2merkato

Admassu Tadesse, President and Chief Executive of the Eastern and Southern African Trade and Development Bank has won the 2012, ‘Up and Coming Future Leader of the Year Award’ from Investor Africa.

Admassu was awarded in the category of investment professional under 45 years of age demonstrating potential for leadership.

The Award ceremony was held at the Courtyard Marriot Hotel in Tokyo Japan in an event which took place during the course of the World Bank/International Monetary Fund annual meeting for 2012.

The European Union is to support the efforts to modernize and expand the industrial sector. The support is intended to create an enabling environment to allow Ethiopia to exploit its potential for industrial development to enhance the country’s economic development which is currently founded on agriculture.

The EU is committed to supporting the government as the country drawing lessons from Asia and Eastern Europe the project expects to be comprehensive in aiding economic growth through fine tuning policy making, building the capacity of institutions and supporting intermediary organizations by offering direct support said Xavier Marchal, Head of the European Delegation to Ethiopia.

The program is funded by 35 million pounds to support Ethiopia’s plans to accelerating private investments and industrialization. It promotes better cooperation between private and public sector to encourage investments and to enhance the capacity for export he said.

Ethiopian company SoleRebels and its founder Bethlehem Tilahun were featured in a New York Times article covering entrepreneurship in Africa. The article entitled ‘Women Entrepreneurs Drive Growth in Africa’ noted that Bethlehem is one of a ‘wave’ of African entrepreneurs in Africa who are taking advantage of the economic revitalization on the continent noted the article.

The article covers the founding of soleRebels in 2004 with a small group of artisans living in the same community and a small workshop and follows its growth to become a multi-million dollar international enterprise with its handmade and environmentally friendly shoes selling for 60 US dollars and more.

The Ethiopian Privatization and Public Enterprises Supervising Agency is planning to privatize 20 publicly owned enterprises in this fiscal year.

The agency is expecting to earn an estimated 3.3 billion birr from the privatization of the enterprises which are currently being owned by the state according to Wondafrash Assefa, Corporate Communications Director with PPESA.

PPESA earned almost 6.2 billion birr from the privatization of state owned property in the previous financial year said Wondafrash. The sale of Meta Abo factory to international beverage company Diageo contributed about three billion birr to the total revenue earned he added.

The Ethiopian Sugar Corporation is ready to apply the Kaizen Method according to a statement issued by the Corporation.
Kaizen is a philosophy that concentrates on a continuous improvement in the processes, technology, quality, productivity, company culture and leadership.

The company is holding a discussion program on how to apply the method today at the Ethiopia Hotel.

The program is expected to be attended by 450 senior and mid-level management staff, foremen and supervisors Wonji-Shoa, Metehara and Fincha sugar factories as we as the Corporation’s Director General Abay Tsehaye and the Director General of the Kaizen Institute in Ethiopia according to sources.

Investors have expressed in partnering with Nyota Minerals in efforts to develop its gold concession in Ethiopia. The interest expressed by financiers increases the company’s confidence in the project announced Nyota.

Nyota is in the process of finalizing plans to develop a 250 million US dollar mine Ethiopia and is seeking to raise funds through a combination of equity and credit.

The company has considered selling a stake in the project as one option for financing according to Richard Chase, Chief Executive for Nyota. The company has been approached by several investors interested in a acquiring a stake in the project expected to be the second gold mine in the country he said.

Ethiopia has earned 475.3 Million US dollars from exports in just the last two months according to the Ministry of Trade. The performance in the last two months has shown a notable improvement over the 300.8 million US dollars earned in the same period in the last financial year said Abdurahman Seid Deputy Director of the Public Relations and Communication Directorate of the ministry.

The revenue earned, however was still lower than the MOT’s projections for the period which was 776.1 million US dollars. The current revenue is only 61.2% of the projected income.

The export sector has witnessed a 25% growth in the last decade claimed Amakele Yimam, Director of the Public Relations Directorate. 

New owner of Meta Brewery in Ethiopia, Diageo is to introduce international standard safety and working standards at the plant according to sources.

The company is committed to mitigating risks in the work place that arise from accidental or deliberate breaches of safety standards in the work place according to Habtu Bazezew, Health and Safety Manager with Diego.

Maintaining standards of safety depends on proper reporting of accidents, and non compliance with regulations that could pose a risk to safety, health or security according to Habtu.

Diego has committed more than a million US dollars to upgrade the standards of safety at the plant because the management believes that the outcome is worth the investment.

Ethio-Potash has requested 70 MW of dedicated power for its extraction project in the Danakil Depression of Ethiopia. The company needs the power supply to be available by 2014 as it launches extraction efforts after completing its feasibility study in the middle of this year.

The company has been in the process of negotiations with the Ministry of Water and Energy and the Ministry of Mines according to Jorgen Ole Haslestad,  Chief  Executive of Yara International which owns a 51% stake of the company.

Ethio-Potash can potentially extract 1.5 tons of potash a year according to the 2012 first quarter report released by Yara. The project costs at the Danakil Depression project can extend to as much  of 2 billion birr said Hoslestad.

The National Bank of Ethiopia has signed a 3.4 million US dollar contract with Indian company Polaris Financial Technology ltd for the replacement of its CORE Banking technology.

Polaris, locally represented by Ernst and Young, won the contract over Mysis which had originally supplied the National bank with the software it has been using for the previous 15 year.

The new software purchased by the central bank is a solution known as Intellect which specialized in the management of banking specific operations such as the administration of national foreign currency reserves, gold reserves and the settlement and payment of the government accounts as well as the issue of currency and interfacing with the National Payment System.