease in credit balances due to an extensively implemented collection strategy according to the annual report presented by the company.

The increase in the revenue of the company was also supported by an effectively applied cost saving and control mechanism, Investment of temporary idle cash in fixed-time deposits, and small dividends generated from equity investment noted the OIC.

The commercial bank of Ethiopia invited potential bidders for the supply of 2,000 Points of Sales terminals and 200 Automated Teller Machines. The bank currently operates 58 ATM machines and has made preparations to import 200 ATM machines including 2,000 POS this year.

The commercial bank aims to raise its number of accounts by 25 percent in its effort to mobilize deposits, mainly to finance government housing projects.The bank plans to install 100 new ATMs and open 150 additional branches every year until 2015.

The bank has 200 branches and3.9 million account holders.  Over 1.5 million account holders can reach their accounts in real time.

A conference under the theme of ‘Making the Connection: Value Chains for Transforming Small holder Agriculture’ was held at the UNECA late last week.

The conference hosted by the ACP-EU, Technical Center for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation and the African Economic  Commission was attended by delegates from various countries in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific.

The conference was organized to encourage action on the issue of value chain which has been a focus of discussion for a long time with the view of creating connections between resource constrained farmers and large corporations said Micheal Hailu, Director of the CTA.