2merkato

Ethiopia has received an 80 million dollar soft loan for a project to construct and expand electric power transmission lines from EDCF, South Korean state bank announced the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation.

The loan agreement will be signed between the Ethiopian Ministry of Finance and Economic Development and a representative of the Korean government here in Addis Ababa soon.

The project is an expansion of the Beles-Bahir Dar- Sululta transmission line stretching from Debremarkos-Gebreguracha-Sululuta over 212 KM and carrying 400 KV explained Misikir Negash Head of Corporate Communications with the EEPCo.

Ethiopia earned more than 2.4 billion US dollars from the export sector in the last three quarters said the Ministry of Trade.

The revenue earned from foreign trade in the last nine months exceeds that of the same time last year by more than 352 million US dollars said Amakele Yemam, Head of the Corporate Communication Affairs office of the Ministry.

Increase has particularly been seen in the export of gold, horticulture, livestock, textiles and minerals he said.

The most significant destinations for Ethiopian exports have been Belgium, Britain, China, Djibouti, Egypt, France, Germany, Japan, India, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Somali, Sudan Switzerland and the US.

Jijiga International Airport, Ethiopia is expected to inaugurate its passenger terminal and become operational in the coming few days. The construction of the airport took more than three years with the inauguration schedule delayed by more than a year.

The new passenger terminal will raise the number of passengers the airport is able to host from just 20 to 176 as well as offering place for offices, duty free shops, banking services, restaurants, souvenir shops and other amenities said Wondim Teklu, Head of Public Relations with the Ethiopian Airports Enterprise.

GH Industrial plc, manufacturer of gypsum board and gypsum flour in Ethiopia, is to inaugurate two factories in the Amhara Regional State.

The gypsum board factory has the capacity to produce 4.2 million m2 of gypsum boards, will the gypsum mill is able to produce 50 thousand tons of gypsum flour per annum said Awel Buseri, Vice General Manager with GH.

The factories were turnkey projects with components imported in China and installed by Chinese engineers he said. The project took two years from the initial feasibility study to the final installation according to Awel.

The transport authority of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia warns transporters from overloading freight transports above the licensed capacity.

Transporters are required to put a tag notifying of the freight capacity of each truck with reference to the registration before the 9th of June said authority representatives at a meeting held earlier this week.  

The transport authority was forced to take corrective measures because some enterprises are illegally transporting trucks loaded with goods beyond their capacity even though they have been licensed to carry specific weight limits it was said.

The Ministry of Urban Development and Construction, Ethiopia announced the registration and certification of 36,000 construction and design engineers to date.  

The Ministry certified 24,030 Construction Engineers and 12,219 Design Engineers said Temesgen Tesfaye, Director of the Engineers Registration and Certification Directorate of the MUDC at a joint consultative meeting organized by the Ministry of Science and Technology, and a consortium of the Ethiopian Engineering Professional Associations.

An engineer is required to possess an accredited degree in the field to be certified although registration and certification of professional engineers requires work experience in addition to academic qualifications according to Temesgen.

The National Mining Corporation announced that it has 128 tons of gold ready to be mined in Ethiopia. The Gold is to be found at the Okote project operated by National Mining.

It is expected that the reserve will translate into a significant mine with little exploitative work and an appropriate definitive feasibility study claimed the corporation in the statement it released.

The overall reserves of the Okote concession to be found in Oromia Regional state are estimated to total 454 tons of Gold elaborated the statement. The site could potentially produce about 10 tons annually effectively doubling the gold output of Ethiopia explained a statement from National last March.

The Board of Executives of the World Bank approved 200 million US dollars in credit from the International Development Association to invest in the electric power projects in Ethiopia.

The funds will be used by the government to enhance electric coverage in rural areas and to supply modern, affordable and cost effective electricity services in Ethiopia.

The Electricity Network Reinforcement and Expansion Project is designed to support the efforts to upgrade and extend the national grid and to enhance the overall quality of delivery as well as to increase the level of connection in areas already on the grid and to extend connection to areas outside of the gird. 

Premier Switch Solutions SC, a consortium of three private banks in Ethiopia, is ready to introduce electronic banking options through the use of 60 Automatic Teller Machines and 300 Point of Sale Machines.

The new scheme will allow customers of all three banks involved to make use of the electronic banking options as of the beginning of the next Ethiopian fiscal year.

Premier Switch will increase the number of ATM and POS machines in the coming year said Tsehay Shiferaw, Chief Executive of Awash International Bank, one of the stakeholders in the consortium.

The Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation, Ethiopia’s sole electric provider, is revising its power sector master plan for the next twenty five years taking in to consideration its aim to generate 37,000 MW in the coming quarter of a century.

The adjustment to the master plan established earlier was necessitated because of the growth in the power sector and the need to reassess the the previous baseline to take into consideration new power requirements said Mihiret Debebe, Chief Executive Officer of EEPCo.

The new 25 year master plan is expected to be unveiled in the first half of the next financial year according to Mihiret. The new plan aims to generate 37,000 MW by the end of the period and will establish financial sources for the high costs anticipated in implementing power projects.