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Companies, selected by the Ethiopian Transport Authority, to provide Automated Vehicle Inspection are finalizing the required criteria. 

The eight companies selected to provide the inspection services are Global Insurance, Gigar Trading, Care Tech plc, Hagbes plc, Tikur Abay Transport SC, MN Drivers plc, Orbis and Reis Engineering. So far only Gigar Trading, Reis Engineering, Hagbes plc and Orbis have fulfilled the requirements set out by the ETA.

The Ethiopian National Bank is to offer, for auction, one year treasury bills for the first time today. The bank will issue 100 million birr worth of bills with a one year maturity date.

A total of 5.2 billion birr in bills will be issued by the central bank.

The Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation is to construct six wind power and one Geo Thermal Power Plant this fiscal year. The alternative power generating projects are expected to have the capacity to generate 1,015 Mega Watts.

The wind power projects are Adama II Wind Power Project (153 MW),  Assela Wind Power Project, (100MW),  Ayisha Wind Farm (300MW), Debre Berhan Wind Farm (100MW), Galema I Wind Power Project (250 MW) and the Mosebo Harena Wind Farm (42 MW).

The Aluto Langano Geo Thermal Project is expected to have the capacity to generate 70 MW.

The Ethiopian Ministry of trade banned 16 coffee exporters from trading on the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX) this month. The exporters were banned for failing to have their stock audited by the ministry.  

The banned traders are said to include some known for high volumes of trade on the exchange according to MOT officials.

The Ministry of Trade sent a letter to the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange Authority prohibiting the traders from selling or buying on the trading floor for an unlimited length of time. The ban only prohibits trading in coffee and has no limits on other commodities. 

Five Ethiopian packaging manufacturers applied for quality certification to produce the standard boxes for flower exports. The standard packaging was established by the Ethiopian Conformity Assessment Enterprise.

The five companies requiring certification for the production of the packaging are Addis Ahadu packaging plc, Balaji Packaging plc, Burayu Development plc, DA packaging plc and Ethio pulp and paper SC.

The companies have presented sample boxes manufactured according to the specifications set and which are undergoing testing by the ECAE. The ECAE is expected to announce the results of the testing in two weeks time.

Ethiopian cement factories, Mugar and Messobo, have requested that the government halt cement imports in letters to the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development. The cement factories claimed that they can produce enough to meet local demand.

The cement factories have excess stock according to an anonymous official at Mughar. The two factories have increased their annual production by a total of 1.7 million tons following expansion projects.

Major Ethiopian banks decided to raise their paid up capital to meet the directive by the central bank. The banks could offer up to 2.3 million shares worth 2.7 billion birr in total.

Nine of the 14 banks operating at the present expect to meet the target sum of 500 million birr by contributing their dividends as well as offering equity on the market.

Awash, Dashen, NIB, United and Wegagen banks have already met the requirements with Wegagen topping the list with 779.3 million Br in paid-up capital.

A fertilizer shipment worth 264.8 million US dollars is expected to arrive next week. The 450, 000 tons of fertilizer is supplied by a Swiss company, Amropa- Ag and Indiargo.

The fertilizer purchase is less than the Ethiopian government's plan to import two years worth of fertilizer in the expectation that international prices will increase. Price increases already in effect limited the government to the purchase of supplies for just one year. Current fertilizer prices have risen from 491 dollars to 503 dollars for a ton of Urea and from 590 dollars to 630 dollars for a ton of Dap fertilizer.

An increasing number of people in Ethiopia purchase counterfeit software unintentionally according to the Microsoft Corporation. Microsoft loses an approximate 240 million birr to software piracy annually in Ethiopia.

Piracy adversely affects economic growth in Ethiopia as illegal software cannot create jobs for students, IT professionals or developers according to Eric Odipo, Channel Lead, Microsoft East and Southern Africa. 

Ethiopian based organizations including money transfer agents, embassies and other enterprises dependent on internet and related operations voiced frustration at the services they receive from Ethio Telecom services.

The Ethio Telecom customers complained against the weak internet services in particular.

Complaints were heard at the event commemorating Ethio-Telecom’s Second Enterprise Customers Day on Wednesday.