2merkato

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.

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.