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As part of its commitment to ICT development in Ethiopia and Africa, MTN is sponsoring the Best ICT Innovation Award during the 5th ICT Exhibition, Bazaar and Conference organized by Ethiopia’s in Addis Ababa this week.

One of the key goals of the exhibition is to bring multiple stakeholders together to share knowledge and experience, as well as foster partnerships through discussing various topics related to the ICT sector.  It will further serve to promote the importance of the sector amongst major policy makers, international bodies and relevant governmental and non-governmental organizations.

The Council of Ministers, Ethiopia endorsed 137.8 billion birr as the federal budget for the coming fiscal year. The budget is expected to cover government expenditure including a range of projects as well as to subsidy regional states according to the formula put in place by the House of Federation.

The Cabinet came to the decision after holding in depth discussions said the statement from the Office of the Prime Minister.

The budget establishes 26.8 billion birr of the total sum for the regular budget while 54.4 billion birr is assigned for the capital budget.

The City Administration of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia is set to transfer 20,000 condominium houses to beneficiaries in the next two months announced a statement.

The construction of some of the condominium buildings is fully complete while others are still under construction according to the statement released by the Construction and Housing Development Bureau of the City.

The buildings are located at various sites around the city including the Jemo II and III sites and Lideta.

The mining production potential of artisan miners in Ethiopia and their ability to generate income has grown in the past few years announced the Ministry of Mines.

The productivity and livelihood of the artisan miners has improved following the set up of the Artisan Minerals Directorate with the ministry said Bacha Faji, Director of Public Relations and Communication Directorate with of MoM.

In the past the poor network among producers, brokers and exporters in the middle had all resulted in a significant amount of illegal contraband trade of minerals resulting in low revenue from the sector said Bacha.

Ethiopia is to conduct a feasibility study for the construction of a 250 million US dollar wind farm in Assela using a 1 million dollar loan from the African Development Fund.

The Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation is in the process of identifying a suitable site and laying the groundwork to hire contractors although financing for the 250 million project is yet to be established.

The contractors will undertake environmental and social impact assessment and investment cost estimations as well as economic and financial analysis said Miskir Negash, Head of Communication with the EEPCo.

Total Ethiopia showcased three different types of solar lamps. The lamps have the potential to continuously give light for eight to ten hours non stop.

The solar lamps can also be used to recharge mobile phones in the eventuality of a black out. The solar lamps are available for sale at all Total Service stations.

Total also introduced environmentally friendly oil tanker technology. The new tanker is double layered equipped with a siren alert in the case of leakage helping to reduce pollution.

Ethiopia’s newly formed accreditation office, the Ethiopian National Accreditation Office, has received applications from five laboratories in Addis Ababa. ENAO will evaluate the laboratories and assess if they are able to meet the standards set by it.

ENAO accreditation means third party attestation that a laboratory has demonstrable competence to carry out its task said Genet Gebremedhin, Accreditation Director with ENAO.

In the past Ethiopian laboratories had to receive accreditation from international agencies from countries such as Germany and South Africa at a great deal of expense.

British Midland International is to suspend its flight between Heathrow and Bole International Airport, Ethiopia as of the 11th of June.

The last flight to travel from Heathrow to Bole will be on Sunday 10th of June with the return flight scheduled for Monday 11th June said the press release from the airline.

BMI notified ticket agents of the suspension on the 25th of May with travel agents told to accommodate passengers on alternative flights for flight scheduled before June 10-11 or to give full refunds it was learned.

The Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX) announced it will further strengthen the warehouse receipt financing scheme during the opening of the Warehouse Receipt System for Inclusive Agricultural Finance Symposium.

The scheme makes farmers eligible for bank loan using their Warehouse Receipt issued by the Exchange for commodities stored in ECX warehouses as collateral.

ECX Chief Executive Officer, Eleni Gebre-Medhin, told participants at the Warehouse Receipt Systems for Inclusive Agricultural Finance Symposium, organized jointly by ECX and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), amount exceeding 1.5 million USD warehouse receipt financing service was made available to framers last year. The scheme has considerably assisted smallholder farmers who would have no choice but to sell produce at low prices.

Buna International Bank, Ethiopia signed an agreement to implement CORE Banking Solutions with Infosys. BIB signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Indian based Infosys for the installation of the system which will allow the bank to launch electronic banking, last week.

Infosys will commence with deploying the project in three weeks after negotiations are concluded between the two sides said Gezahegn Dugassa, Project Manager for ICT with BIB.  It is expected that part of the new system will be implemented by the Ethiopian New Year, the deadline imposed by the National Bank of Ethiopia on all banks to automate their banking services, he noted.