2merkato

The African Development Bank has approved a 7 million US dollar equity investment into the Pan-African Housing Fund.

The fund is a private equity fund targeting lower and middle, middle class housing market in Africa. The investment by the African Bank is expected to finance the construction of 5100 additional single and multi-family residences in targeted urban areas.

The PAHF will be able to support local housing developers to develop projects to alleviate the great shortage of housing and related infrastructure to meet the every growing needs of increasing urbanization.

The Ethiopian Roads Authority revealed plans to construct and repair 2216 kilometers of roads this financial year. The road construction and repair program is expected to cost an estimated 8 billion birr.

More than 1022 kilometers of the total road program will consist of new road construction according to Samson Wondimu Communications Director for the Roads Authority.

The road projects are intended to foster closer market links across the country as well as reducing the cost of transport and the time required for farmers to transport their produce to markets he said.

The current program is also designed to take into account the needs of emerging states to ensure equitable development across the nation explain Samson.

The Ethiopian Privatization and Public Enterprises Supervising Agency is to officially hand over six state coffee farms and four other enterprises to private investors.

PPESA is also expected to give a final decision with regards to Batu Construction, Awash Winery, Coffee Technology Development Enterprise, Ghion Hotel and the seven coffee farms under Limu Coffee Farm and its headquarters in Jimma town.

The Board of PPESA which is in charge of approving the sale of privatization of any public enterprise and are expected to approve the transfer to winners of the bidding process.

Assela Malt Factory, Ethiopia is secured 95 million birr in gross from the sale of malt in the previous financial year.

The revenue was earned from the sale of 218 thousand quintals of malt according to Abera Mekonnen, Head of Plan and Information for the factory.

The profit earned in the fiscal year exceeds that earned in the year before by more than 31 million birr he noted. The factory is generating more profit from year to year to coordinated effort on the part of the factory employees said Abera.

A delegation of representative of French and Djiboutian business visited Ethiopia last week. The delegation was led by Banque Pour Le Commerce et L’Industrie - Mer Rouge (BCIMR) in Djibouti and its French parent BRED Banque Populaire.

The delegation is made up of a diverse group of 10 members with backgrounds ranging from banking to aviation and insurance.

Company’s represented include a company dealing with medical products and health care, an insurance college and long time Canadian partner and the International Bank of Canada said Emmanuel Lemoigne Director General of BRED.

The main Dam at the Kesem Kebena sugar irrigation project has successfully retained water. The current water reserve in the dam retained in the last weeks of the rainy seasons is enough to irrigate a 20 thousand hectare sugarcane plantation in the Afar Regional State said Alemayehu Tegenu, Minister for Water and Energy.

The Water Works Construction Enterprise has been working around the clock to finish the project by the end of the rainy season it was noted.

The dam which has the capacity to retain 500 million cubic meters of water will be completely finished in the coming weeks according to Alemayehu.

The International Monetary Fund announced that it may be possible to reduce inflation to single digits in Ethiopia by the end of this financial year.

The government has been following a tight and consistent monetary policy to force inflation down to single digits and IMF supports the tightening of federal government monetary and fiscal policies said Jan Mikkelsen, IMF Resident Representative.

The public sector led development strategy of Ethiopia is encouraging although it may have a negative impact on the private sector according to Mikkelsen.

The Expansion project on the Fincha Sugar Factory intended to double the production of the factory has been completed.

The 4.5 billion birr expansion project is expected to raise the production capacity of the factory from 1.1 million quintals per annum to 2.7 million quintals of production every year according to Girma Wayu, Manager of the factory.

The expansion will also increase the production of ethanol at the factory to 20 million liters every year from just eight million liters at present he noted.

A Charcoal plant was inaugurated in the Southern Regional State of Ethiopia. The factory is planned to play a significant role in efforts to generate renewable energy from agricultural by-products as part of the initiative for Green Development said Wondimu Tekle, State Minister for Mines and Energy.

The factory can potentially produce more than 15 tons of charcoal from coffee husks alone said Dereje Jebo, Manager of the Gedo Development Association.

Farmers can also make extra income from selling the coffee husks to the factory he added.

The Ethiopian Hansom International Glass factory, which had temporarily halted production due to hikes in international furnace oil prices, is to re-launch production according to Xia Yong, General Manager of the company.

The company found it hard to sustain production following the increase in the price of furnace oil from just 5 birr a liter before 2009 to 13 birr a liter said Yong. The factory suspended production activity in April 2010 and has reopened at this time after taking several steps to minimize costs.

Measures taken towards achieving this end include reducing the size of the furnace and diversifying the color of the product he noted.