2merkato

The National Bank of Ethiopia is to issue a new directive for mobile banking directives. The central bank regulation officials and presidents of banks had final discussions on the draft regulation last week.

The bank circulated the draft regulation to all banks for comments and expects it to come into effect in three weeks time according to sources.

The regulation will control the way in which mobile banking is implemented, identifying and protecting users and how much money can be transacted.

Dalol Oil Share Company, Ethiopia has formally announced the official launch of its sixth fuel station in Suluta.

The new station is located on 3500m2 in a joint investment with a local investor at a cost of 4 million birr.  

The opening of the 6th fuel service station as well as a depot marks the official launch of the company said Esayas Eyesuswork, Chief Executive of Dalol Oil. The new service station expects to provide all kinds of fuel, lubricants, shops washing facilities and cafes.

Ethiopian Entrepreneur Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu is to be featured by Sony Pictures Entertainment in its upcoming series ‘Trading Secrets: Inside the Minds Shaping Global Business’.

The participants selected to be part of the series represent the most inspirational business leaders from around the world and Bethlehem was selected for her business acumen, ingenuity, innovation and commitment to establishing an international brand that aims to benefit both consumers and workers equally said Mat Steiner, Managing Director for the GOGGLE box division of Sony producing the series. 

Ethiopian Airlines, Ethiopia’s flag carrier, has awarded a seven year contract for Integrated Component Solutions services to the Boeing 737NG fleet to Abu Dhabi Aircraft Technologies, the largest independent maintenance, repair and overhaul service provider in the Middle East and a part of the Mubadala Aerospace MRO network.

The contract covers a total of 19 aircraft, eleven of which are the fleet of B737NG aircraft and eight new aircraft on order.

ADAT will provide repair cycle management and pool access coverage supported by the combined Integrated Component Solutions experience and capabilities of ADAT and SR Technics.

The IT Park project in Ethiopia is expected to create 300 thousand jobs when it is completed said the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology.

The project aims to enhance the quick growth of micro enterprises as well as benefiting companies in its vicinity to support the development of research institutes and creating trade relations and transfer of technology explained Beker Seid, Public Relations Officer with the Ministry.

It is also expected that the project will create favorable conditions to allow domestic companies to become competitive on the international markets he said.

The 5th Agriculture Fair was opened in Ethiopia under the theme of Agriculture Development for Food Self-Reliance. The 1st Tourism Travel Fair was also launched simultaneously under its theme of ‘Tourism for Economic Development'.

The agricultural sector is very important to the overall economic development of the country and it is hoped that the exhibition will contribute to the national effort to increase income and achieve national food security according to Tefera Derbew, Minister of Agriculture speaking at the opening.

The exhibition is also expected to promote trade and investment in addition to facilitating experience sharing amongst participants he said. The fair is intended to create a platform for networking between manufacturers, suppliers and distributors and other stakeholders explained Teffera.

Ethiopia is in the process of finalizing preparations to offer 24 hour power supply for manufacturing industries in Addis Ababa said Miheret Debebe, Chief Executive of the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation.

The country currently has the installed potential to produce almost 3000 MW of electricity of which more than 40% is allocated to the industrial sector and 30% goes to the service sector it was said at a consultative deliberation held between representatives of major industries and experts from the Ministry of Water and Energy and the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation.

The Federal Sports Commission, Ethiopia officially revealed that the JADAW firm are the winners of the bid to prepare the architectural design of the new stadium to be built in Addis Ababa.

The stadium to be constructed in the area around the old Imperial Hotel is expected to seat 60,000 people and will be built at an estimated 1.6 billion birr according to the architects.

A detailed cost analysis will be revealed in the future according to the announcement by the commission.

Ethiopian Airlines, Ethiopia’s flag carrier, is set to launch flights to Sao Paulo Brazil as of the coming December. The flight will be the first regular flight to South America for airline.

The Airline will commence flights three times a week to Sao Paulo using the Dreamliner aircraft that Ethiopian anticipates receiving in August and September from manufacturer Boeing.

The Sao Paulo flight will be operated through Lome, Togo where the Ethiopian affiliate ASKY airline is based according to Tewolde Gebremariam, Chief Executive of the airline.

The International Monetary fund issued a statement praising the macroeconomic and general development performance of Ethiopia in the last year after carrying out the recent Article IV Consultation.

The IMF delegation lead by Michael Antingi-Ego announced that the execution of tight monetary policies by the central bank including efforts to contracting the money supply and sterilizing foreign exchange has contributed to decelerating the rate of inflation significantly.

The report cited the National Bank’s initiative to reduce the gross foreign exchange reserves to cover less than two months of imports from the considerably high reserves in the last fiscal year which had been an inflationary principle.