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Zemen Bank Ethiopia introduced a new pre-paid card service that can be used without requiring an account at the bank. The cards will be preloaded with a determined amount of funds that can be drawn from ATMs or used for purchases at POS terminals.

The prepaid cards, expected to be made available for a range of denominations from 100-50,000 birr, will be equipped with a personal identification number to facilitate cash withdrawal said Tsegaye Tetemke President of Zemen.

The prepaid cards can be used as expense cards or be gifted to avoid the need to carry around a lot of cash he noted.

The Civil Aviation Authority of Ethiopia earned 60 million US dollars in the first quarter of the current budget year. The authority has signed arrangements with various countries to expand investment in air transport service.

The authority has reached bilateral agreements with Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland in just the last two quarters of the current financial year.

The Awash Melkasa Aluminum Sulfate and Sulfuric Acid Factory announced plans to establish a hydrogen peroxide factory in Ethiopia.

The hydrogen peroxide factory, which will begin construction soon will cost an estimated 155 million birr according to Admasu Tabaeto, Production and Technical Support Process Owner with Awash Melkasa.

Ethiopian Airlines, Ethiopia’s flag carrier, will not introduce additional fees on tickets of passengers to and from Europe to offset the European Union carbon emission costs levied on all airlines operating in Europe as part of the European Emission Trading Scheme according to a statement.

The airline is in the process of modernizing its fleet changing over to aircraft with less emissions said the statement.

Kenticha Borena-Ethiopian Mineral Development SC announced new tantalum ore discoveries at the Kenticha tantalum mine to be found in Oromia Regional State of Ethiopia.

The newly discovered tantalum reserve is estimated to of high quality and approximately 2500 tons according to experts with the EMDSC.  

The company has so far been engaged in surface mining and the discovery of primary ore is expected to enhance its production significantly explained the experts.

Ethiopian Airlines, Ethiopia’s flag carrier, won the Gold Award in the African Airline of the Year 2011/12 Award organized by the African Aviation News Portal.

The team at Ethiopian Airlines is pleased by the vote of confidence establishing its services as the leading airline on the African continent said Tewolde Gebremariam, Chief Executive Officer of the airline, in response to the award announcement.

Ethiopian Airlines received a majority of the votes cast by readers and fans of African Aviation to become the clear winner according to a statement issued by the airline.

The National Bank of Ethiopia rejected Birtukan G. Egzi, nominated as President of Enat Bank. Regulators at the central bank declined to approve the presidential nominee presented by the bank because she lacks experience in credit management.

Her previous experience in deposit mobilization is not enough for the central bank to approve her as president of the new bank because bank presidents need a broader understanding of the industry and experience in various services offered according to a senior official with the NBE.

Ethio Telecom earned 5.6 billion in revenue in the first two quarters of the fiscal year according to Jean Michel Latute, Chief Executive Officer of Ethiopia’s sole telecom provider. 

The revenue was raised from mobile, internet and other services said Latute.

Assela Malt Factory, Ethiopia is to launch another production facility to increase the company’s production capacity to 61, 000 tons, an increase of 144%.

The new addition to the factory is expected to cost 280 million birr.

The malt factory made the decision to expand due to the increasing demand for malt on the national market forcing beer factories to import malt according to Kiros Abreha General Manager of Assela Malt Factory.

South Sudan is to build an oil pipeline to Port Djibouti through Ethiopia.

A memorandum of understanding for the construction of the pipeline was signed in Addis Ababa earlier this month according to Barnaba Marial Benjamin, South Sudanese Minister for Information.

Companies from Europe, China and the United States have expressed interest in carrying out feasibility studies said Benjamin.