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The International Monetary Fund is to push Ethiopia to increase bank rates to counter real interest rates which are deeply in the negative due to the inflation rates.

Real interest rates are negative noted Jan Mikkelsen, Ethiopian Resident Representative of the IMF. The IMF mission making a visit to Ethiopia on the 4th of June will counsel the government to increase interest rates as a monetary policy option to sustain the growth registered over the last years he said.

Ethiopian Airlines, Ethiopia’s flag carrier, signed the 10th Collective agreement with its Labor Union. The agreement was signed last week between Tewolde Gebremariam, Chief Executive of Ethiopian and Wondwossen Getaneh, Chairman of the Union to seal the collective bargaining.

The agreement is a testament to the good relationship between the labor union and the management of the airline and is reflective of the level of understanding and cooperation shown on both sides during the negotiations according to Tewolde.

The unity of purpose between management and the union will be a strong foundation for the airline to achieve its objectives as set out in its Vision 2025 he noted.

Mama Fresh Injera plc, Ethiopia has signed a Memorandum of Understanding and contract with the Erer Farmers Cooperative Union, the Oromia Regional Agriculture Bureau, the Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Agency and the Oromia Regional Cooperative Promotion Agency.

The agreement will establish a partnership to launch and implement contract farming projects in Ad’a that will allow Mama Fresh Injera to source 730 MT of teff for the 2012 planting season. The agreement is planned to extend the collaboration for several years on the basis of the success of the effort and the lessons learned said the joint statement released by the stakeholders.

The 9th International Automotive Fair is being conducted in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from the 23rd to the 27th of May, The fair is being held at the Exhibition Center under the theme of ‘Scan Globally, Renovate Locally.’

The fair has a vital role to enhance the automotive sector and to demonstrate the partnership between the private sector and the public towards the development of industry noted Tekle-tsadik Riba, State Minister for Transport, opening the fair.  

The IAF was organized in Ethiopia to allow participants to create opportunities for networking and strategic alliance as well as allowing access to up-to-date information within the sector explained Eshetu Belay, General Manager of Ed Stelar Trading plc.

Ethiopia earned above 2.4 billion US dollars from export in the last ten months announced the Ministry of Trade.

The revenue was raised through the export of agricultural and manufactured products exported to 127 countries according to Amakele Yimam, Director of the Corporate Communication Directorate of the MoT.

The export products from Ethiopia include, coffee, oilseeds, pulses, spices, Khat, gold, flowers, live animals, natural gum, wax, incense, textiles, garments, leather and leather products said Amakele.

Ethiopia is to inaugurate a 30 million birr road sector database system in the next few weeks after completing transferring its data to the data base according to Ethiopian Roads Authority.

The project is part of ERA’s development program to modernize and transform its initiative. The development program has  36 projects, including standardizing various communications, including correspondences such as memos, emails, a road history database, online status for projects, a data warehouse for easy extraction of historical data on the existing roads, research and development.

It is expected that the new database system will support the monitoring and decision-making for the management by supplying consolidated information through a performance appraisal system, tender analysis, and cost estimates for each project said Mulugeta Demisse, Director of the Quality Assurance and Inspection Directorate. 

The power generation capacity of Ethiopia has reached 2,140 MW according to the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation. It is to be remembered that the power generated in the country was just 370 MW two decades ago.

The national electricity coverage has grown to 47% from only 8% in the early nineties said Miheret Debebe, Chief Executive Officer with the EEPCo.

The per capital energy consumption twenty years ago was below 20KW at the household level but has grown to 100KW now he said.

Pepsi Co, INC. and USAID are collaborating in a 10 million US dollars effort to supply locally manufactured nutritional ready to use Supplementary food products (RUSF) to combat malnourishment in children in Ethiopia.

The Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Health, the Agricultural Transformation Agency, Pepsi Co., the WFP and USAID was signed in early May.

The partnership named Enterprise EthioPea is targeted to aid 10,000 farmers in Ethiopia to increase chickpea yields to produce a local based product that can feed 40,000 children.

Awash International Bank, Ethiopia has signed a 3.5 million US dollar agreement with British Misys International Banking Systems to upgrade the centralized, real time, online, electronic CORE banking system.

The bank floated a bid for the IT upgrade last August attracting a range of international companies including, Swiss Temenos Group, US Oracle Flext, Indian Infosys and Misys. Awash bank, which had previously had dealings with Misys when it installed its current system, decided to stick with the UK-based company.

The upgrade is expected to allow AIB to provide services to its 500,000 customers in finance, credit, human resources packages and Islamic banking. The technological upgrades also include anti-money laundering software.

Assela Malt Factory, Ethiopia will inaugurate the 300 million birr expansion project which took 3 years expected to increase the factory’s production potential to 360,000 quintals.  The factory has undergone three expansions since it was first established 28 years with an initial production potential of just 100,000 quintals.

The first expansion effort increased the total production capacity to 150,000 quintals while the first phase of the current expansion increased the capacity to 220,000 quintals.

The second phase, just completed, included the construction of 12 silos, with the potential to hold 10,000-11,000 quintals, making up a total of 28 silos. The addition of elevators and conveyors has increased the carrying capacity every hour to 300-600 quintals.