2merkato

Ethiopia is to introduce a new customs proclamation designed to ease and modernize the custom processes in the country.
The Ethiopian Revenue and Custom Authority has already finalized the work required to amend the custom laws in an effort to simplify customs procedures according to Melaku Fenta, Director General of the Authority.

The amendment will be put before the Council of Ministers and the Parliament soon for final approval he said.

It is expected that new law will introduce structural adjustments in how the authority functions and in human resource management.

The Global Entrepreneurship Week with more than 13 events planned to provide inspiration for up and coming entrepreneurs was launched in Addis Ababa.

The GEW is being held for the second time in Ethiopia and the fifth time internationally. The event will be held between 12th and 18th of this is month.

The GEW has expanded to 125 countries including Ethiopia this year with the aim to help an increasing number of people to engage in business it was noted at the opening ceremony held at the UN/ECA Conference Center.

The Ethiopian Leather Industries Association is looking for supplier for non-iodized salt in the aftermath of a four month shortage. The Association is seeking suppliers from Yemen, India and Pakistan even though there is an estimated stock of 9 million quintals currently piled up in Afdera, where the national salt mines are to be found.

The industry is forced to look for imports after a four month delay in spite of more than adequate national production to meet the 30 thousand quintal demand over that period according to Abdissa Adunga, Secretary General of the Association.

The supply of salt to the industry was affected by a Council of Minister’s endorsed regulation to halt the sale of non-iodized salt noted Abdisa. The Ethiopian Food, Medicine and Health Care Administration and Control Authority was mandated with the task of issuing a directive to regulate the processing and sale of salt intended for industrial purposes according to the regulation.

The ‘All Africa Energy Week’ event organized by the Economic Commission for Africa, the African Union and the African Development Bank is underway in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

The’ All Africa Week’ was endorsed by the AU Executive Council alongside the establishment of the Conference of Energy Ministers of Africa as a central coordinating body on the continental level for energy policies.

The event was planned to serve as a framework for evaluating the progress achieve in regards to energy infrastructure development and services and to facilitate consensus building on emerging issues, as well as coordinating high-level coordination of all energy sector players and stakeholders.

The Oromia International Bank, Ethiopian announced a profit of 49.4 million birr after tax for the previous fiscal year. The bank was able to register a 23.7% growth in performance as compared to the revenue it had earned in the previous year according to the announcement at the Third General Assembly Meeting.

A significant part of OIB’s profit come from interest income which totaled 122.4 million birr at the end of the last fiscal year while non interest income grew to 106.9 million according to the company report.

The bank however failed to perform well in foreign exchange transactions with the exception of the revenue it earned in relation to devaluation.

The Ethiopian Privatization and Public Enterprises Supervising Agency is to lower the indicative price set for Ghion Hotel, Addis Ababa on the basis of recommendations received from external consultants, SAB Management and Development Consultancy according to sources.

The exact amount of the new price was not disclosed by the PPESA although officials confirmed that the indicative price will be lower than it was in the previous tender.

It is to be remembered that the agency had successfully offered a tender for joint venture for the hotel several times before putting it up for full privatization in the last financial year. The indicative price set at the time was not based on current research but extrapolations on the basis of research conducted at the time the hotel was being offered for joint ownership according to Wondafrash Assefa, Head of Public Relations with the PPESA.   

United Bank, Ethiopia selected Eskender Woubetu & Partners Consulting Architects, as the winner of the competition to design a headquarter building.It is estimated that the future headquarter building will cost 800 million birr to complete.

The design competition launched five months ago was closed at an event held at the Hilton hotel. The two other finalists were Gereta Consult and K2N architects.  

The bank invited architectural firms to present a design for a 30 storey building with additional four leveled basement for parking on a 3338 meter square plot of land it acquired in the Senga Tera area of Addis Ababa.

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.