2merkato

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.

Awash International Bank, Ethiopia is inaugurate an eight floor structure to house its main branch in Adama.

The new building lies on 1020 m2 with two basements. The construction took 53 million birr and four years to finalize and will be inaugurated in early June according to Abebe Dheressa, Planning and Business Development Manager with Awash.

The bank already has two branches Adama. Awash planned to construct a five storey building on the land it leased from the city. The bank paid 376,640 birr in compensation to residents who had inhabited the residential units that had been on the plot previously, and administered by the Agency for Government housing.

Traditional weavers in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa, are to receive training in traditional weaving and design to help enhance the quality of products for export purposes. The training will start in June.

The project is sponsored by a 3.8 million birr capital injection from the Competitiveness and Trade Expansion Program (COMPETE) of the USAID. The project partners with the Center for African Women Economic Empowerment as the owner of the project and Sara Garment Designers and Manufacturers and Muya Abyssinia Craft as implementers.

The total project cost is expected to be 6.3 million birr with the three bodies making up the balance. The funding from USAID for this project is part of the 8.4 million US dollar food security support for COMESA countries.

Ethiopian Airlines, Ethiopia’s flag carrier, announced new flights from Addis Ababa to Toronto beginning from the 16th of July.
The flight to Toronto will be the only regular non-stop flight from Toronto to Africa according to the press release from the airline.

Ethiopian will be deploying the brand new and ultra-modern B777-200LR aircraft which offers 287 economy class seats and 34 seats in the luxurious Cloud Nine Business class.

The airline will begin with 2 flights a week because of bilateral restrictions but expects to immediately increase the number of flights as soon as it obtains permission said Tewolde Gebremariam, Chief Executive Officer of Ethiopian Airlines.

Government led school feeding programs in Ethiopia which will purchase food from local small holder farmers can help increase the income earned by farmers as well as enhancing the health and education of school age children said Demeke Mekonnen, Minister of Education at an international forum for school feeding experts.

The pilot program for the Home Grown School Feeding initiative has been launched in two districts of the Southern Region in partnership with the Partnership for Child Development (Imperial College London) and the World Food Program.

Ethiopia is seeking to improve the academic success of children through enhanced health and nutrition by creating a School Health and Nutrition taskforce said Demeke. The taskforce is a joint initiative between the Ministry of Health and Education.

The Metal Engineering Corporation the Privatization and Public Enterprises Agency of Ethiopia signed an agreement to construct five fertilizer factories at a total cost of 55 billion birr. The agreement was signed by Beyene Gebre-Meskel, Director General of PPESA and Col. Mulu Wolde-Gabriel Project management Deputy Director with Metal Engineering.

The agreement will allow for the construction of five urea and three Dap fertilizer plants and one coal factory said Col. Mulu. The construction will be completed within three years with the Urea factories being launched first and the others to be established according to a schedule said Beyene.

A new system to rate hotels in Ethiopia is expected to be on line by the end of the current year announced the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. The ministry revised its rating system to match international standards on the basis of feedback from the United Nations World Tourism Organization.

The UNWTO experts concluded that the previous system needed to clarify the criteria better and to allow more time for hotels to prepare to meet standards said Sisay Teklu, coordinator of Tourism Services Competence Accreditation Directorate with the Ministry of Culture.

Ethiopia harvested above 218.5 million quintals over the main harvest season according to the Central Statistical Agency. The Ministry of Agriculture had targeted to harvest 205 million quintals of crops based on the projections made by the agency earlier in the year.

The crop yield was scientifically calculated from a sample of 2,273 taken from across the country said Samiya Zekariya, Head of the Agency.

The harvest is the total production of smallholder farmers and represents a growth of 7.4% annual growth in comparison to the same harvest period last year. The farmers were able to farm more than 12.8 million hectares of land to produce the current harvest with an average productivity of 18 quintals per hectare.

Bahir Dar has the potential to be another resort destination in Ethiopia with more than 287 private and public programs related to the tourism industry at investment of 6 billion birr already in the works said Mulugeta Seid, Head of the Culture, Tourism and Parks Development Bureau of the Amhara Regional State.

Bahir Dar is central to tourists traveling to several destinations in Northern Ethiopia he noted.

One of the projects expected to attract increased tourism to the town is the new convention center with the capacity to host 2500 people said Mulugeta. The town is also building a stadium which can seat 65,000 spectators although the most striking attraction is expected to be the floating hotel over Lake Tana according to Mulugeta.