2merkato

The Ethiopian Insurance Fund Office aims to increase its third party insurance collections to 30.8 million birr in the new financial year as well as taking over some of the tasks that it had outsourced to the Ethiopian Insurance Corporation.

The IFO also expects to increase access by building five branch offices in regional towns during the current fiscal year explained Bayleyegn Bekele, Public Relations Head at the fund.

The board’s plans were approved by its board earlier this month 600 thousand certificates and stickers have already been ordered from Kenya for the current year said Bayleyegn. The stickers and certificates will be distributed to insurance companies.

The Ethiopian manufacturing sector failed to meet the projected earnings with the various sub sectors bringing in between 63% and 49.4% of anticipated earnings.

The textile and garment sub sector earned 84.6 million US dollars which falls short of the 171.4 million US dollars projected for the past fiscal year. The earnings from the sector where however 36% more than what was earned by the sector in the previous year according to information obtained from the Ministry of Industry.

Ayka Addis Textile and Investment Group is responsible for 71% of the earnings from the textile sector.

Danieli SpA, Italian steel mill engineers, was awarded the half billion US dollar turnkey project to construct Toussa Steel Mill.

Toussa Steel mill is expected to be the largest steel mill in Ethiopia with an estimated annual production capacity of 1.3 million tons.

Toussa was licensed with the Ethiopian Investment Agency in July of last year and plans on producing reinforcement bars, billets and hollow sections amongst other steel products. The factory will go on to produce steel railway tracks in its second phase.

The volume of loans mobilized by the Development Bank of Ethiopia during the just ended Ethiopian budget year showed an increase of 44% against what it had mobilized in the previous year said Isayas Berhe, President of DBE.

The board of the bank had approved a 7.5 billion loan for the year in review and the bank has managed to mobilize 70% of the total that was approved.

The bank has been able to mobilize more than 5.5 billion birr during the reporting period with the 1.5 billion birr loaned to Habesha Cement being the single largest loan arrangement for the year. 90% of loans that were disbursed by the bank went to local companies.

The Parliament of Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia approved a budget of 23.29 billion birr for the 2012-13 financial year. The budget shows an increase of 25% from the budget allocated by the regional government in the last budget year.

The budget tabled by the executive branch of the state government to the legislative body was a new high for the region.

The budget was planned on the basis of expanding development projects in the region said Abdulaziz Mohammed, Vice President of the state. 

The Ethiopian Airports Enterprise announced that it expects to raise more than one billion birr from the various services that it renders in the new budget year.

The Enterprise will particularly focus on enhancing its market plans to expand its financial base it said.

EAE plans to raise the projected revenue through the development of airport infrastructure and by providing its standard airport services to customers. The enterprise also plans to implement a plan to support airlines during this budget year as well as increasing the quality of the services it offers and increasing the infrastructure of the airports it manages it was said.

The Ethiopian Intellectual Property Office issued 1500 separate patents and creative rights ownership certificates in the just concluded fiscal year it announced.

The office granted certificates after careful evaluation and all due consideration to ensure the originality of the creation both at home and internationally said Awkoke Shiferaw, Head of Communication Service with the office.

The office also took steps to publicize the ownership claim to public to entertain any counter claims to the creative rights of the creations before issuing final certification said Awkoke.

The first Boeing 787 Dreamliner that will be delivered to Ethiopian Airlines has been painted in the airline’s livery and is in the final stages of preparation for delivery announced Ethiopian Airlines.

The aircraft was painted in the national colors of green, yellow and red and will fly back to Seattle from San Antonio, Texas it was said in the company press release.

Ethiopian Airlines is proud to the first African carrier to fly the much awaited, state of the art Dreamliner and anticipates delivery within the next month according to the release.

Preparations for the second African Trade Fair to be held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from the 24th to the 26th of September are underway. The trade fair will be held under the theme of ‘Boosting Intra-African and Establishing the Continental Free Trade Area’.

The trade forum is a collaborative effort between the African Union Commission, Economic Commission for Africa and the African Development Forum.

The forum is being organized amidst increasing commitments to enhance Intra-African trade and establishing the Continental Free Trade area said Mr. Kyerematin, Head of the African Trade Policy Forum.

Ethiopia has significant salt deposits according to studies conducted at various times said the Ministry of Mines. The resources are estimated to be sufficient for more than 100 years said the ministry.

The studies conducted show that the salt resources are to  be found in parts of Afar and Somali regional states explained Bacha Fuji, Director of the Public Relations Directorate of the Ministry. The Dalol area in Afar Regional State is particularly notable for large salt reserves he said.

Efforts are underway to begin salt exports to generate foreign currency from the sector noted Bacha. Four companies currently engaged in salt production secured more than 30 million US dollars from the export of salt in the just concluded fiscal year he added.