2merkato

The Development Bank of Ethiopia announced selling more than the projected amount of Grand Renaissance Dam bonds in the last two quarters according to the bank’s six month report. 

The bank has estimated selling 600 million birr worth of bonds for the Grand Renaissance Dam in the last six months but actual sales exceeded one billion birr. The Development bank aims to sale 1.5 billion birr worth of Grand Renaissance Dam bonds in the current fiscal year.

Zefemesh plc, Ethiopia announced plans to launch a mega mall complex. The complex will be cover 9000 m2 and will be seven floors high, to house various services.

The building will be located in the Megenegna commercial area of Yeka district chosen for its strategic location according to Nega Asfaha, Project Management Consultant for the Zefemesh Grand Mall project.

The 4000m2 mall building will be open for business in six months he said.

The mining sector in Ethiopia earned 293 million US dollars over the last two quarters according to the Ministry of Mines. 218.2 million US dollars of the revenue was earned by Artisan miners.

The mining exports included Gold (5484 kg), Tantalum (145 tons), Jewels and Minerals (7339 kg) Marble (532m3) and Platinum (350g).

Additional income of 600 thousand dollars was earned by geological surveys carried out by the Ministry of Mines according to Bacha Faji, Department Head of Public Relations and Communication with the MoM. The ministry conducted 22,409 mining samples he noted.

The Ministry of Industry, Ethiopia allocated 5130 hectares of land for industrial zones in the last six months.The industrial sites will be dispersed across Dire Dawa, Amhara, Southern and Somali regional states.

700 hectares of the land allocated for industrial use is to be found in the Borena area of Dire Dawa while 350 hectares were allocated in Shinele in Somali Regional State.

1123 hectares are targeted for industry in Kombolcha city in the Amhara Regional State and the capital of the Southern Regional State Hawassa allocated 776 hectares.

Seventy percent of tax revenue in Ethiopia comes from less than one thousand people according to the Ethiopian Revenue and Customs Authority in a workshop for small business owners in Addis Ababa.  

962 taxpayers classified as large were responsible for raising more than two-thirds of the tax revenue collected last year explained the tax authority.

The workshop was designed to answer a range of questions on the tax system with officials from the ERCA and the Addis Ababa Micro and Small Enterprises Development Office explaining the details of the tax system.

The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa Bank (PTA Bank) approved the 6 million US dollar loan requested by Access Resorts, Ethiopia. The National Bank of Ethiopia has also approved the loan according to sources.  

Access requested the loan for the renovation and upgrade work it expects to carry out on the former Imperial hotel.

The central bank approved the loan because Access was able to prove that it can pay back the loan in foreign exchange noted Alemayhu Kebede, Director of Change Management and Communications at NBE.

The Private Sector Development Hub is to be transferred to Ethiopia’s national chamber by the Addis Ababa Chamber of Commerce and Sectoral Associations as of April.  

The transfer has been a point of contention between the Ethiopian Chamber of Commerce and Sectoral Associations and its counterpart for the city of Addis Ababa with both laying claim to the management of the PSD hub.

The leaders of the ACCSA and the ECCSA agreed to set up a steering committee co-chaired by the presidents of both chambers to make decisions on strategy and policy directions in regards to projects to be undertaken by the hub.

The tax authority of Ethiopia, ERCA, collected 35 billion birr on the federal level over the last two quarters. The authority was also able to raise 3.2 billion birr in revenue and tax from Addis Ababa.

The tax collected met the target set by the Ethiopian government in spite of being 3 billion birr less than expected by the tax authority.

The tax raised in the last two quarter exceeds the revenue collected for the same period last year by 10.2 billion birr.

Nib International Bank, Ethiopia signed an agreement with TEMENOS Group for the development of Centralized Online, Real-time Electronic (CORE) banking solutions.   

The contract was signed by the Amerga Kassa, President of NIB and Keith Stonell, Member of the TEMENOS board last week. The monetary value of the agreement was undisclosed at the time.

It is expected that the system will be installed at all NIB branches in nine to twelve months.

India is considering an additional loan of 300 million US dollars to finance Ethiopia’s railway project according to a senior Indian official visiting the country.

India has already agreed to finance 300 million US dollars for the railway project between Ethiopia and Djibouti.

The funding made available for the railway project is part of India’s support for regional integration in Africa said Ambassador Gurjit Singh, Indian Ministry of External Affairs Additional Secretary.